#Momo has been nerfed

[sapphic-agent]

You wanna know who the #1 beneficiary of the tech power creep is in this series? Momo. One thing this mech suit shows is that Momo totally wasted her time trying to beat people with sticks. The idea of trying to create items in a battle as a form of problem solving is stupid, or at best, should be done as a last resort. Her power was always meant for technology. That's the true power in this world. She should have been trying to be Ironman. You know how All Might spent his fortune on the suit, and that was meant to be a limiting factor as to why this tech can't be widely used? Well, guess who has the ability to generate materials with no cost. Even the idea of her inventions requiring studying to make things more complex stops holding water when you look at the torture device she tried to strap Midoriya into during Class A vs Deku. She made that in an instant and it posed an immediate threat. What could she make if she wasn't trying to do it during stressful battles with enemies right in front of her? So, her limiting factor really is her ability to study advanced concepts and have people explain them to her, and most importantly, what an author is willing to let her do. The path forward for her was always to pay people smarter and more educated than her to invent things and then she can have them explain it to her so she can recreate it. If her family had paid the cost to design that Iron Might suit, then she'd pay it. Once. And then be able to use the schematics to create as many of them as she wants. Or better yet, make killer robots except use the tech inside of the suit. Create an entire army of them so she never has to be in any sort of danger at all. Control them remotely. UA has been shown to have advanced AI robots who have personalities. Said bots have enough restraint to never kill any of the kids in the sports festival or entrance exam. This could be used for hero work. This also gets into what a valuable resource Mei Hatsume is and how if you wanted Momo to be a god, you could just have them meet in middle school. Mei just has to design a working device, once, and then Momo can study it and forever use it. What could she come up with, if the idea was that Momo would hide somewhere, perhaps in an APC, while she uses drones and robots to fight at a distance? Energy/food costs for her also aren't a concern. She's clearly able to output more energy than she takes in, given she can create cannons and things that weigh more than her. So she could use up all of her lipids creating a dead meat cube that contains as many calories as she's capable of packing into an object, then eat it. And repeat this process as needed.

This is definitely interesting.

Momo absolutely has the potential to be the most OP in the series. Horikoshi originally wanted to give her quirk to a pro but recognized that someone experienced would nerf the entire story.

I don't necessarily think that making things for problem-solving is the issue; I think it's way more that Horikoshi just didn't have the creativity for it. Like you said the entrapment device she made during 1A vs Izuku was maybe her most effective creation. Instead of disinfectant, imagine she made poison gas and simply knocked Kendo and the other 1B students out (not sure if she can create chemical reactions, but she could theoretically cause one by using components right).

I doubt she would be comfortable doing next to nothing as a hero. I do wish we knew her motivations, but relying purely on her money while doing minimal work doesn't paint a great picture for her. I like that in canon she doesn't rely on her status or wealth for hero work, she relies on her intelligence.

Momo should be an underground hero. She could be the equivalent of Batman (no this isn't my love for Batman over Iron-Man talking), strategizing and having any gadget she needs at her disposal. I would love to see more tech incorporated into her work as a hero. I also wouldn't mind the bo staff if she was allowed to actually use it like a bo staff (seriously she barely does anything with it what's the point of giving it to her. Nah give my girl a sword and let her cut people)

[majycka]

hi quick random question, do you think Kyoto students and utahime especially her dynamic with Gojo could have been utilised a bit better in shibuya because they have potential if they were fleshed out.

what are your thoughts i just feel there could have been potential.

There certainly was a potential anon!

Reading this linkspooky anon ask, she said that the mechamuru traitor plot line could've been fleshed out more to point out the flaws of the school system(which gege isn't really interested in exploring) thus also allowing us to explore the differences between teacher Gojo and Utahime plus their kids. I agree with what the anon and she had to say so imma try to explain it further.

I know canon told us that Utahime was able to figure out the mole via process of elimination but if we were to really to draw out the traitor plot line, I can imagine Utahime, the investigator, digging deeper into the motive on why possible Mechamaru even considered doing it. She's an attentive teacher afterall so I wouldn't doubt she probably cares about why her kid ends up like that. In this way, we get to see the differences between how Gojo and Utahime treat their kids as well as how the school system using these kids as child soldiers affects them. Through this way, we get to see Gojo and Utahime interact more. I’d dare say that Utahime will probably call out the way how absent and “sink-or-swim” Gojo’s ways of teaching are. I mean, it does work for his students, but sometimes he ignores a crucial and obvious part that they are STILL kids.

That’s the whole point of Nanami’s care for Yuuji who’s originally under Gojo’s wing, and how Yuuji expressed that it’s Nanami underestimating his skills when in fact, Yuuji is STILL a child, and Nanami, as the adult, has to protect him.

Gojo is not too aware of this fact that they ARE still child soldiers because he is raised in the same system afterall. However, with Utahime’s caring, and doesn’t-take-any-bullshit-from-Gojo personality, there’s no doubt she’ll call the fuck out of him. 

Moving on to the actual students themselves, I actually like how Gege kept the Kyoto kids lowkey in this arc and when they showed up, they were a team (even Todo included with his help with Yuuji). I'd like it more if we were shown how the Kyoto kids navigated the culling game arc because the game could have forced Kyoto plus Tokyo to cooperate with each other. Maybe even under Utahime's wing because most of the adults got nerfed in Shibuya. Also, Kyoto kids offer the weaker pov things in the series, and I'm all out for underdog characters. There’s just lots of inner conflict going on when you’re in a world who favors the strong while the weak gets hammered down. 

Moreover, another thematic potential I can think for the kyoto-tokyo dynamic is sharing comradery on entering adulthood. This is somehow shown with Kamo & Maki vs Naoya fight, and imo, this fight is a good CANON example that "at the very verryyy least"  fulfilled the potential of the Kyoto-Tokyo dynamic.

More yapping under the cut cuz this is actually one of my fav fights in CG arc >.<

The goodwill event shows the battling philosophies of the schools, however it also shows how complementary they are..Kyoto wants to be understood in a lashing out way but Tokyo merely responded with callousness to it and has the "who cares what others think" mindset.

Nobara and Momo fight on misogyny

Mechamaru expressing his disability with panda

Megumi vs Kamo "We are the same"

Maki and Mai "why didn't you left the Zenin clan"

I mean Tokyo ain't wrong about their individualistic mindset but at the same time, it just sounded unsympathetic especially when all those kids are all in the SAME boat being child soldiers under the jjk ruthless system. Kyoto kids unhealthily lashes out but they aren't wrong about it either cuz it's a reality that they suffer a lot from this system. These openness of Kyoto Tech however did make them closer like mutamiwa and kyoto girls (mai, miwa, momo).

Overall, Tokyo needed the Kyoto comrade nature while at the same time Kyoto needed the independence of Tokyo kids and in that kamo-maki vs Naoya fight, it showed us how these philosophies made a great working teamwork for them...

Recap to that fight, Naoya shows up as a cursed spirit and boom maki has to deal with it now luckily Kamo is there to help. With the help of Kamo's teamwork, Maki was bought some time to recover (deal with those samurai and sumo duo) and boom defeat him. 

Kamo sympathised with Maki’s situation after the fight. Even back in the fight with Megumi, Kamo seems to be one trying to seek understanding from kids under the big clans because he kinda understands the pressure they are under. Despite barely interacting on screen, it's no wonder 100% Kamo backed up Maki. Moreover, what makes this fight pair up fulfilling is the parallels they have despite being different ends of the spectrum. They even opened up about their family problems, and this is coming from Maki who tends to keep to herself.

"Don’t fall in the same rut."

Maki opens up and give advice in communicating more to their family because Maki regretted not doing the same for their mom, and we cut to throwback of the Kamo’s mom was that she named him Noritoshi just to spite the Kamo clan.

I've seen criticism about this part. It's pretty shitty the mom named her kid practically Hitler,  abandoned the same kid, and expects the kid himself to come back, and I agree with the criticism. However, looking at it from a different angle, it's shown at the same time that jjk is a coming of age series, kids growing into adulthood aka shouldering the shit that adults have failed to do...

