#MHA is a bad story but it had potential

[mikeellee]

Something I'd like to vent to you about - Stars and Stripes is the biggest narrative breaker in MHA one that is annoying to cater for and write in fic.

Because every issue in the story could solved by Star showing up and touching something I.e "I order Yagi Toshinori's wounds to heal."

Or even to Shig pre AFO takeover Star could have just come in ordered him to drop dead and he would have. Story done.

In fact - this woman is nearly as old as AM so why hasn't she shown up before with AM and tried to kill AFO the first time with Him? I'm just so frustrated with her broken quirk it takes all the fun out of writing her for me. Your thoughts?

@doodlegirl1998

Hi, so I was thinking about Star and....look, can we say Hori cares or think about his own damn story? No. Can we say Hori cares for AM? NO.

Let me give you an example: Fullmetal Alchemist has a character called Izumi who made a transmutation to revive her dead son...and the payment was she losing the ability to have a child (she lost the organ responsible for this, I don´t recall the details but damn it was crude and terrifying) and while it has some time since I saw the anime...Izumi could have got her organ back if she had sent the transmutted baby back to where it come from...except she doesn´t do that!

Now you are wondering what this has to do with AM?

Well, Izumi could have fixed her situation but chose not bc she had a son and will stick by him -even if he is not human- AM? We never see him ever attempting to fix himself.

Eri healing AM is a concept only one person ever draw. People in this fandom made theories and fic ideas for Eri rewind Shig to his Baby Tenko era but AM being fixed is not even on the top 5.

And why is that? I frankly blame Hori for making AM such a joke that no one would care.

But we never actually see AM trying to find a solution for his problem. Now, Star is HIS STUDENT. She looks up to him a lot-and I think AM has a good relationship with US-so technically she could have healed him asap. Hell, she could have done this secretly. "AM goes to the US for a secret mission, or so the media thinks...and Star heals him"

But it is never explored...as she was never mentioned either.

(To the people who think it would be cool for Izu to lose his power....see how AM is treated in canon...if Hori gives Izu a mansion it would be too uncharacteristic for Hori)

She did try to kill Shig...but (and my theory) since Shig can go by two names...the whole "Tomura Shigaraki dies" is pointless if he is also Tenko. But then again...Tenko and Shig...got such OP quirk and.......nothing comes from this. NOTHING.

Star is there to give a quirk to Shig....and only that.

[nartml]

Horikoshi write well challenge (impossible)

[sapphic-agent]

So we're just speedrunning to the epilogue in MHA now? What in the actual fuck happened with the war? What about rebuilding efforts? What about this so called "change in hero society" the series has been half assedly building up towards? What about Izuku losing OFA and his classmates reactions to it? What about IZUKU's own thoughts about losing OFA and not saving Shigaraki? What about Aizawa FINALLY apologizing to Izuku? What about the Todorokis? What about the surviving LoV members (if there are any)?

We just completely skipped over all of that for the fucking epilogue?

In all seriousness, I don't know why we expected differently. Horikoshi has spent the last ten arcs (at least) refusing to engage with the thesis of his own narrative. Throughout the entire story, he:

Made the LOV one dimensional mustache twirlers when they had so much more potential as victims of corrupt society, and then killed them in the end for no reason

Made Hawks- a victim of abuse and exploitation, and a child soldier- admire an abuser and never receive any kind of agency throughout the story (this is especially aggravating because a lot of society being corrupt came from the HPSC, Hawks was in the perfect place narratively to address it. I literally thought he was going to be a double (triple?) agent who wanted to take them down)

Consistently pointed out discrimination and power differentials within the society he created and did nothing to rectify them

Favored Bakugou repeatedly, someone who not only had an overwhelming amount of privilege because of that society, but abused that privilege to mistreat someone who was considered beneath him by that same society

Never allowed Rei to have any form of agency or complexity, just had her (and Fuyumi) around to support Endeavor

And the worst of it all came during the final war. Izuku, someone who grew up without power and was looked down on because of it, loses the only form of power he was given. Eri, an abuse victim who was literally repeatedly ripped apart, mutilated herself to help the heroes. Like, what the fuck? Horikoshi was vile for that especially.

He's a bad writer, and I'm mad I ever expected more from him

[thr0wnawayy]

Dissecting the Jaku General Hospital Disaster and MHA's failures with complexity

Ahhh, The Jaku Hospital Raid. The point where MHA's story went from it's ever increasing decline to throwing itself right off a cliff.

(boooring)

I think most can agree this event was a travesty writing/plot wise, but how about all of those in regards to MHA's setting. Well that's what I'd like to discuss.

Point 1: A Goal Without a Plan is a Dream

The plan summed up is "fuck around and find out".

The heroes came in to uncharted enemy territory relying soley on brute force, broke a bunch of equipment that did God knows what (for all they knew, it could have been lethal*).

Then they proceed to shoot themselves in the foot by getting too cocky, despite knowing that Shigaraki was undergoing some sort of procedure. X-less shoots a machine that for all he knew could have been a bomb or generator. Why?, because he had a "bad feeling".

* I'm talking potential toxic fumes, gas leaks, accidental combustion, etc

Now let's focus on the evacuation effort...

Oh.

Oh FUCK!

That's it!?. A couple hundred dozen heroes and a select handful of first and third year's.

One of whom, mind you, is strictly combat oriented by the (extremely niche) capabilities of his quirk. What can Bakugo actually do here?, in the worst case scenario (being Shigaraki's awakening) he's limited to one arm and two legs (maybe his mouth?). That will further drag him down due to his quirk relying on both hands to be viable.

And we see this!

Moving along.

Another thing they didn't count on was outside help. The moment Gigantomechia arrives, it throws another curve ball. With the only reason for their survival being Dues-Ex-Machina Best "Dirty laundry" Jeanist.

They failed in the end anyways because a large portion of the LOV+ the MLA escaped.

Point 2: Organisms Used for Nefarious Means

I will keep this section brief

Nomu are in my opinion one of the biggest wastes of potential MHA produced. Going from being unnatural goliaths capable of striking dread into the hearts of even the long standing No1 Hero, to being undead cannonfodder that heroes can beat up so the audience doesn't question their ethics or (lack of) morality.

It is a sheer miracle that the Nomu didn't leave the heroes worse for wear. This is again more due to Hori relying too heavily on "convince" and not enough on in-world solutions, but I digress.

The Nomu should have been the biggest threat and again, the heroes failed to account for this. They had no way of knowing, sure.

But they should have accounted this early on. What about the civilians, evacuating them isn't enough as seen in Hosu. I mean they were walking into a lab and they had dealt with Nomu facilties before (Kamino)

Were there inpatients during the raid? and if so were they evacuated or did the Heroes say "fuck it." Given what eas allowed at Central Hospital I wouldn't put it past them.

Point 3: A civilians point of view.

I want you to imagine for a moment: You're a civilian and your whole life, you've been told how wonderful heroes are and how they'll always be there, after all they're heroes.

Sure, they may dictate what quirks are "in" and maaaybe they have a tad to much influence over your average person but they're licensed and your not.

Why question it?

Then one day everyone and everything you've known is just blown away. Heroes barge into your house and begin scrambling to get you and your family out of your house before something happens, they dont tell you what.

It is a sloppy and hurried effort, your life's belongings tucked into a small carryon if you're lucky and some plastic bags if you're not. They tell you it's probably only temporary and you'll be back to normal shortly.

Then the nearby Hospital blows up. You and your family can only watch as heroes flee from the scene, some rising into the sky, others sprinting like hell. You barely make it out alive yourselves.

Within minutes everything is gone and it's not until the fightings iver that you hear it. You hear people (you think it's your neighbors) pleading in pain underneath the rubble, a little girl can be heard sobbing somewhere in the torn landscape.

Everything's been torn upside down.

And the heroes, the poeple you've depended on your whole life...

They quit. They say they need to find another line of work.

Is that what you are to them!?. Just another line of work, a number on a tally!?.

Worse still. The NUMBER ONE HERO has just been exposed by his presumed to be dead son for being a child beating, wife trafficking, eugenist with an implication that some, if not all of his children were made against the mother's will.

The current Number 2 murdered a man for the "greater good" (what even is "good" anymore).

The people who were supposed to protect you are quitting in droves, leaving vast portions of city to fall to villains and are refusing to take any responsibility for their negligence and poor planning that made an already bad situation worse.

Oh, also the single most dangerous villain in history has broken out of Tartarus and multiple prisons have been destroyed leading to further destruction.

This is then followed by a "blackout" period. Heroes give zero insight into what they're doing or what their plan is. Mutant discrimination is running wild, support gear is flooding the streets and any protests are being silenced.

So I'll ask you again, how do you react?.

Point 4: Hubris

Over all the entire operation was a complete and utter failure. I see alot of people giving the civilians flack for their strong reactions, but honestly I can't blame 'em.

The issue is Hori paints the narrative to minimize the damage towards the heroes. (For example he characterizes one of Enji's critics as a snobby shut-in surrounded by trash bags). We only ever see the worst aspects of the civilians because Hori has consistently failed to delve into anything beyond surface level emotion/themes.

Eri is a good example, she should be a very different character. She should be allowed to show her trauma and all the "ugly" emotions and baggage that come with that, we as the audience should see the lasting impact being killed repeatedly has had on her.

For example, Eri should be very adverse to touch. A problem that started with her father and was worsened by Kai.

She should be expressing her trauma through play (think reenacting her "surgeries" on dolls)

She should be distrustful and even cold (especially after Mirio abadoned her).

Her inability to smile might stem from a lack of viewing her self as equal to others, viewing herself as more of an object than human being.

But do we ever see this. No.

Because Hori doesn't let us. He simply as a writer, cannot appropriately handle or even seem to grasp complexity and every part of the story suffers because of it.

With the civilians it's no different and as a result Hori whether intentionally or not, twists the narrative to make them seem unreasonable.

This doesn't help when from what we've seen a shocking amount of MHA's main cast are drenched in hypocrisy. The only experiences we've had with the civilian population is through Shigaraki's backstory (bad) Toga's parents (very bad).

It's just not a good look.

Conclusion:

Over-all, the Raid and by extention the war was a mess in every aspect and I personally think the story would have been better off doing something else.

The time wasted here could have gone to any number of things (how about fleshing out the non existant world building) but I honestly believe that it would have been subpar regardless, it's all to apparent Hori had no idea where he wanted the story to go. That can be seen as far back as everything post MVA.

Just, what a mess.

[bibibbon]

Do you ever feel like the women of MHA barely matters in the story? Especially the heroes.

Short answer: yes! And this is a problem with a lot of shonen series MHA included which definitely ticks me off.

The thing is there are a lot of female characters yet nothing meaningful or strikingly iconic is done with them. In my opinion the most iconic and well written female character we have in the story is toga himiko (whose also a villain so that goes and adds a bit more to your point) and even with that her character arc is still flawed.

There's so many female characters and so much you could do with them. Class 1A has approximately 6 characters each of them can have interesting character arcs that never get developed. You also have very interesting female villains who don't get much attention compared to their male counterparts. Toga himiko the main female villain has a lot of her character time shared with ochako (which isn't like shigaraki or Dabi) and other female villains don't get much focus on like curious (I miss her) or lady nagant (she had a decent arc flawed but really good) oh and magne gets killed off before we know anything about her!

Heck horikoshi could even focus on the female parents like inko and Rei and give them their independent arcs where they find an identity and become better parents (get a redemption arc).

What about the female heroes who don't get much focus and are there to do one bad ass girl boss thing and leave instead of adding meaning to the story. This happens with star and stripes (the worst plot device character I have ever seen) or miriko. Heck it seems like horikoshi forgets a lot about midnight and she doesn't matter when it comes to the oboro plotline. In the end her death is meaningless and there for cheap tension, Mt lady doesn't get enough focus for her arc to truly hit and I honestly can't name any other female heroes.

Oh wait we have recovery girl whose actions are made a gag and not called out, or we have bubble girl who yikes (poor girl deserves better) or nejire who compared to Mirio and tamaki is an almost nothing character!!

Heck don't get me started on how horikoshi does some very questionable things with his female characters like what was that thing with toruu and drawing her naked?!?! Or having toga running around without clothes in the manga (like hello thats a child!!!) what about the endless mineta gags (its worse since horikoshi admitted to liking mineta and being a bit of a perv) heck we dont even talk about the explicit gore thats used with injured female characters like miriko.

In the end there's definitely more I have missed but gosh this is enough to show that horikoshi hasn't done a good job with the female characters (toga and lady nagant are decent) which is a shame since there was sooo much potential.

(Gosh I would add pictures but honestly I physically can't bring myself to post or search for them)

[hamliet]

Less of a question but I was never an avid manga reader till 2019 and mha was the first manga I kept track of weekly, and I read Tokyo ghoul after it ended, and seeing everyone be dissatisfied with how Tokyo ghoul ended after keeping up weekly is something I’m reminded of after seeing the latest chapter of mha. So this is what it feels like to witness 6 years of a character you hold in high regard be undermined(to put it lightly). I’m rather sad, but I can’t help but feel fondness for shigaraki even if the way he ended wasn’t satisfying, how do u feel about how mha has gone?

Yeah it does feel very reminiscent of Tokyo Ghoul in that they just went "ah yes, killing the right people is actually how we solve world issues." Which I find morally reprehensible, but also genuinely bad writing because the story as a whole doesn't support this message.

@linkspooky explained in her meta yesterday why Deku has completely failed as a character, and why the manga has failed thematically as a story. I'm just gonna say I completely agree with Link.

To be fair, I'm not sure Shigaraki is dead dead, but either way, it's bad writing and it doesn't conclude his arc with any sort of satisfactory element. Like, why would Shigaraki see Deku as different than anyone else who tried to punch him? That's nonsensical and written from the POV of an audience, not from Shigaraki's POV. It's like in Star Wars when Rey calls herself "Rey Skywalker" when she knew Luke for 3 days and none of the people she was actually close to (Leia, Han, Ben) were Skywalkers. That's writing for the audience, with their perspective, ignoring the logic of your story. It defies believability because the character does not have that perspective. It's "forced" because the audience can see the hand of the author.

If Shigaraki is dead dead... Not gonna Star Wars this one again, but since I also hated the ending of The Rise of Skywalker, I must make a comparison. The idea that Deku may have saved Shigaraki's heart but couldn't save his body (which to be honest, nothing in the actual chapter supports, but if he stays dead might be the argument) is still bad writing. Why? Because to Shigaraki didn't even make the decision himself. He didn't sacrifice anything. How can his heart be saved if he had nothing to do with it? Saving an object is easy as pie. Saving a person is different, and that's what the whole story has been about. Like, in TROS, Kylo Ren gave his life for Rey! Was it stupid? Yes! But at least his "saved heart" did something. Shigaraki's saved heart did what exactly?

So then, is the message that Deku failed? Then why isn't it framed as a failure? Why was BNHA never set up to be a grimdark tragedy? If he failed, then shouldn't he have a miserable ending? Unless it's "heroes always become bad guys and life is unfair," but then shouldn't Deku be framed critically?

Basically, Horikoshi can't come back writing-wise from this in BNHA, and it's sad to see.

Horikoshi's biggest flaw throughout the entire story was that he kept flip-flopping on what he wanted to say, and made the characters more about his trying to please every single fan than about being, well, characters to explore important questions he has that are worthwhile. And you can do this while still having a "cool" factor!

Instead the characters tell us one thing while cocooning Deku in the sweet bliss that no one ever has on this earth--being 100% right all the time. And it's sad, because BNHA had so much potential as a story to challenge its audience and entertain too.

I thought even if it flopped in some aspects it'd at least get this right. It's disappointing.

Anyways every day that goes by I want to send Isayama and his editors flowers for actually writing a thematically coherent ending, even if some aspects were dropped or messy along the way.

[whywoulditho]

"the fandom ruined mha" is one of those vastly popular opinions that i've never quite understood. because they honestly...weren't as bad as people made it seem??? i swear people with zero fandom experience will see a thirteen year old in cheap cosplay having fun and say shit like "ew i hate this fandom you're ruining it" like maybe leave the goddamn kid alone??

mha has a very large fan community, and what makes it a little different than most other anime fandoms is that mha was specifically targeted for a global audience. they did their best to avoid any quirks and cliche tropes of anime that would go over non-japanese' heads. the art style is pretty cartoonish and it's got lots of references to western comics. there's a whole ass movie set in the US. what i'm trying to say is that a large, international fandom was always what they were going for, and it was well received. it was one of those shows that you'd kind of had to watch if you wanted to be in anime spaces back in like 2016-2018. mind you this is when even aot wasn't that popular. and when something is so popular, there's gonna be lot of weird people in the fandom. BECAUSE most of them will be people who have never been in fandom spaces before. the "cringy mha fans" that were the butt of every joke in anime discord were more of than not minors having just been introduced to anime or fandom culture as a whole. there were lots of weird stuff, i admit. but was it ever really that serious? like why couldn't yall just leave those people alone??

another thing people just couldn't stop talking about was how there were way too many ships in the fandom but 1) why is that a bad thing? and 2) of course there were gonna be a lot of ships in a show that introduced TWO WHOLE CLASSROOMS OF TEENAGERS AS THE MAIN CAST who interacted all the time. not to mention all the students from other hero schools, upperclassmen, pro heroes & teachers. there are like a million characters in this show and the more characters the more potential ships -it's fucking common sense. i think what really happened there was that people outside of the fandom looked at the fanmade content and thought the fandom must have been obsessed with ships. when in reality i think the fans were really chill about it. most of them were multishippers, they didn’t mind the other pairings. i understand that for an outsider's eye all the ships and disclose must've looked chaotic but in fandom spaces people know how to filter the content they engage with so there really arent any serious "ship wars" going on anywhere except for maybe instagram comments.

i am not saying all the ships were unproblematic, there were some pretty weird ships going on too, but honestly i thought half of them were jokes? or at least crackships? and if you compared the number of fics those kind of pairings have on ao3 to the more family friendly ones you'd see that there really weren't an actual fanbase for any of those weird ass pairings.

i think the core of mha fandom has never been as chaotic as others thought it was. mha fans were interested in the story, the fights & the character development while casually enjoying ships as well. it wasn't that serious until yall started bullying a bunch of kids online. with the rise of tiktok and the boredom the pandemic caused there were a huge amount of amateur content. i'm not saying i've never seen a mha fan being genuinely cringe. i just think the mature response to those posts would have been leaving the poor kids alone.

yesterday i've seen a youtube video about how awful mha fans are and this guy just showed a clip of a bunch of cosplayers outside of what was probably an anime convention dancing to gangnam style and he was going on and on about how annoying they are. and it made me so angry because where the fuck did these anime fan bourgeoisie snobs come from telling people they can't have fun at FUCKING ANIME CONVENTIONS??? i dont know if you've ever been to one but an anime con is basically the only place that's supposed to be safe to do cringe shit like that. everyone goes to those things in cosplay, some better than others. but last i checked everyone was pretty nice to each other, complimenting each other's costumes, asking to take photos. the cosplays don't have to be good, they don't even have to be complete. a convention is the one place you can show up in a wig you bought off ebay and a costume you finished making the night before. i dont know what yall are on but people go to those events to have fun. not to be filmed and made fun of. and from my personal experience having been in fandom spaces since middle school, someone who dances to gangnam style in a cheap todoroki cosplay is an infinitely nicer person than the stuck-up loser who makes a video complaining about it

[salvagesmha]

The Curious Case of the Jailbreakers

In MHA, the concept of villain organizations having sub-groups or elite squads is nothing new in concept (albeit it rarely is it committed to for too long). For the League of Villains, they had their Vanguard Action Squad. The Shie Hassaikai, they had the Eight Bullets. For the Paranormal Liberation Front/Meta Liberation Army, they had their Base Commanders turned PLF Advisors. Lastly for All For One's army of Villains, he has his Assassins better known as just the Jailbreakers...