Adults can be shit at doing their job to their kids like what Kamo's mom did to Noritoshi. Like c'mon mom! you could have done your job as an adult and be the one to approach your kid or pull him out of the clan situation but no. Sometimes the Reality is fully accepting that parents are shitty sometimes and the kid of the situation has to push themselves to be mature and take over the adult's work, and as for Kamo, that is having to be the one to find his mother to find closure and from then on, he will be the one to decide what will be next.

[class1akids]

In what ways do you think bakugo's final endgame could've been done better? I really like your theory of bakugo being a team leader using what he learned in the remedial class.

Disclaimer: this is my personal view and I’m not interested in having arguments about it and please don’t attack me if you liked his endgame. You are valid.

I also realize that some issues could still be addressed in the epilogue.

But here is a list of stuff I didn’t care for / would have liked to see go down differently.

1. No fake out death

It was unnecessary, didn’t really further the narrative beyond escalating Shigaraki (which given he wasn’t saved didn’t get a good pay-off).

2. Better team narrative (this is my main gripe)

One of the biggest issues I had with it was the extremely flimsy team-narrative that story-wise treated the entire UA Float team as dispensable extras as there to ensure Bakugou's survival only to be forgotten immediately.

Bakugou's and Izuku's original friendship was set-up around this idea that Bakugou even before he had a quirk was a charismatic leader type who inspired confidence in the neighborhood kids and Izuku admired his spirit and confidence and that's why he followed him.

In the final war, Bakugou was surrounded with a team he barely had any connection or history with (except Best Jeanist).

Edgeshot’s sacrifice (which got walked back anyways) didn’t feel like an emotional pay-off but as plot convenience and was barely acknowledged. The No3-5 heroes and the UA big 3 got obliterated to save Bakugou, and then immediately have been treated as extras who do not matter at all.

When everyone did the big last push together, who were the only people who didn't show up? That's right. Bakugou's "team" - even though Mirio wasn't even injured, only so that Bakugou could get another totally unnecessary and frankly BS "feat" of "we have no idea how he travelled several km-s because it doesn't make any sense". And when he woke up in the hospital, he only worried about Deku and All Might, but not the people who saved him. In fact, even at the Big 3 graduation, the story doesn't bother to recall that these guys almost died for Bakugou.

Rather than self-exploding sweat, I vastly would have preferred his heart being started with Kaminari and Momo making a defibrillator for him. They were right there and have history together. I think whoever kept the Twice clones away from his body would have deserved a panel, etc.

This is in great contrast to Deku who has all the people he helped and inspired come to his aid. Even Shoto gets a pay-off for saving and inspiring Iida in the Stain arc. But Bakugou? Nothing. The supposed Twin star of Class A gets no circle of influence.

His win against AFO was also the same flimsy team narrative, where he's basically getting the kill-shot on the back of the effort of people he didn't inspire or hype or help in any way. He also benefitted from a random resemblance to Kudou. The vestiges happened to abandon AFO just at the right time. Just the perfect circumstances.

I personally would have loved to see Bakugou work together with others, figure out combos, give them courage, and get pay-off of his built up relationships with other characters, not just Deku and All Might, rather than treating everyone who came in contact with him as disposable extras only to further his glory and win.

3. The character whose ego led to his downfall sure got an ego trip to lift him up

Bakugou is one of my favourite characters, but I felt like his endgame didn't really focus on all the aspects I loved about him. And I feel a strong dissonance between his supposed enlightened state of mind and the narrative framing. Like accepting that he's not the strongest, only for the narrative to give him another immediate power-up, while giving Izuku a nerf for me takes away from the power of the “win over his ego” when he doesn't have to live even 10 minutes with the power gap.

4. Child born out of love triumphs over child born to an abandoned prostitute

I found some of the AFO vs Bakugou foiling pretty distasteful personally. Like it felt like Hori was moralising there a bit telling us that children born and raised with love win in life while kids born to a prostitute and who are abandoned to be eaten by rats have worse life outlooks. Which is true - but unlike in the case of Ochako vs Toga, it was not framed with the same empathy.

****

I'm curious where the epilogue is going, but I'd love to have back the Bakugou we saw in the Dark Hero arc, who was working with others, was engaging with them as equals and not being constantly lifted above the entire narrative getting special treatment.

And a lot of that rubs me the wrong way. Unless it goes towards a deconstruction. Because with the MC treatment Bakugou got, it almost feels like Hori is building him up as the next Symbol - and maybe it will be up to Bakugou to reject being propped up as an invincible figure and advocate for a different way forward where flashy quirks don’t get idolized, where he acknowledges the help he got and where he can point at a quirkless kid and say that “he is my hero”.

[justatalkingface]

WTF happened?!?

Alright, so for context? I took a break at... *checks bookmark* 395. And looking at that chapter really quick, I'm reminded why I stopped reading for all this time!.That's ten chapters behind, for the record, and from what I can tell from my occasional glances at the critical tag? Those ten chapters were... something.

Welp. I read them. And then experienced instant regret.

Let's start with the first big thing: Armor Might. Somehow, looking at Armored Might, my first thought isn't WTF, because I've seen the spoilers, but the way that mask frames his smile reminds me of Redestro? Like, what the hell, he actually looks villainous like this. Still, though, the way powers are supposed to be the students isn't just cringe beyond belief it's... actually really dumb?

Like, step back from the ham handed metaphor for a minute, and look at this as a set of powers that someone decided to put in one suit. Ignoring how they stuffed so much shit into a suit, which even for MHA tech breaks my SOD, much less how this is surviving hits that causally blast through buildings, but it's just... inefficient? Let's ignore such choices as 'talking to animals' and 'powered by sugar', which are clearly relics of a different manga and don't make sense to use at all, but just these powers as a package. Does it make sense to put something like, 'make acid' with super strength'? Or 'sound waves'? Etc, etc? Wouldn't you want things that synergize together, so the suit is... I don't know, sturdier, or more effective, rather than having to build in a bunch of random devices just to do a reference? That explains why half of them aren't even same powers, it's just pointlessly pasting the names on things built to counter literally this situation, a reverting AFO, even though they had no possible way to know it would happen. Like a Uravity 'thruster'. Which has fuck all to do with canceling gravity.

Seriously. Cellophane and Blackwhip are literally the same damn thing, as in, literally they're the same tentacles. He's 'using' 'different powers' to retract them. And the sugar power is a... rocket kick? I. Can we just admit this doesn't actually have the entire class in it and move on?

Also, the fact that AFO is apparently super predictable and apparently has never adjusted his tactics once since beating Nana? Bitch please. He's been leading you by the nose since day one, and the only reason you ever beat him is because you out-powered him because you're bullshit and he's nerfed.

As a side note, AFO isn't controlling his reversion. He's not 'choosing' to rewind faster to heal himself, it's just happening, and Eri's Quirk just doesn't give a shit about anything, the acid would just be gone. Eri's Quirk has literally never given a shit about anything, ever, including but not limited to it's target, the person using, or the laws of nature because it's not a healing Quirk, its reversing fucking time.

Honestly, reading this, I'm not even angry about how bad the writing is anymore, I'm just cringing. Both All Might and All For One sound like complete morons, the fight is stupid, it's just.... this is just pathetic and it hurts to read.

I. Is AFO the shining baby. I pretty sure a bunch of people made jokes about the baby coming up but. Is AFO the shining baby?

Why is Stain even here? Why is the suit talking?! Like, they didn't even do anything, it didn't even buy any time, it just dragged out the chapter so we could another cliffhanger!

...Finally. Finally, Momo gets a fucking gun. I guess at this point Hori thought it couldn't harm anything to let her actually be competent, and it looks like a copy of Bakugou's new gear because of course it is, but I don't care just let me have this.

What the fuck is even the point of AFO's mouth ripping open? Like, what is the in-setting reason his cheeks tore apart?

Bakugou: fucking dies.

Bakugou: gets his heart patched together with jeans and a prayer soap bubble.

Bakugou: is instantly jumping into high intensity combat.

Yeah, that makes sense.

Are we really bring back the 'wishing energy' bullshit? Are we bringing back wishing energy and Bakugou is using it?

And now we have Nighteye. Nighteye.

...

You know what? I'm angry again.

Holy fuck. I read the posts, but I didn't believe they were real. Bakugou restarted his own heart. Like. What even is his Quirk, at this point. Like, what is it actually supposed to be, Favoritism Sweat?

All Might, solemnly: Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight.

Me, vomiting:

God, I pity whoever eventually has to voice act that and say that line at all seriously.

And, to the surprise of absolutely no one except the people who actually thought Bakugou died and were angry about it, Bakugou gets his heart impaled and came out the other end with a power up.

Let me sum up my thoughts on that with one simple sentence: The Lion, The Witch, and The Plot Armor of This Bitch.

Here's my impression ten chapters later, after a month or two without reading: I... I did not miss this story.

[ravenkinnie]

For the character ranking thing, jinx, caitlyn, ellie, raven, cassandra cain

5 ellie - I loved the show I like the games but when I know a character first through my grilfriend I consider them a blorb9 in law, like claire redfield and alice liddell are also my blorbos in law. my girlfriend could take them in the divorce and for the rest of my life I would resent seeing any mention of these games because I'm a scorpio so that lowers ellies ranking

4 raven - I love raven, her and batman are my ogs, they both changed something permanently in my elementary school brain and it never recovered. however, i hate modern raven so much, like fellow mutual momo strongest raven fan warrior is able to keep up but I dont have her powerful autism so i only feel hate and i wish dc the worst for that. god i fucking hate bbrae too i would stage a coup at the hq just to fix raven. I wish somebody brought back the new teen titans design, keep the saris and keep everything, just make her desi, people will complain and get over it like they got over miles and we got spiderverse out of that so. take her out of the titans cause im sorry, I'm a titans fan but this is a sinking ship, every book is a heavier flop than the previous one, im going to save my girl. have her cameo in other shit and be like omg im on my own whatever and test her dynamic with other characters, find her a new place in dc universe and then i think you could have a banger team book on your hands because she does the best in teams. I do selfishly wish that place was more near magic users books because i think that would be so much more slay for her to show her powers than having her faint all the time because she could easily defeat a divorcee in spandex and we have 20 pages to fill

3 caitlyn - caitlyn is my OG main which you might not realise because in so jinxpilled these days but I played her through high school (never left bronze <3 still haven't left bronze <3). so you can only imagine my joy when they made her a 6'1 dyke with a tooth gap AND they kept her big boobs, I've been winning ever since. I think I'm one of like five caitlyn stans maybe tho, every caitvi shipper seems to either like vi more or want to fuck vi more and outside caitvi circles no one really likes caitlyn. which is fair because she's rich and a cop so i can't defend her but I like that she's always struggling because of her own stupidity and is constantly challenged. when someone says she's wrong and she does that frowny face, she's so sexy to me, I love a stubborn bitch. she's also autistic to me, I'm just saying it because no one ever has caitlyn headcanons. I also LOVE league caitlyn, i think league caitlyn is 80% of the reason why domme mommy caitlyn is so popular because she IS a domme mommy. fantastic legend of runeterra card too

2 jinx - i know its a travesty she's not #1 but the tea is, i just didnt like her in like 2014 dhshsj i don't like jokeresque characters usually, i think it's a noring iverused tropes that only pretends to be interesting with fake depth and quirky randomness, I'm sorry. but you CAN make it good and i think arcane gave her such a strong comeback for me, I'm fond of league jinx too now, like I've grown to appreciate her even if I dont find her OG release that good. jinx gets the best promo materials tho, maybe outside of KDA girlies. GREAT legends of runeterra card, i maxed out her skill in the path of champions and I've played with many other decks in this game so believe me when I say, level 3 jinx is so OP its baffling. play her path of champions before they nerf her cause they just nerfed her in league a lil shshjsis. I have to stop typing because i took an edible and i could talk about jinx all day like the way they balance her storyline perfectly, the fact that every storyline goes back to jinx, her energy like im biased but sorry she is a scene stealer. her potential, the way every single dynamic she has with every character could be so good BECAUSE she has those plot connections, also i think her voice lines and arcane dialogue are really good, she has a very distinct style of speaking. both voice acting in the game and the show are great (pls look up her death voicelines they are so funny) but ella purnell??? I had no clue who she was before arcane and now i watch everything she's in. get jinxed was made by djerv which is a GREAT band too

1 cassandra cain - she is forever my dc rising star like i see who you are, i see your potential and i will blow up dc headquarters for you. I'm keeping her at #1 cause she deserves it but I'm so sorry when I recommend you the solo and the art looks like that, in my head it doesn't, love is blind. PLEASE look up the batgirl vs joker issue drawn by bill sienkiewicz tho, she is so beautiful in it kiss kiss. she is literally just if batman served extreme levels of cunt in every move. her backstory is batshit, she is my favorite portrayal of suicidality because it proves you can write those themes without being corny as fuck, just like jinx she has great fascinating dynamics with every other character. unlike jinx, it's because she stands out, she's barely connected to other characters which I think makes her kind of cooler like she's this super weird shadowy being you're kind of friends or coworkers with. pure cuntress

and the thing that hurts the most is that if that solo launched with modern art now I think it would find a good market because hear me out. every comic book is cursed now because no one knows how to write dialogue or understand cinematography or design but they sure know how to write monologues so you lose eyesight trying to read a lot of words about nothing on tiny panels. which cass' solo does not do becauee the dialogue is quite minimal even later on, it relies on visually striking and easy to read panels which are fantastically shareable on social media to entice people to read the book. plus I just watched mad max furiosa in the cinema and I was thinking we really have a trend of feral young women with an older mentor figure that sucks as a person and cass. CASS HAS THREE. and a cunty as fuck mother. I know this shit would sell and if it found a good market maybe it wouldn't end so fucking badly

give me five ships, characters, or shows and I will rank them from my favorite to my least favorite.

[bibibbon]

JJK and pacing

Currently this has genuinely become one of geges biggest problems when it comes to his writing.

The pacing of Jujutsu kaisen has been (to me) all over the place.

At first it wasn't really something that bothered me neither was it that noticeable however, there were some issues with it. For example, I would of liked to see more of the Tokyo trio. I get that not seeing them a lot is the point and it's supposed to further emphasise the tragedy that happens to them but it's kind of hard to believe that they really care for eachother when Iam just being told they do instead of actually seeing it. To sort this problem out gege could of included some of the light novel moments into the manga like nobara dragging megumi around and calling him "city boy" or megumi cleaning yujis room after he died in chapter 8.

The pacing is all good until AFTER the shibuya incident arc where things start to go a bit haywire in my opinion.

Personally I believe that the culling games had its ups and downs and sometimes while reading it I would feel like some events would be dragged out a whole lot more than others while some don't get as much screentime as they deserved. (Now I do believe that Iam somewhat bias because I was reading the manga as chapters were coming out) but moments like charles vs hakari felt like gag type chapters that weren't my favourite (although I doubt I can judge considering that akutami wrote it because he felt like mangakas get judged too much but iam not a huge fan of Charles).

Now one of my main problems during this arc and the current one is that gege seems to forget about characters or plot aspects that he introduced to the point where I don't think he will bring them back until the last second. Throughout the whole culling s games arc no one and I mean NO ONE used a black flash.

Also characters like momo, Todo, nobara, kirarka and others haven't received much screentime during that arc which was really disappointing. I seriously thought that gege had forgotten about Todo so I was definitely surprised when he recently made a come back when it came to the plot however any type of excitement faded away due to him not being in the plot for so long. The culling games and the current arc could of been a great way to expand and build up on existing characters like utahime, momo, shoko and panda instead of sidelining characters or forgetting about them like inumaki and nobara.

There's also the fact that we were introduced to angle who seemed to know sukuna really well and even labeled him as 'the fallen'. Gege akutami does nothing more to expand this character and her knowledge and only nerfs Hana (who actually had a slow and interesting build up before meeting her) and basically make us forget about angle.

The plot during the current arc to some has gotten somewhat repetitive but I would like to say otherwise considering that it was obviously going to be a fight but Iam worried that we aren't seeing much of megumi and their plan of trying to save megumi. The pacing at the moment seems to be wacky and seems to slow down at times to make sure that every character is included while excluding characters and plot aspects like the merger that is within sukunas possession or the fact that kenjaku just got killed and written out of the plot in the worst way possible??!?!?