Who I think probably has earned the title of the most nothing group during the story's time span. Which is pretty impressive in hindsight.

(Hey, you see this group of clearly seven people - one's in the back of the dialogue box - right? Keep this group shot in mind)

So who are the Jailbreakers?

The Jailbreakers are a group of...eight(?)ish Tartartus Villains that AFO recruited for the purpose of defeating Deku to bring to him (hence them also being called his hired guns or assassins...even if the latter isn't really correct).

On paper, this is a set-up for an interesting premise as the Dark Deku arc, on paper, is also supposed to show Deku trying to reach out to better understand why people become Villains and to at least try to see if they can be reasoned with. The story also established Tartarus to be a place which has numerous human rights violations. So already you can see the potential brewing for a potential sympathetic angle for some of them. If not that, then at least it should be easy to get invested in knowing former convicts are loose and, given their location, are likely immensely strong and provide some backstory to Hero Society as well.......right?

Well........kind of? Of the two, the former was kinda the most realized...sorta? Not really.

Of the Jailbreakers, Lady Nagant easily holds the title of being the most developed of the eight(?) and most thought out of. She's the one that shows the dark side of the HSPC, its corrupt measures to keep society ignorant of issues that could threaten its image. She's the Villain that Deku manages to reach out to sway back to good. She gets her redemption in the Final War. Sounds good...on paper (again XD).

But, in practice, as much as I like Nagant and what she offers, it's still plagued by rushing her introduction and reform stint in a few chapters, and then leaving her comatose up until the final battle. She's in and out of the story just like that. What should have been foreshadowed long ago, and taken its time to really let simmer, is just suffering under a story going too fast to really want to let her stick around.

Yet, that's still way better than what her comrades got - because, wow, did the Jailbreakers run into trouble before Nagant was finised.

Starting with this damning line right here from Hawks:

From the start we're told by Hawks the Analyst that because Deku has One For All, the other escaped cons besides Nagant should be no trouble.

This right here is the start of the Nothingness of the Jailbreakers. Before we even get to see anyone else besides Nagant, a flashback says that we shouldn't be concerned if one of them runs into Deku. That sentence along along is the most damning thing one should never say in regards to a group that hasn't properly debuted.

It is a writing sin, one that makes any attempt at hyping up future villains go to waste! Because, from the very start, you got it into the audience's head that these guys are no real theat. No big deal, because Hawks the Powerscaler said so. Trading out 7ish potential for one who, admittedly, is still not given the best of their treatment is very much a bad call.

This is actually pretty strange for MHA, since Horikoshi actually got it right concerning the other three squads...for the most part XD The Vanguard he made note that these guys were 'elite' compared to the jobbers of USJ, Eight Bullets were noted to be threatening since they had nothing to lose, the Advisors (as much as the story dropped the ball with them) at least had Hawks the Tier King to say they're stronger than average. All three had the story giving an effort to build intrigue and expectation for these guys...things squandered for the Jailbreakers in favor of just one of their number. It's a strange choice, but its pretty much the start of a losing battle for the rest.

And it really doesn't get better for them since after Nagant, do you know what happens to the other two?

Yeah, no, for both the anime and manga, they just get one appearance. That's it. No real showcasing of their powers, no names, any reason as to why they worked for AFO, no real personality either. They're just...footnotes. It doesn't help both get done dirty in different ways. Gangster Fang guy gets caught no problem off-screen to really hammer in the protagonist can't be touched (which...is just a decision I never agree with - decimates the stakes for the story).

King Sharkman isn't even shown defeated. From manga to anime, he just that one still frame (Bones for S5-6 REALLY did not care consistency/extra effort with the Villains, especially the minor ones and it shows). You probably wouldn't even knew they were Jailbreakers were it not for Hawks giving the almighty report that they were enemies sent by AFO.

It's one thing for have dialogue to say these Villains won't be much, it is a very different thing to reinforce that idea. So with these showings, it's now officially solidified in the audience's mind that these guys are nothing special. Which, again, is a bad thing to be doing for your series, especially when you're in the final act and need credible villains to face (which wouldn't be an issue if over half of the credible villains from the First War wasn't shelved, but...that's a topic for another day).

Dictator, the 4th hitman, isn't much better. Sure he has an actual personality, and a cool power, with the bonus of actually using his moves intelligently (with the whole meat shield trick) and providing a boost for Crust post-mortem. But, like with the other two he suffers a lesser case of being disposed of too quickly. He's OHKO'd by Bakugo and only brought up in passing afterword. Arrived too late and gone too quick.

After that, there's a lull since Deku is saved by Class A. By now, you might think, if you haven't completely written off the Jailbreakers by this point, you would have noticed that, after Nagant, there were three of the seven(?) that went down, right? So four to go right?

...

Yeah, now here's the fun part.

???? Who the Hell are two of them?! There are clearly two extras off to the side, so what gives? Weeeelll...just forget about them.

Unfortunately, they're two things that just...don't get resolved by the end of the story. There's six of them here, Hori likely had some original plan that involved six Jailbreakers all getting stomped out during the War...but I guess he just couldn't find room to add in the two......

Okay, scratch that.

He couldn't find the room to add in four, because aside from the namedropped Kunieda and Gashly, no other Jailbreakers either appears or gets focused on, in the manga that is at the time of this writing. Despite clearly showing at least two others on the level of Gashly...they just are not shown off. This especially goes for the Dreadlock Jailbreaker that you would clearly see as being constantly in shot and is likely this guy below.

He was sent to Gunga, we see him at the start...and doesn't appear again. It's utterly bizarre and that's not even getting into the person next to him whose so vague we can't make out any real details.

But, hey, this is just the manga. Perhaps the anime makes things clearer, right?

Nope.

Instead of six Jailbreakers...they just reduced it five, even though we can blatantly see six in the original panels. On the flipside, without the text we get a better view of Kunieda, Gashly, 'Spike' (for lack of better name - also we now know his Quirk) and two of the other enemies. One is apparently bald and next to Spike, so I assume they are on the Gunga battlefield (they're the ones next to Spike in the first manga panel so the anime thought to add them back in)? As for the cloak one...yeah got nothing. I hope the anime does something with them, but if they don't won't be surprised.

But why get hung up on this?

Well, because the story now wants them to be considered important. As the 'wild card' factor that could make their attempts to stop the Villains be in danger. Or rather, it wants Kunieda and Gashly to be important (since Hori made 3/4 others that just...don't get to be shown off - still better than the Advisors situation mind you).

The problem is that the damage was both already done on top of other factors.

Like I said before, up until the 2nd War, after Nagant, the Jailbreakers were treated like a breeze to get through by Deku or Class A. Meaning their threat level is nonexistent in spite of Johnny Average saying otherwise.

Another downside to the Jailbreakers is that, unlike the other Squads in MHA, Hori was really dead set on not showing off their designs until their focus chapter. Meaning, unlike the Advisors or Eight Bullets who we can at least speculate or gain intrigue from based on their looks, speculation or potential hype for the Breakers is dead in the water since 'vague shadows' is not enough to work off of.

Even when they do show up, its not really to the story's real benefit since the focus is hardly ever on them, even as the War is under way. No one is really expecting much from them, and the story is still going along with making sure that notion isn't really defied.

And it's just sad because, when the story does focus on them, it shows a great layer of promise for what could have been.

Kunieda is the 2nd best Jailbreakers because he, at his least, does fulfill properly the roles of prior minion villains in the past. Kuneida is Aoyama's Villain - an obstacle narrative to challenge his weakness, in this case being his role as a Traitor to UA, and whether is was worth betraying AFO, with Kunieda having fierce loyalty to the Demon Lord. It also helps that he's allowd to actually, you know, FIGHT - he's not steamrolled like the other Breakers before him, he's allowed to beat others. Granted, it was off-screen but its still something that earns him his second place medal.

As for Gashly............

Yeah, I won't lie. Gashly got a raw deal. If Kunieda barely got anything, Gashly just got the scraps. Crumbs of what could have been. He's shown way, way, way too late for him to ever matter (why wait until legit the final fight to show him off). His Quirk, while just as destructive as Kunieda, suffers from taking up too much similarities from Twice and Skeptic (also people who summon clones). And, to top it off, he's worse off since not only does he not get to speak, he's not tied to any of Class A or important cast to triumph against. Tokage and Kamikiri are the ones to take him down. Not Sero, Ryukyu, Thirteen. They just do not effect his defeat and he's a little more than a foot note before the grand finale, even though he outlasted pretty much every other Villain besides Shigaraki.