Personally, I believe that the pacing of the culling games arc should of been sped up a tiny bit while it actually fleshed out and built up character moments and arcs. While the pacing of this arc should be slowed down a tiny bit to flesh out certain moments and plot events, while building up future plot twists.

In conclusion, the inconsistency of JJK'S pacing is what causes the lack of build up and foreshadowing to word building, plot twists and overall plot itself.

[citadelofmythoughts]

Speaking of MHA fic. I’ve got one in the works where 1A have an inter school competition with their new sister school from another country. I’ve got most of the characters and events down, but do you think it would be more interesting to have 1A face off against an all girl (there will be a trans girl) class, or a more diverse one?

It wouldn’t be an all girl class because it’s an all girl school, but rather only girls were left after the admission tests. My main reason for this is that I’ve always been peeved that the girls in 1A don’t get much hype despite being really competent and interesting characters ( the Momo nerf especially pisses me off) and I think it would be fun to see 1A, specifically their own “Big 3” struggle against a class of arguably more powerful and competent girls.

Also, think you’ll ever upload your fic? I’d love to read it!

All girls? You're speaking my language. A large part of my fic has been trying to put the 1-A girls in the spotlight (and bolstering their numbers with my OC replacing (ugh) Mineta and Todoroki coming out as trans)

I love your idea a LOT!

As far as my MHA fic goes....maybe? It's been kind of a way of working through some of my own stuff and improving my writing and it's kind of self-indulgent but I'm not gonna say I'll *never* post it. I kind of dread the editing job though. Maybe after I eventually finish my version of Season 6.

[violetren]

Ok live action atla reaction for episode 2.

It was better than episode one. Where episode one was a dumpster fire actively trying to hurt me both as an avatar fan and as someone with a basic understanding of how multimodal media is used to craft stories, episode two is fine.

I hesitate to call it great or even good when my only other point of reference so far is one of the worst episodes of TV I have seen in the past decade. Or possibly just ever. But I can comfortably say it was fine.

Perhaps my biggest on going issue is still the dialogue. When they don't sound like they just walked out of a LA therapists office, they instead sound like they are either in a circa 2010 disney original tv show, or just straight up like the writer explaining directly to camera how they are justifying skipping events from the animation because they have made the characters so much more mature and self aware of what they need to do/become for the sake of saving the world.

In short, Sokka remains unfunny.

I can't believe the "I bet you taste like chicken" comment wasn't even in response to Momo doing anything in particular. Momo is just there chilling on Aang's shoulder and Sokka is glaring at him like Momo is his arch rival, talking about a singular non mishmash animal that he has probably never even seen before because where the fuck where the chicken coops in the south fucking pole!?

Katara's strives in bending probably look impressive to anyone who hasn't seen the first episode of the animation where she already outclassed her current progress. Girl was out there (accidentally) splitting icebergs out of anger, but I'm meant to be impressed she can make a water ball in 3 seconds? I hate how badly she has been nerfed.

I also hate how they made it that Gram Gram actively helped nerf her by denying Katara her inheritance until it was clear she was gonna hop on a flying bison and go on adventures with the Avatar. She didn't even give her the scroll directly and apologise to her face. Just shoved it in her bags with a sorry note and now we're deprived of Katara stealing from pirates! Which means Katara is gonna be carrying that "goody toe shoes always morally correct with no room for nuance mom friend" burden for who knows how much longer now.

We did FINALLY get some Iroh adjacent behaviour from Uncle Iroh. Him trying to cajole Zuko into eating some street food and getting distracted mid sentence because he noticed some sticky rice wasn't perfectly executed but it was better executed than any other Iroh moments we have seen so far. Mostly he still hits as gaslighty and condescending. And don't get me wrong. OG Iroh COULD be gaslighty but never so fucking blatantly. There's no finesse, no gentle distractions layered with concern. Where is the charisma? Instead we effectively get him going "you're wrong. you should consider giving up." at every other time he talks to Zuko (less so this episode than last but only because he "tries" to teach Zuko diplomacy. Yes there are quotes around tries for a reason. He basically says Do This, gives no real guidance on how and then steps in to do the thing the second Zuko is sucking because he's never had to do this shit before and doesn't want to do it now especially since he has no idea wtf Iroh means).

Anyways, didn't they say they were overhauling the Ba Sing Se arc to make it less gaslighty? Yet they let this vibe fly with Iroh of all people?

We did at least get Suki though. And she's mostly pretty recognisably Suki. Save for the instant and hardcore pining for Sokka because he immediately became a surrogate for her yearning for the outside world. I can appreciate that they wanted to nix Sokka's sexism and instead just made him insecure about his status as a warrior, and they almost made it work but they cut themselves off from such an interesting interplay of tension by having Suki just as, if not more, eager to show off her skills to Sokka as he was to act like he was a big tough southern water tribe warrior. They were on to something when they had her question how he could be the guardian of his village if he was here with the Avatar instead. They could of had her be dismissive of his claims at being a warrior when he was clearly acting like an undisciplined blow hard and the fanthrowing/chokehold scene could have been a "stop acting tough, I am the warrior you're claiming to be" moment which wouldn't have involved any sexism on either side and have made a basis for mutual respect when Sokka comes along to the training hall. They could have had him humbly ASK instead of awkwardly miming until Suki noticed. We could have still had Sokka in Kyoshi Warrior garb. It would have stuck closer to the original, it wouldn't have taken up more time, and it would have created a much more satisfying interplay of tension between the two characters which also would help ground their future relationship in mutual respect.

I will say though, although the writing fucking choked the cinematography, the lighting team, the actors and the editors all came through with creating a sense of attraction between the two characters. So that wasn't nothing.

Kyoshi was a high point. Still fell victim to the dialogue writing, but a very strong perfomance by Yvonne Chapman accented excellently by the sound design team during some of the more intense parts when they layered in all the other Avatar voices. She was a good choice for giving Aang a bunch of hard truths and I liked how she both told him he had to find his own path but when he kept pushing for a more concrete answer just started telling him to deal with shit her way, because that felt very Kyoshi.

Also the entire sequence of her manifesting through Aang to show him a bit of what he could do as the avatar and lowkey to protect HER island was fucking badass. Not a single fire nation soldier left that island with clean underwear after facing Avatar mother fucking Kyoshi.

Unfortunately I was very quickly brought down from this high by Aang closing out his part of the episode by saying that Kyoshi told him something terrible was going to happen to the Northern Water Tribe if he didn't get up there and do his duty as the avatar to stop it. A conversation beat that happened off screen btw.

This annoys me for several reasons, starting with since when can the Avatar's collective past lives tell the future? The big threat to the Northern Water Tribe was originally Zhao coming to kill the moon spirit, which is a culmination of his lust for dominance and power and his plans to capture the avatar for himself. So either that isn't happening (and they are unnecessarily trying to revamp a perfectly good finale to stroke their own egos) OR they have made the nonsensical decision to foretell this tragedy in the show instead of just letting the tension mount naturally because 80+% of their audience already know shit goes down in at the Northern Water Tribe. Which annoys the fuck out of me. Aang was always going to go North for water bending training anyways, and especially this borderline hyper responsible version of Aang who knows even if it will hurt emotionally he will need to learn the other elements. There was no good god damn reason to add a second layer of urgency by saying if he doesn't get there bad shit will happen!

My closing rant is really more of a question, but why the fuck is it every time we see a firelord, (Sozin and now Ozai) that they are just hanging out in the middle of the fucking chamber chatting with some fucking guys until a prisoner/messenger arrives while the fire throne looms menacingly in the background upstairs and 50 feet back. Where is the menace and pizazz of them sitting looking down on literally everyone and everything from up on high flanked by flames, committing atrocities with a wave of their hand and a few low spoken words that everyone grovels to hear? I believe in Daniel Dae Kim's ability to look scary and lordly on a fancy chair, especially if the fancy chair has FIRE, why doesn't the director?