And that's kind of the problem with the Jailbreakers in a nutshell:

The story treats them like nothing, even when it also wants them to be something, yet takes every avenue it can to prevent them from ever rising above 'oh, right, they're here too'.

It's a rather pitiful decision that drags down the story a bit since the final act was in serious need of threatening villains to wrap things up...and the Jailbreakers just could not deliver. Which is a shame since they had real potential behind their concept. Villains locked away for being that wicked or perhaps spouting truths the government didn't want to see the light of day. There's a lot you can do with escaped convict villains, but sadly in MHA's rush for the end, the Jailbreaker's threat level are another casualty.

[doodlegirl1998]

I find it weird that MHA kinda attempts to say that Twice’s death was wrong, even though it really wasn’t.

Like, I like Twice but that MF would’ve absolutely ran everyone into the ground. Twice had his chance at redemption but ultimately sacrificed it in favor of loyalty to his group.

Also, TF was Hawks supposed to do in that situation? Just step aside and say: Sure, kill thousands of innocent people and possibly put the world into anarchy, have fun sweetie 🥰

Hi @palesweetscherryblossom 👋,

My opinion on Twice's death is that narratively speaking, it shouldn't have happened.

But he needed to be taken out of the story for there to be any stakes for the villians. I just wish Hori had Hawks capture him and put him into custody alongside Compress.

You are right when you say Twice could not be allowed to run amok because with his power, he is a one man army. He is OP!

But I like Twice.

I view him as a more redeemable character than the villian characters that MHA keeps trying to tout as redeemable (Toga, Dabi, and Shig.) Since Twice was the way he was through a mix of bad luck, poverty, poor mental health and a lack of support plus he seemed to genuinely care for the LOV and Hawks which is up for debate with some of the other characters up for redemption (Dabi and Shig.)

I am of the opinion that Hawks could have been able to capture Twice if he really wanted to.

Remember how, with his speed, he was instantly able to capture that flasher when he was with Endeavor? He could have easily at any time caught Twice unaware and alone since Hawks knew Twice deemed him a friend. Yet Hawks chose that moment to mock Twice, corner him, injure him and reveal his hand as a traitor. Why?

Surely, as a spy and a seasoned hero, he should know that Twice would see that as a betrayal and become enraged. He also was a spy for long enough that Hawks should know that Twice would not accept any offer of 'redemption' just for himself at all - especially not if he had to betray the friends he cared for to get it.

You could argue with Dabi showing up the situation immediately spiralled out of Hawk's control - which it did.

However, why didn't Hawks try to kill Dabi in that moment, the active threat and the logical choice to kill in self defence, rather than the villain running away from him?

This is because I believe that Hawks always intended to kill Twice in this moment.

I also believe that the offer for Twice's redemption was merely as a way to make himself look better in the recording Hawks was taking of the showdown rather than a sincere offer on his end.

If it had been sincere, Hawks would have delivered the redemption offer in a way where Twice would have been more ammendable to it - possibly when he was already behind bars and recieving therapy.

TLDR - No, Hawks couldn't allow Twice to run amok with the villains. However, he could have captured him if he really wanted to. Yet Hawks didn't want to because he wanted the threat of Twice's double quirk eradicated.

The regret for this decision as well as the ramifications of it should have been a core part of Hawks character along with him re-evaluating the HPSC's teachings and what being a hero really means to him.

But Hori wastes the potential of what could have been an interesting character / interesting character arc to prop up Endeavor and his "redemption arc" instead.

[susagnon]

14DaysofMHA - Day 6 (July 28th): Minor Character

I wanted to see more 1-A shenanigans with 1-B

We deserved more bonding time with them.

Class 1-B are good and kind kids - including my favorite 1-B brat, Monoma Neito. (With the current season, no one can deny his heroism anymore.)

The KiriTetsu bromance that we got to see, was quite sweet. As the other potential background friendships between 1-A and 1-B could been: MomoKendo, TokoKomo... Not to mention the crushes: YaoWase, TsuyuTsubu...

...

Horikoshi, I empathise with the desire to finish a decade long work, and to finally move on with your life.

However.

Would it have been that bad, if you had utilised the full three years of japanese highschool to tell your story in a slightly more realistic timeframe, instead of cramming all that trauma and character development into one single school year?

Would it have been that bad, if you had given those lovable characters that you've birthed, the chance to connect more with your audience and each other?

Some uncultured (jkjk) fans might have liked to label everything that wasn't 'My Hero Smackdown', as filler.

But personally, I will mourn the lack of "slice of life"-scenes (aka. the unshown, unseen character and relationship developments outside of the action scenes, that are necessary to feel organic and more believable) in 'My Hero Academia' for a while.

...

Obviously Horikoshi can do whatever he pleases with the world that he created. Still, I'm praying that he didn't rush through the story at such neck breaking speed, just to do the MHA equivalent to Boruto next. I believe that would break many fans' hearts.

[sarahjtv]

My Hero Academia is Officially Ending and I'm Fucking Coping 😭

So, it was officially announced early today, June 24th, 2024, by Shueshia and mangaka, Kohei Horikoshi, that My Hero Academia/Boku no Hero Academia will officially end in 5 chapters on Chapter 430. The last chapter will be released at the beginning of August after 10 years of publication in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine if all goes well.

I woke up to this news. I'm sitting here on my laptop typing this as a way of coping tbh. On the outside, I'm numb and stunned. On the inside, I'M SCREAMING, CRYING, THROWING UP, MOURNING LIKE I LOST A LOVED ONE WTF 😭

*sigh* But, this was going to happen eventually. It was only a matter of when. When Horikoshi said that we would have more epilogue to cover, I thought "Maybe he'll give us 10 more chapters!" Turns out it is 6-7 chapters instead... In Horikoshi's defense, 6-7 chapters are much longer than what most mangaka have given us for epilogues to their stories. I'd rather have him give us 5 more chapters of an epilogue than rush it in 1-2. Plus, if possible, we could potentially get 19-20 pages per chapter which might be just enough to wrap everything up. And since final chapters of manga tend to be longer than usual, we could get extra pages in the last chapter to finish everyone's arcs and the story properly.

Still, it's so wild to see a series I have loved for years and have such a strong attachment to end as I am following it. I have been a part of many fandoms before and have stuck around them for years (Pokémon, Supernatural, Doctor Who, Breaking Bad, and many more), but it's not often that I've been there there to see a series come to it's conclusion. Sometimes that can turn out well (Breaking Bad) and other times I've seen it end badly (Supernatural; only read about it and it was not great. I bounced after season 13? and I am so sorry to the fandom). My Hero Academia is one of the very few series I will see through to the end.

I'm really coping here, honestly. I've been a fan of My Hero Academia since 2018. I first heard about the series randomly through the internet, but I didn't fully introduce myself to it until I listened to a cover of The Day on YouTube (I forget the artist, I'm so sorry). I thought the song was so cool and that led to me listening to more covers of MHA OPs (Peace Sign is still GOATed btw). This eventually led me to the manga and the anime where I became truly immersed in the series. I started reading the manga around the Joint Training Arc (I think) which was definitely an interesting time to read the manga because the chapters where so short due to Horikoshi dealing with health and I think moving conflicts at the time. It was still an enjoyable arc and enough to keep me interested in reading from the beginning. I want to say I started the anime around season 3?, but I started at the beginning and worked my way up from there. "Shoto Todoroki: Origin" was the episode that finally solidified my love for the series and is still my favorite episode of the series.

To say that MHA has an important place in my heart is an understatement. (⚠️Warning: very quick mention of suicide) I was very sad and depressed in the latter half of 2018. My life didn't feel like it was going anywhere and I was close to giving up entirely. (⚠️ ). Finding and loving MHA during that time honestly might have saved my life. As strange as it sounds, it was one of the few things that brought me genuine happiness at the time. I had something to look forward to every week and it was thrilling. I still remember debating whether Deku or Shoto was my favorite character. Shoto took the top spot in my heart, but Deku is a very close second 🩵💚.

Seeing MHA end is heartbreaking, honestly. I'm watching something I truly love come to an end. We'll still have the anime, movies, and spin-off series to keep us busy for the next few years, but the manga that started it all is coming to a close. It feels so, so surreal. God, is this how the Haikyuu fandom felt when it’s manga ended? My hope is that this fandom can be kept alive long after the series is over. The MHA fandom DEFINITELY has it's flaws, but it also has a lot of good in it too. I have seen incredible art and fanfics come from this fandom. I have laughed and hyped up some of the best moments of MHA with people who love it too. I know that the fandom is collectively mourning its end and I know we'll all cry bittersweet tears when it ends. If anything, I am glad to see Kohei Horikoshi end his momentous story on his own terms. I hope it ends up being one of the best manga endings in recent Shonen Jump like how Haikyuu's was. I think Horikoshi can do it. Regardless of how it ends, My Hero Academia will be one of my favorite pieces of fiction. I am really glad to be here to celebrate it.

[ghostxrose]

𝑶𝒇 𝑴𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑴𝒆𝒏 | 𝑩𝒂𝒌𝒖𝒈𝒐 𝑲𝒂𝒕𝒔𝒖𝒌𝒊 𝒙 𝑶𝑪

Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four | Part Five | Part Six | Part Seven |

Summary ~ The war between humanity and aliens began in 2013 when the first Kaiju hauled itself out of the depths of the ocean. It rampaged through three cities, destroying everything in its path and killing thousands before it was finally taken down. As more Kaiju emerged from the sea, nations put aside rivalries and hatred in order to ban together and find a solution to save the human race.