[dinosaurtsukki]

haikyuu!! characters + weird things that are in their backpacks (university!au)

helloo!! more hc’s for funsies because you can tell a bit about a person from the contents of their backpack

Hinata -  a framed picture of the Little Giant. the picture was actually from Google Images and he printed it out when he was six

Kageyama - an entire volleyball, also if you look inside one of the pockets there’s a cursed amulet that Oikawa bought from an antique shop and slipped in

Tsukishima - fairly normal backpack aside from those dinosaur-shaped, 'Grows in Water' foam capsules that he bought at a dollar store

Yamaguchi - a great number of overdue library books. he just keeps adding them into his bag and wondering why his back hurts every day

Ennoshita - a whole book full of Sudoku puzzles. the scary part is that 3/4 of it has been filled out. in INK

Tanaka - TotalGirl magazines. he likes to use them for advice when it comes to dating girls and to know whether Joe Jonas would think he was cool

Nishinoya - a whole jar of mayonnaise which he uses for everything: seasoning his food, giving to his friends when they don’t have energy (its mostly Tanaka who gets in with the mayonnaise), adding to his hair, lube haha jk,,,unless??

Daichi - five travel-sized toothbrushes, five travel-sized toothpastes, and five travel-sized face towels

Asahi - VSCO Girl stuff !! scrunchies, an over-sized shirt, a Hydroflaskskskksks, that mario badescu spray stuff. he wasn’t aware of the trend he just happens to like it 

Sugawara - a lock-picking set, a bag of salt, pieces of paper with strange writing on them, a face towel, a cursed, glowing amulet that he picked up in IKEA

Oikawa - nothing. he carries backpacks for show and puts nothing in them (except for maybe styrofoam packing peanuts) 

Iwaizumi - nothing except for a neck pillow (man has priorities)

Matsukawa - the ‘Party Rock’ album by LMFAO

Hanamaki - the ‘Sorry for Party Rocking’ album by LMFAO

Ushijima - a book of ‘Top 100 Jokes for Casual Conversations’ (given by Tendou)

Tendou - his backpack is basically a Lost and Found box. there's hairbands, someone's extra shirt, a phone case, a pair of glasses, a bottle of nail polish. he's basically a magpie

Shirabu - a water bottle shaped like a pineapple that’s filled to the brim with vodka. also one of those triangle rulers that he uses to cut his hair

Semi - a ziploc bag full of guitar picks because he always loses them. he also likes to keep all of his old guitar strings and braids them all together

Goshiki - a small container of slime, like the glittery transparent kind. also some leg weights that he puts on in the bathroom (Rock Lee taught him well)

Kuroo - the occasional stray cat or kitten that he'll feed and pet in secret during lectures. a giant tub of hair gel and the reused plastic tub of hair gel but filled with catnip 

Kenma - an actual map of the campus which he uses to track poke stops and a laser pointer to mess with the cats that kuroo brings to class

Yaku - you know those toys that are like extended robotic claws that some store employees use to reach stuff? yeah, that

Lev - a whole bunch of brochures, flyers, and product samples. he's too nice to say no to the people who hand them out 🥺🥺

Futakuchi - a sheet of paper that has 'i can do whatever i want' printed on it. he doesn’t have a driver’s license. 

Terushima - a set of needles, spare earrings, and a lighter. he basically runs a piercing salon in the back of the class

Bokuto - surprisingly, he has an actual plastic folder inside his backpack. except, when you open it there are gummy worms inside

Akaashi - a clear binder full of coupons, arranged by which shops they came from and expiry dates

Atsumu - a TWICE lightstick you can't convince me that he isn't a fan also a photocard of Momo somewhere in his wallet

Osamu - a shit ton of kitchen gadgets like the triangle mold for onigiri, a banana slicer in the shape of a banana, pot holders that look like crocodiles

Kita - a whole bunch of paper charms that his grandma gave him (apparently its bad luck to throw them away), also lots of healthy snacks that he likes to give to his friends and classmates

Suna - a nerf gun

Sakusa - other than an absurd amount of cleaning products, he has a 25m long scarf that he stress-knits

taglist (open to anyone who wants in):  @montys-chaos​ @miyumtwins​ @strawberriimilkshake​ @pocubo​ @sugawara-sweetheart@akaashisbabydoll @laure-chan@therainroguefanfiction@atetiffdoesart@stephdaninja@oikaw-ugh @charliefredb @dramaqueenweeb1469 @tremblinghearts

[one-piece-dumpster-fire]

My Thots on Chapter 1013

Warning for spoilers under the cut!

First of, "Nami vs. Ulti", aka the fight most of us were looking forward to-

On one hand I'm living for Big Mom once again proving that she's a major threat and should not be taken lightly, but on the other hand I am super disappointed that Oda ended the last chapter with hyping up Nami only for her to be,,,, almost instantly fodderized. Put some respect on my girl's name, for crying out loud😫

...I'm guessing Ulti will somewhat 'recover' at a later point (and come back incredibly nerfed) and that's when Nami gets to fight her. Idk how I feel about that portrayal, but welp. Moving on-

...Zeus getting vored is already in my top ten most uncomfortable OP moments

Ok but not Zeus the Thundercloud having a better redemption arc than Pudding...😂 I actually feel sad for him here lol. Him saying that he understands if Nami doesn't want to forgive him but still choosing to sacrifice his life for her... I legit did not see it coming, but I'm pleasantly surprised at that development!

Man, fuck Hera. All my homies (except Prometheus and Napoleon) hate Hera.

Aaaand this is why Big Mom's "mother mode" is bullshit. She wasn't happy to see Tama again because of any 'motherly feelings' she suddenly had for the child but because Tama was her friend. Big Mom with her childlike personality was excited because she saw her friend again, not because there was a kid under a certain age that magically activated her Fairy Godmother side!

And now that Tama seems to leave her she gets angry like a little kid. Prolly 'cause it reminds her of when she was small and Mother Caramel + her friends at the orphanage "abandoned" her. This is... who Big Mom is. A dangerous, overgrown child (and I'm saying this as a stan ok lol). I really don't get why Oda even decided to come up with that mother mode explanation, the scene where she reunites with Tama would have been completely fine without it, but he just had to go on and turn it into a inconsistency with Big Mom's character (she paid Caesar to experiment on little kids, would have killed Chiffon along with her baby son, has been shown to be very cruel to her own children when they were young, laughed her ass off when Momo was being tortured...) "If you're a child under a certain age you might be able to activate Big Mom's special mother mode!" is just the dumbest and most nonsensical plot convenvience and I'm still kinda mad about it existing xD

Finally, the confrontation I've been waiting for👀 Not gonna lie, in my opinion Kid has been... sorta underwhelming since the raid started. But he has history with Big Mom and I'm hoping this face-off is finally gonna give us some more insight on his shenanigans during the past two years. Kid is due for some interesting character development if you'd ask me, so I'm looking forward to this👌🏻

And last but not least-

If you'd ask me, this would have been the perfect end to the third act, but oh well. Anyway I'm guessing Luffy will land close to the Flower Capital and this concludes the build-up phase for the war🤔

I went back and re-read the raid from the beginning and yeah... all the match-ups, all the teasing of plots, it was really just build-up. I'm 90% sure once we reach the Flower Capital is when the real war will begin and we'll finally get to see some pay-off. Everything that has happened so far was just set up for the next, big act. Which, admittedly... was a choice. The raid has lasted over a year and the pacing ranged from alright to atrocious. I'm really hoping that Oda is done teasing now and will finally start resolving plotlines and actually concluding fights, otherwise Wano might take another 5 years...