Azusa had never imagined that this would be the world that she would grow up in. Mankind using giant robots to take down massive alien monsters sounds like the stuff of movies not the reality that she’s forced to live. She had also never imagined signing herself up to battle the monsters from the sea, but somebody needed to avenge her brother’s death and her father sure as hell wasn’t doing it.

Tags/Warnings ~ Fem!OC, angst, hurt/comfort, eventual fluff, enemies to friends to lovers, slow burn, potentially triggering content, universe-typical violence, Enji Todoroki (yes, that is a warning, he's trash), character death, suicidal ideation, (more tags to be added as story develops <3)

Note ~ Heyy, Lovelies! This fic is my twist on MHA characters in the Pacific Rim universe. I am absolutely obsessed with Pacific Rim, it's probably my most favorite movie! So this fic is my mash up of two of my fave things. It is xOC instead of xReader, but I hope that you enjoy it all the same. I'm one of those readers who will imagine myself as the main character no matter what, so this can be read as reader-insert. Anyway, enough with my rambling, enjoy the story My Lovelies! <3

“Get going, Azusa!” He says with urgency as he ushers her out of the kitchen.

“I’m not fucking going anywhere without you, Toya! I have a bad feeling about this one! Please listen to me, don’t go with Dad!” She pleads over the sounds of their younger siblings crying.

“Dammit Azusa, I have to! Dad doesn’t have another co-pilot! We’ll be fine, just go!” He borderline shouts at her as he makes his way to the door.

“Don’t go! Please, don’t go!” She cries, grabbing his arm and pulling him away from the door.

“Fucking let me go! This is a job, Azusa, and I’ve been called to go do it! Go help Mom with Natsuo, Fuyumi, and Shoto!” He yells, ripping his arm out of her grasp and rushing out the door, slamming it shut behind him.

“Dammit, Toya-”

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Jolting upright in her bed, chest heaving and tears wetting her face, Azusa slams the button on her alarm. Letting out a groan, she wipes at her face and tries to even out her breathing. It takes a few minutes, as it always does, but she finally manages to recover and drags herself out of bed.

“Thanks, subconscious.” She mumbles bitterly as she makes her way to the bathroom. She goes through the motions of her everyday routine; getting dressed, putting her hair up, brushing her teeth, staring at the old family vacation photo on her dresser for too long.. Numbly, she finishes lacing up her boots, then stands up ready to answer the door for the knock she knows is coming.

The predicted knock does happen and she opens the door to greet her sister, “Morning, Fuyumi.” She says as she steps out of her room, closing the door behind her and locking it.

“Good morning, Azusa! You ready for today?” Fuyumi asks her as the two make their way to the elevator.

“As ready as I’ll ever be, I guess.” She says with a slight shrug as they step into the elevator.

After pressing the button for the Mess Hall, Fuyumi joins her sister in leaning against the back wall of the elevator. She bumps her shoulder against Azusa’s with a small playful smile on her face.

“It’s a big day for you, kinda thought you’d be more hyped.” She comments, her features taking on a bit of concern.

“It’s just another day, Yumi. Just another day of being one of his soldiers that he couldn’t give less of a damn about.” Azusa replies in an emotionless tone to cover up the anger burning beneath her skin.

Fuyumi lets out a heavy sigh as the elevator doors open, “He does care, Zusa… And I know that it won’t be the same without Toya there to cheer you on.. but it’s been three years. There was nothing more you could have done that day to stop him. He’s gone, you’re here, and you worked your ass off to get to this point. You deserve to feel excited about today.” She says tiredly as they walk up to the food line.

“Yeah..” Azusa responds quietly, letting the conversation fizzle out. They fill up their trays with no further conversation being made, then head for a table with open seating.

Unfortunately for both of them the only table with open seating just so happens to be next to the table that Katsuki Bakugo and his group are sitting at. Azusa rolls her eyes at the comments and praises she hears being thrown the blonde’s way as she sits down. It’s been two years since her group entered the Ranger Program and Bakugo’s arrogant personality hasn’t dimmed a bit. Not even being behind the scenes during humanity’s war against aliens has done anything to lessen his pompous attitude.

“Who do you think you’ll be Drift-compatible with, Bakugo?” Azusa hears Mina’s perky voice ask.

“I don’t think any of you extras could handle being in my head and I sure as hell don’t wanna be in any of your idiotic brains. I’m just gonna ask the Marshal to let me pilot by my damn self.” Bakugo replies with a tone full of annoyance, earning himself a few gasps of shock and a bit of laughter.

“Oh c’mon man, you know single piloting is impossible even with the tech we have now! Plus, I think we’d be Drift-compatible! We work well together and we’re both super manly!” She hears Kirishima exclaim and she lets out a small huff of laughter at the pose she knows he’s doing even without looking at him.

“I don’t need a damn co-pilot and if I am forced to have one, it better not be any of you idiots!” Bakugo bites out and Azusa rolls her eyes once again as she digs into her breakfast.

“What a jerk, Dad’s gonna be pissed if Bakugo actually puts in that request,” Fuyumi comments quietly before taking a sip of her juice.

Azusa silently nods her head in absentminded agreement as she takes another bite. Suddenly, everyone around her quiets down, their heads bowing in respect and words becoming low whispers.

“Good morning, Rangers.” Marshal Todoroki greets, his booming voice echoing throughout the Mess Hall and demanding attention.

“As many of you know, today is the day that groups A through D will be testing to find their Drift-compatibility partners, or rather, their co-pilots. All other groups will be excused from their training to witness the event, but do not mistake this as a free day. Learn something from what you witness. As for groups A through D, tests will begin at 0800. Be prepared and be on time.” He continues, his stern tone making everyone give an intimidated nod of understanding.

“Ranger Azusa Todoroki,” Marshal Todoroki calls out, causing everyone’s eyes to turn toward the girl. Azusa clenches her jaw and her eyes meet the cold blue ones of her father.

“Come to my office once you have finished breakfast. Thank you, everyone, you may carry on.” He finishes with a slight bow of his head before he and his second-in-command, Marshal Shota Aizawa, turn to leave. Noise ensues once again with the disappearance of the Marshal’s presence. Meaningless chatter and the clattering of dishware fill the room, but one voice, in particular, catches Azusa’s attention as very much intended by the voice’s owner.

“Aww, the princess get in trouble, again?” Bakugo’s taunting comment grates at Azusa’s eardrums and her grip on her chopsticks tightens.

Other than the whitening of her knuckles, she gives no reaction toward the blonde, her eyes cast down toward her food tray despite wanting to glare at Bakugo. She numbly finishes her breakfast, tells Fuyumi that she’ll see her later, then stands to clear her place. She can feel eyes on her as she takes her tray to the trash bin, but she maintains her facade of emotionless neutrality as she walks out of the Mess Hall.

“The fuck does the old man want now?” She mumbles out angrily under her breath as she steps into the elevator.

Jamming her finger against the button for the floor that the Marshal’s office is on, she lets out a long breath. Stepping back to the middle of the elevator, Azusa crosses her arms over her chest and closes her eyes. A minute or two passes and the elevator groans as it comes to a stop. She prepares herself, mentally and physically, to step out of the elevator when the doors begin to open but pauses when she comes face to face with Marshal Todoroki.

“Marshal?” She questions, bowing her head slightly, confusion flashing over her features before she settles back into her neutral state.

“We will be going down to the Shatterdome instead.” Marshal Todoroki says, his voice taking on a much different tone than earlier.

He stares at Azusa with an expectant look as he waits for her to move back so that he can step into the elevator. Azusa shakes the confusion from her mind and dutifully steps back to let the large man through the doorway. Tense silence fills the cramped-feeling space as she presses the button for the Shatterdome. The elevator groans once again as it begins descending.

“Why are we going to the Shatterdome, Sir?” Azusa asks, tone neutral and emotionless and the Marshal lets out a tired sigh.

“Azusa, please, it’s just the two of us you can call me da-”

“I stopped calling you that a long time ago, Enji. Why would I start again now? Just tell me why you wanted me to meet with you instead of letting me go get ready for my Drift-compatibility tests.” Azusa bites out, cutting off her father’s words.

Marshal Todoroki’s jaw clenches and his fists clench before the tension deflates from his body and a look of defeat fills his features, “I want to show you something.” He replies vaguely and Azusa sends him an incredulous look.

“You want to show me something?? This is ridiculous! I need to be getting ready, not dealing with your feeble attempts at earning my forgiveness ba-” Azusa’s anger gets the better of her until she cuts herself off, clamping her mouth shut as the elevator doors open.

Marshal Todoroki stays silent as they step out of the elevator, only opening his mouth to greet others. They move through the hustle and bustle of the Shatterdome, walking past Jaeger after Jaeger and all of the people working on said Jaegers. They finally stop at the far end of Bay 12, both of them turning their bodies toward the Jaeger standing tall against the wall. Azusa’s neck cranes as she looks up at the gigantic robot, a tidal wave of emotions flooding her as she takes it in.

“Bravo Inferno,” Azusa whispers out, tears building up on her lash lines and the Marshal quietly nods from beside her. “The day Toya died.. I thought she was too destroyed to salvage, I mean, you barely came back in one piece.. H-how is she here?” She asks, her voice thick with emotion and tears slipping down her face.

“It took the repair techs a long time, but they were able to put her back together. In fact, she’s better than she was before.. on the inside, that is. I made sure the outside was redone to look the same as when she first came out of production.” Marshal Todoroki says quietly, his hands clasped behind his back professionally but his face full of emotions.

Azusa stares up at her brother’s old Jaeger with a mixture of awe and sadness. The blue flame-colored paint reflects the lights of the Shatterdome, giving it a pearlescent shine. Bravo Inferno’s emblem, a flaming phoenix, is stamped proudly on the left side of its chest along with the numbers from the year it was made. From head to toe, the Jaeger looks just like it had the day Azusa watched it leave the base being piloted by her brother for the last time.

“What was the point of this?” Azusa asks, coming back to her senses and remembering that she is standing with the man responsible for her brother’s death. “You piloting again or something?”

Still looking up at Bravo Inferno, the Marshal shakes his head, “No, my piloting days are long since over with. I’m passing Bravo Inferno on to you, Azusa. It’s.. it’s what Toya would have wanted had he thought the war would still be going on.” He says looking at Azusa with the ghost of a smile on his saddened face.

It takes a moment for Azusa to work past the lump in her throat, to straighten her back even though she wants to fall to her knees and sob. A strained “thank you” makes its way out of her mouth as she blinks away the tears in her eyes.

𖤛 𖤛 𖤛

Azusa cracks her knuckles before crossing her arms and waiting for the tests to begin. She and the other Rangers who will be testing today are gathered around the training mats, most idly chatting as they wait for Marshal Todoroki and Marshal Aizawa. She does a quick glance around and sees some of the other Rangers stretching, so she follows suit.

“Hey, Azusa!” Someone calls out excitedly right as Azusa hears footsteps approaching her. Turning her head, she catches sight of Tetsutetsu and Kendo making their way toward her. She sends them a small smile and waves, Tetsutetsu’s bright smile making her want to put on sunglasses.

“Hey guys,” she says when the two get up to her, narrowly dodging Tetsutetsu when he tries to engulf her in a hug.

“You nervous?” Kendo asks when the three of them fall back into warm-up stretches.

“Nope. I just hope that I get a good co-pilot.” Azusa answers simply as she leans further into a leg lunge.

“How are you not nervous?? Literally, everyone will be watching; Rangers, Rangers-in-training, Marshal Aizawa, Marshal Todoroki.. You’re seriously not nervous about your dad watching the tests??” Tetsutetsu rambles out before he is whacked upside the head by Kendo.

“Dude, shut up!” Kendo reprimands and Azusa huffs out a laugh.

“No, I’m not nervous. I don’t care who’s watching.” Azusa says with a shrug of her shoulders.

“Attention, Rangers!” Marshal Aizawa’s stern voice calls out and everyone stands at attention.

“At ease,” Marshal Todoroki calls out next as he steps up next to Marshal Aizawa. Everyone relaxes but keeps their full attention on the two men at the front of the room.

“We’ll go over a brief explanation of how the tests will work, then we’ll get started.” Marshal Aizawa starts as the bleachers along the walls of the room begin filling with the other groups of Rangers-in-training that aren’t testing.

“The tests will work like this; one-on-one melee combat with bo staffs. You all have been broken up into smaller groups based on your results from previous Drift simulations and screenings. These one-on-ones will help better identify who exactly you work well with. Remember Rangers, these are dialogues, not fights. The goal is to find a co-pilot that keeps up with your moves and keeps the scores even. Should one of you outright win a match then we’ll know that person is not a match for you. The cementing stage of this test will occur at a later date when you and your co-pilot are assigned a Jaeger and go through your first real Drift together.” Marshal Aizawa explains in his normal serious yet tired tone.

“Rangers Bakugo, Kirishima, Tetsutetsu, Todoroki, Kendo, and Hado, grab your bo staffs then step onto the mat. Each of you will have one match with each other then Marshal Todoroki and I will review your scores later. Your co-pilots will be announced tomorrow if we get through everyone’s tests today. Marshal Todoroki, if you would choose the starting pairings, please,” Marshal Aizawa says and Marshal Todoroki scans over the six Rangers lined up in front of him.

“Kendo with Bakugo, Tetsutetsu with Hado, and Kirishima with Todoroki.” Marshal Todoroki says, tone firm as always and his gaze already full of judgment.

“Rangers spread out across the mat with your respective opponent and assume position. You will begin when I say so.” Marshal Aizawa commands and the Rangers listen accordingly.

Once they’ve reached a space far enough away from the other pairs, Azusa faces Kirishima with her bo staff positioned diagonally in front of her. She takes in a deep breath, steadying the few nerves that have crept into her system, and bends her knees slightly ready to move to either defend or attack. Kirishima does the same, winking at her when their eyes meet with a playful smirk on his face.

“Rangers begin,” Marshal Aizawa commands, and the pairs begin their matches.

The match between Bakugo and Kendo ends quickly with the score being; Bakugou 4 and Kendo 1. That’s not to say that Kendo didn’t try her best to keep up with Bakugou, it’s just that the blonde was relentless. Despite them all being told that the matches were supposed to flow like dialogues and not fights, it’s just like Katsuki Bakugo to do his own thing. Tetsutetsu and Hado’s match ended a bit better with their scores being; Hado 4 and Tetsutetsu 2. In both of their typical fashions, they shook hands at the end of the match, both of them wearing confident smiles.

Kirishima and Azusa started out neck and neck, but that changed quickly when Azusa got the upper hand. Their match ended with the scores being; Azusa 4 and Kirishima 2. Azusa helped Kirishima up after her final time taking him down and wished him good luck on his next match. Kirishima, being the ever-bright ray of sunshine that he is, smiled warmly at her and thanked her for a good match.

The next three rounds of matches seemed to fly by while simultaneously feeling dragged out. Azusa had won by 1 point against both Hado and Kendo, which made her feel pretty good about ending up being co-pilots with either of them. She, unfortunately, lost by 2 points against Tetsutetsu and she was a little disappointed by the fact that one of her two best friends wasn’t a very good match for her to be co-pilots with. At the end of their, match Tetsutetsu gave her an encouraging smile and told her that he would have been honored to be co-pilots with her.

“Time for the final matches for the first six Rangers. The pairings will be as follows; Hado with Kendo, Tetsutetsu with Kirishima, and Bakugo with Todoroki. Get ready, Rangers.” Marshal Aizawa calls out, and Azusa’s entire being fills with dread.

“Prepared to lose, Princess?” Bakugo goads arrogantly as the two get into position and Azusa’s blood boils a bit.

Marshal Aizawa tells them to begin and Bakugo doesn’t hesitate to make the first move. Azusa blocks his bo staff a couple of times but ultimately Bakugo lands a hit to her shoulder.

“1-0.” Bakugo comments with a cocky smirk.

Not wasting another moment, Azusa swings her bo staff knocking the blonde’s bo staff away and rushing him. With quick movements, she brings her bo staff up, then swings it down, stopping it only inches from his face.

“1-1.” She says quietly, challenging him with her eyes while her face remains neutral.

They go back and forth for what feels like hours, both of them having stopped keeping track of the score after they hit 2-2. Both of them panting and sweating, their match continues on and on until a booming voice pierces the bubble they seem to be in.

“That’s enough! Bakugo, Todoroki, your match is over. Put your bo staffs away and get on the sidelines.” Marshal Todoroki sternly tells the two and Bakugo releases Azusa from the hold he had her in.

The blonde stands and walks off to put his bo staff away, not bothering to offer Azusa help. The two don’t even look at each other once they’re both situated on the sidelines of the training mat, standing as far away from each other as possible. Kendo and Tetsutetsu both send Azusa twin looks of surprise mixed with heavy confusion, but she chooses to ignore them in favor of watching the next group of matches.

Note ~ I know that there may not be much to go off of but let me know what you think so far! Should I post chapter/part 2 sooner than planned? Idk, I'm just loving how the story is turning out and wanted to share it with yall! I love and appreciate you, Lovelies! <3

Ps, @tr-mha-fan I'm doing my best to work on your (second) request, I promise that I didn't ignore your ask, Lovely! <3

Tag List ~ @tomiokasecretlover

Divider Credit ~ @animatedglittergraphics-n-more

[bibibbon]

Characters with wasted potential: takami kegio

Oh hawks and the debates I have seen circulating around his character. He could of been a well written and thoroughly interesting and complex character but we know where that went.

I have got my own problems with hawks in canon. This is gonna be more of a ramble than anything else so enjoy.

His interactions with characters. A lot of the interactions that hawks has with different characters could of been so complex and intriguing if done right sadly MHA fails at that. Hawks views Enji todoroki the number two hero as his saviour from his abusive father so obviously hawks is a huge Endeavour fan who puts him on a pedestal. So we expect him to face an internal conflict when he finds out that his own saviour is an abuser to his own family but NOPE WE GET NOTHING. Hawks is physically not allowed to change or think about this and stays as a static character. Hawks and lady nagant have a lot of parallels and I found it Hella confusing when I learnt that lady nagant WASN'T hawk's former mentor and if she was that would of added a lot more depth to them in the vigilante arc. Hawks and tokoyami, look I love their mentor and mentoee relationship and how hawks actively encourages tokoyami to do things also it's Hella implied that the two are close and end up doing silly things on internships which I think is really fun. However I think the bit in the vigilante arc when hawks isn't answering tokoyamis calls and tokoyami is worried about him was handled poorly. I also think tokoyamis reaction to hawks being a killer is handled poorly. Hawk's actions during the first war arc and him killing twice could of been complex to him if handled well but we are led to believe that he was in the right in killing twice when hawks had the power to easily knock out twice, transport him to a jail cell and destroy all the clones before anything bad happens considering that hawks is known for his fastness, strength and agility .