[makeste]

When it comes to non canon content, which of the characters would you say is the best indicator for poor characterisation? Who starts to feel like someone in a mask before the others have shown a crack? Who tends to become almost a different person when others become shadows of themselves? Who is the ultimate bad characterisation barometer???

the problem isn’t really that any of them are out of character; it’s the exact opposite. the problem is the writers are so afraid of accidentally writing something OOC that they only ever stick to a small handful of Approved action and dialogue options that are Safe, and refuse to ever branch out, and as a result all of the characters feel dumbed down. for starters, their quirk usage is severely nerfed. Ochako and Momo could have done so much more with their respective quirks. and Shouto as well, honestly. Tokoyami too, since Shouto was there! they even pointed out that Shouto could use his quirk to help keep DS under control, only to come up with some flimsy explanation about Shouto not wanting to use up all their O2. but like, that’s only a problem if you’re not using DS to aggressively blast your way up to the surface and to freedom lol. anyway so there were a lot of things like this. mostly little things but they added up.

and their intelligence is also significantly downplayed. for instance, Kaminari and Kirishima act like they’re not capable of taking any kind of independent action unless Bakugou is there to order them around. why is Bakugou the only one who can figure out how to apply Kaminari’s quirk? why can’t Kami figure that out himself. he literally doesn’t catch on until Bakugou is holding the wires out in front of him and spelling it out for him explicitly. he’s basically just portrayed as a dumbass for the sake of comic relief. by contrast, canon!Kaminari is a lot more vibrant and intelligent. he has a tendency to overreact, but he’s also more than capable of improvising and holding his own. he also makes fun of the other characters a lot more, instead of always just being the butt of the joke himself. basically he does a lot of clowning, but he’s not a complete idiot, you get me?

and there are also just some little character touches which the anime writers either don’t pick up on or refuse to apply, and as a result the characters just feel a little bit off. a good example from this OVA is Bakugou’s movement. just the way he moves around. in the OVA he keeps shuffling around in this awkward slow-paced gait with his big fat grenade arms slowly swinging back and forth, and it’s fucking bizarre tbh. whereas if you look at Bakugou in the manga, he’s fucking all over the place. he is not slow or deliberately calm and cool at all; he’s flying around impatiently and yelling at the others complaining that they’re too slow and they need to keep up with him. just look at the Joint Training arc. or the battle against Soda Sam after he and Shouto get their licenses, where he climbs a fucking streetlight for absolutely no reason other than that he can. he has a flying quirk! he moves in a 3D space! and the one thing he absolutely does not do is saunter around like he’s got all the time in the world. he is far too impatient for that. he wants to get the job done and usually prefers a direct approach, and is a very powerful kid who’s constantly on the verge of having all of his pent-up energy boil over completely, and his body language and movement reflect that, or should at any rate.

so basically it’s just a bunch of little details all marked by a general unwillingness to take risks, and a tendency to paint the characters in very broad strokes rather than with any nuance. the overall feel, for me, was one of vaguely BnHA flavored fast food content. which is perfectly fine, and just as capable of feeding everyone! but I just wish it would acknowledge that it’s fast food, and take itself a little less seriously in that case. in the first OVA there was a running joke where Kacchan kept whining that the plot was pairing him up with Deku, and Tsuyu kept reminding him that they were in an anime special. and that was fucking awesome. they just fully embraced the fact that they were fucking around for the sake of producing some cool fanservice. but in this OVA I don’t think they so much as cracked a joke throughout the entire thing, and honestly even something as small as that would have made it a lot more enjoyable for me. this wasn’t grade A wagyu beef, and it didn’t have to be! but it felt like they were trying to act like it, and I personally would have liked it much better if they had just been upfront and accepted the fact that they were a Big Mac, and weren’t actually trying to bring anything new or revolutionary to the table and were just microwaving up some comfort food.

anyway, for all of my long-winded whining about it, it really is not That Big Of A Deal at all and I’m happy to see that most people seemed to enjoy it. I’m not going to write a long Karen letter to the editor and demand my money back or anything lmao. it is what it is. and honestly, seeing more positivity and enthusiasm in this fandom is always a good thing.

in conclusion, regarding this other ask I received,

I don’t really have any specific things I’m absolutely dying to see per se; I just would really like to see something with a little more emphasis on fun, rather than trying to Very Seriously hit the same old notes over and over again. to this end, my writing strategy would probably be one of the following:

grab a set of gaming dice and recruit 20 volunteers to roleplay the class while I DM on the fly, and use the resulting mess as a basis for my script

in a similar vein, give some BnHA action figures to a group of seven year olds, and set them loose and document whatever wacky storyline they came up with

literally use the exact same OVA plotline we actually got, but with a sloshed Aizawa narrating it like an episode of Drunk History. “so basically I gathered them all up and was all, ‘listen up, I’m going to divide the class into two groups of Important Characters and Less Important Characters. try not to think too hard about this.’ anyways so then...”

anyway! I will stop complaining about this now and let everyone live their lives in peace.

[dragoneyesstuff]

My ideas of a modern avatar au.

( I've seen others headcanons of the gaang in more modern times so I wanted to share mine!)

(Some small notes on the gaang)

Aang:

Lived in an orphanage for a long time until meeting katara and sokka

Likes aesthetics ranging from cottagecore to frog core.

Loves puppets (in the style of the muppets of course) and made one that resembles Momo.

Absolutely LOVES Nintendo games, with pokemon and animal crossing being his favorites.

Vegan, but doesn't force it on others, he just reminds his friends that he is a vegan when going out to eat or when they have the occasional sleepover.

Goofball. Katara constantly has to watch him and sokka so they dont get into trouble, since together they share one braincell and katara has it.

Katara

Because of her caring nature, I could see her wanting to be some kind of doctor.

Makes sure that no one gets into trouble.

If she didnt wasnt apart of an argument, either her or aang will stop arguments.

Acts like a mom, despite her age. (And has probably done the classic "mom arm" at some point.

Sokka

The best way to describe his intelligence: Has been a straight A student throughout his entire life, but has also has done things like microwaving raw eggs because he thought it would hard boil them. (He found out it didn't)

Laughs at stupid memes and probably has either the best or worst sense of humor.

Plays soccer and is a part time coach.

Eats a lot and will eat random things at random times (zuko once caught him eating a bowl of cereal at 3 am and was like "wtf, dude?")

Like aang, he likes to play video games, but plays games like doom or super smash brothers.

Used to be sexist and kinda tight minded, but now he regularly chugs his "respect women and men juice"every day.

Will pull either really good or childish pranks on everyone. Ranging from that time attacked katara with a nerf gun, to that time he wrapped everything in zuko's room with Christmas wrapping paper (beware of him on April fools day)

Toph

Doesnt really spend money on herself, rather, she spends it on her friends. Most of the time its things that her friends cant really afford but they want, things like a Nintendo switch for aang, or tickets to a baseball game so sokka could take himself, suki, and zuko. But shes also used her wealth to personally help her friends, like helping them pay off tuition and student loans while in college, to personal things like buying an absolutely beautiful headstone for katara's mother, or personally paying for zuko's therapy sessions after he ran away from his abusive home life.

Even in the modern world, toph can still kick your ass with very little effort.

Wears baggy clothes often.

Wants to be a professional wrestler.

Appa was originally her seeing eye dog, but he wasnt really good at it, and she could already used her seismic sense to see, so she ended up giving him to aang

Zuko

Came from a really abusive and toxic home and still has trauma about his scar, but he never told anyone how he got it, except for his therapist.

Has major depression and anxiety. Sometimes he has an endless amount of energy, and sometimes feels like doing nothing all day and lies in bed. Iroh has tried his best to help his nephew, and is proud that zuko eventually realized he needs help.

Did some pretty bad things as a teenager. Ended up serving a stint in juvenile hall.

Had some really unhealthy coping mechanisms. Ranging from shoplifting to setting things on fire.

He started opening up more after befriending the gaang and even discovered more things about himself that he never really focused on.

He is a huge dork/nerd. Dont let that glare fool you.

Loves theater and will talk to suki for hours about their favorite musicals.

Is actually a really good cook. Aang, katara and sokka opened him up to showing this talent that nobody thought he would have.

Lived with his uncle iroh for a while until he had enough money to live in an apartment.

Goth boy. Absolutely loves going to concerts (especially grunge or metal)

Secretly craves the sweet release of death.

Has a thing for idiots.

Suki

Football player

Once absolutely destroyed sokka in a wrestling match and katara couldn't stop being smug about it for weeks

Was the catalyst for sokka realizing that sexism is worthless.

Yue

Sokka's ex.

Died from a terminal illness in her teens

Sokka occasionally visits her grave and leaves flowers on it.

Azula

Power hungry and really insecure.

Capable of really terrible things

Eventually gets admitted to a psych ward.

Ty lee

Bubbly cheerleader

Loves drama and people-watching

Kind of an airhead at times.