Wasted potential in introduced plot aspects about him. Hawks is introduced as the 3rd top hero and compared to those before him he is young. He has a very charismatic and two faced nature that he has sharpened and learnt to use with the training the HPSC gave him. Hawks is a spy assassin that is supposed to act as a charismatic hero celebrity. In a way after all mights retirement hawks and enji became the most popular faces in Japan. Hawks was bred for this position yet that isn't expanded on neither is it developed well on. Hawk's actions during MVA and the first war arc are complex as they're coming from both genuine truth and lie. Hawks feels trapped literally and metaphorically having to live a life that isn't his and entertain people, always being watched from a cage. That's the story he tells the league and some of it to tokoyami and this is the truth to him. Hawks also killed twice BECAUSE HE BELIEVED it was the only option he had when in fact IT WASNT THE ONLY OPTION and by hawks trying to escape the cage and differentiate himself from the HPSC he ends up following and obeying them all along.

Lack of agency. As a character hawks lacks agency to do things or act. There are things that hawks isn't allowed to do even though it fits his narrative clearly. Hawks isnt allowed to have any negative feelings towards enji todoroki and what he did, heck he isn't even allowed to INTROPSECT on such a thing. Hawks isn't allowed to fully be developed or have any source of introspection, it would of been great if we saw more of what hawks thought about what he did to twice and what toga is trying to do. Hawks also doesn't say much when it comes to the HPSC and how they treated him the closest thing we get to intropsection in that case is him telling lady nagant that he is an extremely optimistic guy.

These are my main problems with hawks, Iam aware that there may be more.

I actually enjoyed hawk's introduction in the manga which was chapter 185 during the changing of the hero popularity polls. Hawks was presented as this complex character who isn't what he seems from the beginning. The first few panels we see him and he is comedically exaggerating his actions aka zipping his mouth and not talking or being overall very expressive however, when he does start to talk he is shown to cleary express his views and has stated that he hates the general bs thay heroes sprout about them wanting to uphold the law more than enjoying the luxuries that hero work gives them. He then takes the mic and proceeds to 'spice things up' by calling out enji on how disliked he is by the civilians. He claims this is something he did to help enji when in fact it didn't help him at all. To me this first interaction already establishes him as a walking contradiction.

His relationship with tokoyami. Their relationship first started in a way for hawks to gain information about 1A and he definitely wasn't being sneaky about it considering that tokoyami could see right through him. Tokoyami at the time only wanted to learn from hawks and was heavily upset and confused as to why hawks taught him nothing and was only using him. However, as time passed by they actually started to form a proper mentor and student relationship which I really enjoyed. When hawks was asked why he chose tokoyami he said that they are from the same feather, basically insinuating that he felt like it was somewhat his duty since he and tokoyami are both bird mutants to a certain extent. As a mentor hawks taught his student to have fun and chill out as tokoyami is a very grounded person (literally and metaphorically). Hawks inspired tokoyami to fly and majority of tokoyamis moves are some stuff that he either learnt or was inspired from with hawks. There's also the fact that it's heavily implied that a lot of the time hawks and tokoyami did goof out a bit considering that tokoyami has 'scandalous pictures' of hawks. However, I wish we actually got more of this relationship especially after tokoyami finds out that hawks killed twice. In the manga when tokoyami finds out of such a thing he automatically protects hawks and thinks he is in the right. I disagree with that and I think it would of been better to have it so that tokoyami protects hawks from Dabi not because he is a hero who done no wrong but because he is his mentor who he deeply cares for. I would also have it so that tokoyami starts to question who hawks really is?, is he a good person?, did tokoyami do the right thing helping hawks? Etc etc. in the vigilante arc, it's stated that tokoyami tried to contact hawks multiple times to no avail however this isn't expanded on. I would have it so that hawks is avoiding tokoyami on purpose because he is ashamed and scared of what his student will think of him. At the end they have a conversation and talk it out with tokoyami understanding that what hawks did was wrong but he deeply cares for him whereas hawks understands just how valuable his relationship with tokoyami really is. In the end, I ended up liking what happend with hawks and tokoyami both protecting eachother in the final arc and growing stronger as a mentor and student. Hawks learns to protect the youth and break the cycle that he was trapped in while learning what a hero means to others from tokoyamis perspective.

Hawks and twice . Hawks managed to build a good relationship with twice as the dumb and overly optimistic MVA member. Twice had potential to be saved but hawks ended up killing him. I have reread this part of the manga and I have my mixed opinions on this however, there are two ways I would change this 1) have hawks kill toga instead and have twice and toga switch places as it makes way more sense or 2) have hawks try to quickly take down twice by knocking him out and trying to transport him somewhere get before he can achieve that Dabi comes in and intervenes finally making hawks too slow to do anything and having him end up killing twice. Option 2 is what happend in the manga with hawks being too slow (ironic considering that hawks is praised on speed) to truly save twice and ends up taking his life so twice doesn't escape and doom them all. The problem is that hawks starts on the offensive (something I like), hawks thinks that killing twice is the only way to avoid everything or at least massively injuring him would stop it. Sadly, hawks could of easily convinced twice to back down considering how easily swayed twice is and that he only did the things he did because he thought there was no way out or wanted to help his friends. Before their fight begins however, hawks talks about not being swayed by nice words and connections he built with twice which makes me think that he didn't want to kill him but due to his mindset and pov he ended up killing him because HE THOUGHT IT WAS THE ONLY OPTION HE HAD (It wasn't)

His involvement in the MVA. Hawks first starts as a double spy for the HPSC. Through the MVA arc we see him do questionable things in the name of other people safety however, we see his actions backfire badly. Hawks tries to quickly and swiftly gain the leagues trust yet he isn't fast enough, he tries to quickly inform the heroes and the HPSC of how dangerous and out of hand this situation yet he fails and many things are caused by him (the fastest hero alive) not being quick enough to do anything. He 'kills' beat jeanist in the name of gaining the trust of the MVA yet that does nothing to get him up the system and just makes it that best jeanists help is out of the table for the majority of the arc. Hawks joining the MVA was useful for the league as they were going to parade him around so people can join him yet I still wonder how the mainstream media didnt catch a whiff of what hawks was up to or how he simply abandoned hero society (even though he was a double spy). Hawks also talks to the league why he joined the MVA and uses his own story (somewhat of the truth of his life) how he feels like a bird trapped in a cage one that can't fly freely this can be interpreted in many ways. 1) he doesn't have the right to freely use his quirk to any extent he wants which is something that MVA stands for or 2) he feels trapped by his own life choices, him becoming a hero especially the number 2 and has a lot of eyes on him watching him like a circus animal with every move he makes so he puts on an act and never drops the mask.

Hawks and toga himiko . Toga himiko should of either been killed by hawks in place of twice which would of made him get more backlash by the public and make tokoyami question him even more considering that hawks somewhat mercilessly killed a 16 year old (the same age as tokoyami) in cold blood for justice so he could also do it to him. Or we should of gotten a hawks Vs toga battle in the final arc instead of a afo Vs hawks one. It would of made way more sense. Considering that hawks killed twice who is very dear to toga she should of had her eyes set on hawks death the minute she chose to join the lov and the final war. We should of gotten an intense and emotional battle between them were hawks has to come to terms that he didn't need to kill twice but he thought that it was the only option he had and he watches as toga uses twices quirk knowing that twices death was meaningless as toga is using his quirk in the way he feared it would be used. Hawks would be almost killed until ochako intervenes and has her battle with toga while hawks goes and fights alongside tokoyami.

Hawk's views on lady nagant. Lady nagant should of been hawk's mentor and he should of been her replacement. In canon hawks is only her replacement and I think it would of added more nuance and overall better writing if she was his mentor. I absolutely loved the parallels that those two shared and how they came out on different side of things however, I do think that we should of seen more of hawks getting the backhand treatment from the public considering that him killing twice was on live television. Honestly it surprised me that hawks killing twice isn't what the public was most upset with him about but they were upset with him having an abusive and villain father which honestly says a lot. I also think that they should of had more screentime to talk, hawks helped save lady nagant and she ended up asking him how he still has hope while he says that he is "optimistic". Iam not a huge fan of this moment and I think it could of been written better. Hawks and lady nagant are two sides of the same coin but dam did I hate hawks holding her burnt body and telling her that he was her replacement, it could of been handled better with hawks and her actually having somewhat of a fight and then some of the conversation happening after the explosion.

Hawks and the todoroki family . Oh boy I can feel that this is gonna be a long one. I found it interesting that hawks actually looked up and admired endeavour and I loved the parallels it gave both hawks and Dabi. However, I hated that hawks wasn't allowed to think or have any intropsection after hearing about what enji did or that he didn't go through a bit of a crisis over it. The fact that hawk's character has simply been reduced to enji Todorokis biggest supporter is my biggest problem with hawks. Dabi and hawks were very interesting to me (no I don't ship them) they're simply two sides of the same coin especially in the ways they act. Dabi is consistent on revenge whereas hawks is the opposite, Dabi hates enji whereas hawks admires enji and so on and so on. I do think that it would of been way more interesting if touya and kegio had actual history behind everything going on so I have always liked the HC that they met in the HPSC training scheme and became friends. It's plausible and makes Dabi saying hawk's real name way more meaningful than Dabi finding it out by threatening hawk's mother. I also think that both of them sharing a form of history yet not trusting eachother is hella interesting. Dabi was probably one of the only characters (aside from Izuku and tokoyami) that could see through some of hawks actions. Dabi knew what hawks will do yet never tried to intervene until it benefited him of course in true icon fashion that is. I also find hawk's relationship with the youngest todoroki interesting but I think it was done horribly. I would of liked to see more scenes with hawks and shoto talking about enji and touya or just scene of them that draw the similarities they have.