Loves to show off.

Mai

Goth girl.

Loves cryptids and witchcraft. Has a lot of merchandise relating to both

Deadpan in just about every kind of social interaction.

Very blunt. Is not afraid to call people out.

Will detect bullshit.

Works with zuko.

Ran away from her family in her teens, but is still financially supported by her parents.

(Now for the adults)

Hakoda

Hard working single dad.

Loves and supports his kids equally.

Basically a father figure to both aang and zuko.

Loves taking everyone on trips.

Will tell sokka to stop messing with his sister.

Police chief.

A good dad.

Ozai:

Owns a very valuable business company worth billions of dollars.

Secretly a cult leader.

Wins the worst father/husband of the year award.

Iroh

One of the few people who ran away from ozais cult and lived to tell the tale.

Hopes his nephew will get his life on track.

War veteran.

Has a great inheritance that he got from his father, but he uses it for three things. 1. To expand or pay off debts for the jasmine dragon. 2. Donating it to non for profit charities. 3. Helping his nephew get through life.

Some general stuff about places and events)

The jasmine dragon isnt just a teashop, its also a bistro/bakery. It's just more famous for its tea.

Ozai's cult is the reason why katara and sokka's mother is dead. Her murder has remained unsolved for years and hakoda has dedicated a good portion of his life to solving his wife's murder.

[class1akids]

genuinely curious, why do u say you're afraid Shouto's going to get the Iida treatment, and has already been pushed to the side when he shouldn't have been? He's literally pushed his way through every arc, in a way that competes even with Bakugou (even if that's bound to change/evolve with Bakugou's development). The only arc when he wasn't there was Overhaul, and immediately after we've got an arc focused on him. I honestly don't see any instance when he was needed and wasn't there.

My fear comes from the fact that it feels like Horikoshi changed Shouto’s role in the story. He was introduced as the “Boy with Everything” who had the quirk engineered to be able to compete with OFA. 

This aspect of him has gradually diminished, and while he got his “own story-line”, it is in fact more the storyline of Endeavor, Dabi, Hawks and the entire rest of the Todoroki family. Most of the time, we are not focusing on Shouto himself - we are watching Endeavor’s arc through his eyes. 

I also feel like Horikoshi really clipped his wings after the Sport Festival. He was supposed to be this wunderkind with impeccable judgement, long history of training, the only S-level power in the class, yet he’s constantly stumbling: 

He would have failed the midterms spectacularly without Momo to the point where he was more just assisting, 

he could do no more than hold back Moonfish, and couldn’t catch Compress or outspeed Dabi,

 in Kamino his only contribution is one big iceberg, 

he fails the Provisional Licence exam (and I think while we got a lot of focus on Bakugou’s psyche about handling the failure in DvK2, we saw nothing of Todoroki’s state of mind), 

sits out Overhaul,

the Remedial arc is split between him, Bakugou, Endeavor and All Might (and is super-short), 

not much in the Cultural Festival arc, 

In pro-hero arc, he’s again our POV to Endeavor

JTA - he gets a draw, while Bakugou and Midoriya both get a win

He has one itty-bitty villain fight he shares with Bakugou 

The narrative gives him no wins at all. And while it makes sense for him to struggle with fire, I think Horikoshi nerfed him a little bit too much. 

Also, while in the Sport Festival he was connected to the OFA-story (through his entire origin, and also AFO’s foreshadowing) Horikoshi took him out of there and steered him towards the Todoroki arc. But now, in the Endeavor internship arc, he made Bakugou and Deku also part of the Todoroki arc. And I thought, yay, my three boys are becoming a real trio. I was honestly excited about it. 

But now, I’m worried. To me, it feels like after all this build-up all three of them should be on this battlefield, but Shouto was left behind. And I’m worried that if Endeavor dies / Dabi reveal happens, the Todoroki-arc will be deemed “resolved” with Shouto getting the Iida-treatment (whose own arc was connected to Stain through his family, and once “resolved”, his arc was put on the back-burner. We don’t know how he feels about his brother anymore, we know hardly anything about his growth, because it’s not important to the main story anymore). 

Like it feels to me that Shouto is the tertiary character after Deku and Bakugou and he will keep this role, but what if you know, he’s just meant to be like Iida or Kirishima who got the spotlight for a little while, but once the main story to which they were connected to got resolved, they were pushed to the background?

So yeah, it feels like we are at a story crossroad, and I think the role Shouto gets in this arc will define what kind of part he gets in the rest of the story. And so far, it’s not looking great. It’s really stressing me out. 

[justatalkingface]

So I know you haven't seen The Boys but I have a topic that I think fits MHA because I got it from that same show. MHA had a totally missed opportunity, I mean, among hundreds of others lol

But then I think about Momo (who is more than a hundred missed opportunities) and her pitiful internship with Uwabami, who was more interested in how pretty they were to sell her products.

It would have been a great opportunity to emphasize the beauty standards held for female pro-heroes. They're clearer there just not said but I know they are because they really like to make the female pro-heroes look as conventionally attractive as possible since the most popular female pro-heroes in-universe are conventionally attractive women. Do NOT get me started on Midnight (I'll save that one for another question though XD)

And also the sexualization, that ties in with the beauty standards since Momo and Kendo were clearly uncomfortable with everything in that internship. And it's extremely obvi that the female pro-heroes are sexualized, even the underage aspiring female heroes. SIGH... if only... if only Momo could have had that opportunity to explore that, because she didn't come intending to use her looks, she came intending to use her brains. How devastating would it be to realize that people only pay attention to how you look? Gosh I wish that could have been something for her.

Yet no, she and the other girls are still sexualized, in fact I think they got even MORE sexualized after this? I mean jeez...

That will always bother me. The sexualization of the girls and what's bullshit on top of that is the extra bullshit argument that the boys are sexualized too? Yeah right.

Now it's true, the boys are seen shirtless a LOT but... it's not through sexualized lens, it's through idealized ones since the boys being so physically fit and demonstrating their strength is a sign of manliness and promoting that masculinity. It's not meant to be sexual, the GIRLS are meant to be sexual, which is sick.

I mean god you don't see the girls emphasizing their strength the way the boys do. Except MAYBE Mirko but I emphasize 'maybe' since she's STILL very sexualized as you said in another post.

The girls are pretty much only there to be oggled whether it's for sexualized means or moe-ified means because even if the girls aren't being sexualized, boys love seeing the girls act like typical waifu-material and I say that because almost ALL the female characters are generally kind, docile and cheerful. Moe traits that appeal strongly to men, and no problematic traits that make them more two-dimensional.

Have you noticed that? Even the 'meaner' girls like Mt. Lady and Toga have moe-ified or sexualized traits. Toga is arguably the most nuanced female character but she's a victim of sexualization too by having her quirk make her naked for God knows why. Mt. Lady from her first scene was doomed from the start since that was all sexualization.

It's like the girls aren't allowed to be even remotely unpleasant or even have any kind of flaws in ways that would make them seem like real individuals. They're pretty much the same kind and caring person with a different face but somehow the same body shape.

Does... that make sense? ^^; I ask that question too much only cuz sometimes I don't always articulate my words right.

Yeah, it's clear that women in heroics are judged as much for sexual appeal than anything else; it makes a bad sort of sense because of the whole 'heroes are celebrities' bullshit.

I think... I think this is something that, in canon, probably got worse as time went on. When Quirks were starting out, and heroes were all just vigilantes, it was about ability, and with AFO around, survival. Like, look at Nana, she's attractive, sure, but her outfit is probably what is best described as 'bog standard hero': it's a bodysuit that covers most of her skin, practical looking gloves and boots, and a cape (has Edna Mode flashback). Beyond the cape (shudders), it's basiclly a costume that exists to just identify her as a hero, nothing more.

I'm not really in the mood to try and pour through hundreds of pictures, but that is both one of the most practical female costumes that I remember and the oldest one.

It makes an insidious sort of sense, even, in the most realistic kind of way: when everything fell apart, and heroes first started being a thing, the public perception was probably, 'Save me! SAVE ME! I don't care if you look like Pennywise the Goddamn Dancing Clown, I DON't WANT TO DIE!!' Nobody cared about outfits, or if you were a hobo or a weirdo, as long as you protected them.