I would also have hawks be semi involved in the whole mutant racism plot because we need that to be fleshed out. Does hawks help donate to charities that help mutants? Is he against such people? Or doe hawks himself face such discrimination? To be honest I doubt it considering that his mutation is on the "prettier side" of the mutations and wouldn't face discrimination like shoji did

Hawks also had potential to interact with other characters like todoroki which would of highlighted his thoughts and development on the families matter. There is also Izuku midoriya who in a way is in somewhat of a similar circumstance to hawks and they could of had that whole is there another way to save villains like twice and shigaraki without killing them or is death the only way or just general conversation between the two considering that tokoyami was stated to praise izuku so much that hawks considered taking him as an intern. In one of the side comics you also had Izuku be somewhat suspicious of hawks and his abilities and it's also somewhat hinted in the main manga so it's interesting to have them have a conversation about that.

I personally think that hawks should of received concequences for his actions and one of them being hindered quirk use aka his wings don't grow back properly or everytime he uses them he can't use them to their fullest potential due to how injured he was by Dabis fire. Also, I hate how hawks being used by the commission is almost brought as a second thought, like when the HPSC fell we really didn't get much of hawk's personal reaction or thoughts or anything on the matter it seems like a quite empty point even though it had its potential to Futher develop hawks

In conclusion, hawks character introduction was pretty solid and I really liked some of the aspects that the series gave him like making him a walking contradiction to a certain extent but I do think that horikoshi development of hawks character was horrible and the fact that hawks lacks agency to do many things or reflect on things irritates me very much.

[transparentbeardmentality]

MHA ended by stripping Deku of agency over his life, future and feelings.

Bakugo, AM and friends COULD have talked to Deku about the tech research happening overseas, and just not disclosed who was funding it (if that was their concern). That at least would fall into "white lie" territory since Deku would still be fully involved, and money is often a private matter anyway.

(A tech entrepreneur using Deku as the perfect protoype for support gear for the quirkless, and Deku's gonna be mad about it? No.)

Instead we see that Deku had been otherized by his core group, talked about behind his back and deprived of a special interest (quirk and tech analysis! Come on!), because they ALL decided they knew what was best for him -including assuming he could not manage his feelings of disappointment if the tech didn't let him be a hero again. (Yikes.)

This obviously means he was not on equal footing with them, and not privy to information and discussion about HIS OWN LIFE AND BODY.

For years.

(And it would have been forever had he remained quirkless/"disabled")

This was treated as a grand gesture by the story, because it showed his friends and Bakugo were financially dedicated for a long time to having him regain his dream (*their dream*- so cute!)... while deciding for him that he was too fragile and self depricating to include and be honest with.

The disrespect.

And Deku being all quivery and weak about finding out?

AM saying Deku should know he 'earned/deserves this' sounds like an awful double entendre.

If he had any self-esteem left after his friends and mentor presumptively thought of him as a walking tragedy who must solely be protected from his own feelings and information about himself, I expect he would have tried on the gear, and then lost his shit that they cut him out of all of it.

And who is he supposed to trust now that everyone has been protecting him by cutting him out and engineering his potential future without him?

It's so insulting.

***?

Heads up, romantic-ableism stans-

Let's say you had a mobility issue. Think about your core group discussing your disability, future, and emotional fragility entirely behind your back for the better part of a decade.

Would this make you feel good or bad? (You would also likely sense your disclusion)

Would it inspire feelings of reciprocal respect and trust?

Would them spending money on a charity/med tech research for your disability, give them more of a right/justification to disclude you from group discussions **specifically about your life and abilities**?

Would the distrust and hurt disappear if they got a positive result from it, or would you feel like the result is at least somewhat tainted by feelings of rejection, and wondering if you could ever really be equal in their eyes after this?

Yeah... Not cool, right?

You deserve to be the first to know about any topic, advancement or setback pertaining to YOUR life and YOUR future, like ANY OTHER PERSON!

Abled or not. Difficult or not.

A disability does not automatically make you lesser, or a child in need of emotional coddling (read: lies and disclusion -however well-intentioned it may be by clueless ableds).

The otherizing was awful and unnecesary. Please examine your biases if you loved this ending for him.

[sugoi-and-spice]

Hi! I’ve been planning on sending you an ask ever since I binge read the Play Nice!

Like I don’t think I can ever describe well enough how much I love and enjoy it! I can see how much effort you put into every chapter and conversation as it flows so perfectly! And the rollercoaster of feels was just mwah! Exactly what I’ve been looking for! Like my heart really jumped up my throat and my mouth fell open when Shiggy asked her about her boyfriend’s dick?! Omg!😄 Ahh and how bad I felt for her when they had sex for the first time. After their feelings became more clear, I waited the whole time for her to break up with Mirio. You portrayed Shiggy’s character so well and I especially liked when he was pretending to be nice to her friends!😄 Of course we hate AFO in this too for being a dick obviously, but Kurogiri🫶🏽 Ahh he was so lovely! And I liked the little details you added, like her forgetting what Kurogiri looked like as if he was just a dark mist, you know! I also love how you pointed out the fact that red is a color that suits perfectly for Tomura🥹 I also find myself reading the parts where Spinner makes Shiggy realize how horrible he was to her at first and how he apologized her about the pain he had caused. The realization and his apology is actually something I’m interested in to hear how you planned it and if it was difficult?

I think there are much much much more I like to say, but so that this won’t end up too long, I’ll also send you a ⭐, so pls tell us about what you yourself have been dying to comment🤗

OOhhhh my gosh thank you so much for all of these kind words!!! I'm so glad that you love the fic and especially that you noticed all the fun little callbacks and details to the OG series that I threw in. For the Kurogiri one, I was really proud of that ref, but also, it was a way for me to get away without describing what he looked like without a quirk! Lmao!

And oooh yay, thank you so much for the Director's commentary request!! I think I'd like to use this time to talk about MC's hometown: Sukari!

A Google search will quickly inform readers that this is not a real place lmao. I was thinking of going with a real town in Tottori or Shimane prefecture - very heavily considered Iwami as a little throwback to my days in the Free! Iwatobi Swim Club fandom lol (Iwatobi is based off of Iwami), but ultimately I decided that I wanted to have a little more freedom with the location, since I'd already locked myself into this dumb location research whirlpool by having the main story take place in Tokyo. (And I'm stupidly detailed with things like that).

And especially since in the potential sequel I'm brewing up, MC and Shigaraki are going to spend a pretty meaningful amount of time there. 😉

So I decided to make a new location! Fans of Shig/Reader fics are obviously familiar with the fic Griefing and I LOVED what Rotpeach did in that fic with their original locations, continuing with the Star Wars naming conventions. (Reader's neighborhood of Sabuterra being a play on Subterrel) Horikoshi utilizes in the original series. So I adopted that into mine too.

Sukari is a simplification of Sukarifu - which is how you pronounce Scarif in Japanese!

Scarif felt like the best one-to-one for the type of beach town that MC grew up in. The only other beach we see in Star Wars I believe is Kashyyk, which obvi, already has it's own namesake in the main MHA series, Kiyashi Ward. And I guess there's Wasskah, but I thought the vibe of Scarif was a lot prettier and more fitting.

(Only beaches we see in the movies and The Clone Wars at least. Lol sorry, I don't keep up with the books or comics.)

Plus, Rogue One is probably one of, if not my favorite Star Wars Movie so it all tied together nicely.

Thanks again for the Director's commentary ask! I'm having a lot of fun with these so if anyone else wants to get some quick behind-the-scenes on any of my fics, go ahead and send in an ask!

Original prompt here!

[honeycreammilkshake]

Yeah I love sukuna but it's obvious Gege would accept a sequel (let's be honest shounen jump is still panicking, they just lost both MHA and jjk) if he can separate Sukuna from Yuji, because, let's be honest, he loves sukuna but he HATES yuji, which makes Sukuita (romantic or not) too fucking sad, because Gege will never compromise with those 2. Sukuna and Yuji being so forgotten after Shibuya was just bad.

Even if there is a sequel it will always triggers me Sukuna won't be with Yuji (but of course gege will make sure Yuta appears asap and as much as possible, despite how he is so boring he makes Gojo boring too, and villains even stop being interesting when they fight him. Sorry gege but I just CANT with your yuta worship and Yuji hate) unless there is a new author alas Boruto, which I hope, since Yuji Sukuna was too good and let's be honest, Yuji only doing the same gag with the trio would be boring

But yeah Yuji didn't eat Sukuna BECAUSE Gege hates yuji and can't stand Sukuna being with him, which, sadly, this also affects Sukuna character

i wish i could comfort you somehow anon but all i can do is agree sadly.

it's true that gege seems to hate and even regret making yuuji the mc, as they've done their best to take as much of the focus as they could off of him. and i believe shonon jump is also part of the problem because they care more about the popularity of the story rather than its actual quality. i'm just glad gege had enough will to not sell out to those who demanded he revive gojo or even that yuuji be replaced by yuuta completely.

there was a lot of wasted potential with the sukuita dynamic. however, i'm still glad that this chapter ended positively for both of them even if they aren't together. sad that it should be the case but it's more than i feared we would get, so i'm just grateful sukuna was allowed to be a character again (once more, all thanks to yuuji).

sukuna and yuuji really were iconic and amazing together. i'll miss them a lot, i'll probably still be bitter about how much potential was lost because of gege's bias for years to come, but i'm still glad that they had so many great interactions and moments with each other.