Things settled and heroing became a career, and the costumes became... not standardized, but professional. There was quality behind it, but it was still less 'This is me in particular!' and more an identifier that 'I am a hero!'.

Then, as time passed, and safety became something standard, instead of exciting, the heroes become more... public. There was competition, money was needed to pay off damages, so the celebrity-ness of it all starting kicking into play, and from there it spiraled as certain people got ahead using their appearances, which probably caused a sort of publicity arms race until we have the canon system of ranked heroes and what not.

In a Watsonian sense, it does track. But, let's be honest here, Doyalist is right in this case, Hori wanted to draw sexy women.

You mention Mt Lady, right? Yeah... here's the thing about her. She's sexualized because she's a fetish. I'm not going to tell you what, or go into detail, because that's not what I want to spend time on, but if you don't already know it's not that hard to figure out which one.

The choice of Mt Lady as the first female hero we see, I think the only one in that first chapter, is telling. It's even more telling when the second female hero we see in any real depth is Midnight. And, let's be honest: she's literally just a different fetish. I mean, Mt Lady, in five seconds, shows more depth of character by being glory hungry, and as a living example of the corruption of the hero society, than Midnight does in MHA almost the entire time.

Like, "canonly", Midnight wants to dress like that. She was going to dress more extreme than that, if I'm remembering Vigilantes right, and I think a law was passed that basiclly boiled down to, 'Midnight, no horni?' I went "canonly" because, of course, that's bullshit, and Hori is just trying to explain her everything off by just going 'she's just like that!' I know you didn't want to go into her in depth, but I just would want to say... instead of making excuses for her (non)characterization, I would have loved if she had taken the female students aside before the internships.

Then she could have explained the 'facts of life', that she's like this because it's how she got this far as a hero, and that they'll be expected to do the same. After that, you could go the jaded route, and have her advise them to as the practical way forward, or the 'ra ra heroic' route, maybe have her explain she grew to like her outfit if you have to, but more importantly that things are different now and that they don't need to listen to anyone who tells them to dress down, and they should go their own path, Plus Ultra. But you know, Midnight doesn't get character development.

Really, the Uwabami thing was interesting to me, not because it was good, but because it seemed like it was going to be good, but then dropped it at the last minute.

The way it was set up, how mercenary Uwabami was about looks, how unheroic she was in general, the sheer confusion with Momo, how Kendo was there to point out the flaws for her, the set up was there to talk about about the sexism, and heroic corruption. I think at some point that was supposed to be the start of Momo's character arc, that she was supposed to go through a Hermione like loss of unthinking trust in authority, grow frustrated, maybe rebel a bit, and start coming into her own. Possibly Uwabami could have done something to make her seem... you know, competent in any way as well, instead of literally being a model who (checks the wiki)... finds people sometimes. There was a lot of work put in to undermine Uwabami, to highlight how shallow she seems and how Momo didn't like it, but it just... never went anywhere. Momo just remained obedient, then it ended and she basiclly wasted a couple weeks for nothing.

It really feels like someone pulled the plug there, and I'm curious about who and why, not that we'll ever know.

Ah, yes, the guys 'being sexualized'. I mean, they're attractive, I guess; there's enough fan girl simp threads for Eraserhead's whole... hobo-ness that that's clearly there, but Eraserhead isn't exposing more skin than he's covering, or wearing skintight spandex.

Really, to anyone who thinks its the same, I want to direct them to the Hawkeye Initiative, aka: imagine the male characters in the female character's clothing and/or poses. Just... just do that, and then marvel at how much skin there suddenly is. Or, imagine Izuku going to his internship with Nighteye and the man spends the entire time dragging Izuku to commercials and trying to update his outfit.

Or both!

Just imagine that for a minute for me. Right now. I'll wait.

...

....And, now that I've proved my point...

I just want to highlight something about Toga here: in theory, the idea behind clothes getting in the way of various Quirks makes sense. Quirks are biological, the powers comes from the body, thus it radiates from them, and clothes are directly in the path of that. So Momo being restricted to her body's available surface area, like her skin is a defacto sort of door she chucks items through, tracks with the settings logic. The fact that Tooru is actually invisible, and so clothes would make her noticeable because they aren't makes sense.* The problems I have with that is, A, they're just used in the most stripperific ways possible (people: give Momo more clothes! Hori: gives her a cape, then exposes more skin) and also, and worse, that we have Mirio, who has this exact same kind of problem... but he's given this convenient solution because he doesn't look attractive when naked, so he can use it for comedy on demand.

*Or, at least it made sense until we found out she just... bends the light around her, instead of being physically transparent. This gives her an option to do things beyond being invisible, thank fuck, but... if she bends light around her body, why can't she bend it around the clothes on her body?

Toga, though? Toga adds to her body; she coats herself in her magic identity slime. When it's done, it melts, and it's clear it's extra mass; she doesn't change her body, she disguises it. Out of all of them, it makes sense that she should be able to keep her clothes, since her Quirk just magics her target's outfit out of her magic identity slime along with everything else it's mimicking. They may be wet, sure, or maybe damaged, but she literally layers it over herself. I can't really think of a reason for her to have this specific weakness of 'I can't use this with clothes' beyond 'for the sexy'.

Personality wise, I've mentioned it before, Toga literally is an archetype, the crazy yandere, that's blood themed. Almost every single major female character I can think of is themed, and generally in a sexual way. It gets escalated, I think, because the hero thing means costumes, and branding, and I do think it's so... same-ish, that all the women are caring, because, A, as heroes they're literally mandated to try and take care of people, and B, there's no time spent on them to develop them.

By and by large, the male heros also try to take care of the people around them (I mean, unless you're named Endeavour, then you have other people do it), but it kinda hits different when Kamino Woods is a walking tree and Mt Lady has a skin tight outfit, doesn't it? Moreover, the only actively 'harsh' female hero I can think of is Lady Nagant. Who... is also an assassin, and had recently broke out of prison, so that's not exactly a quality example.

As to not feeling like real people... Uraraka does, since she came for money with her backstory of being poor, and seems to have graduated to wanting to help people just to help people (before Hori began to ignore her for half the series). Again, though, she has some of the largest amount of female screen time as The One True Waifu, so it's not that she's more than the others, she just has that luxury of development where the others can't.

When Hori used to post his notes in the manga, it was easy to see that he (usually) had a grasp on a character beyond what we saw, he just didn't have a chance to show it (Mt Lady, for example, wants fame to get money to pay off the massive property damage bills that she constantly makes since her Quirk doesn't work well in cities; that's actually really humanizing, but it's side material, and not something we can understand just by her jockeying for more good press).

In other words, at least at the start of the story, before Hori began to pump and dump characters to fill one specific purpose and never use again, the characters were actually characters, he just never gave us a chance to see them beyond the most shallow of takes.

But yeah, you're right: in and out of universe, the female characters exist to be females first, and always attractive ones at that, and characters second, if they're lucky to even get to be characters.

[edwardslostalchemy]

My big 3 of 1a would be Izuku Momo & Iida cause we all know Izuku is powerful af and will ultimately be number 1 one day Momo is intelligent quickwitted and well rounded plus has the most versatile quirk and Iida is very intelligent and a natural leader don't think Bakugou should be in big 3 cause of his nasty attitude and only cares about winning Shouto just wanted to be top to prove to his father so even though he'd push himself I think he'd focus more on teamwork from now on instead of stats

YEAH I AGREE WITH YOU SO MUCH NONY THIS IS SO VALID. I want Momo to be part of the big three as well1!!! She totally deserves it because she’s working really hard and improving!!!! Plus, she can apply her skills anywhere. Look at how she was analytical during the hideout raid and during the entire entrance exam. She outgeniused a genius!!! Whose quirk was to be a literal genius!!! If Momo could learn martial arts or hand-to-hand combat, get herself some neato support items, maybe a suit that isn’t so revealing and is still functional, and gains more self-confidence, which she is improving on because she is getting there!! I believe in her!! Then she can be part of the big 3. She’d EARN her spot! 

I totally agree with Tenya being part of the big 3, too!! He’s also been improving so much and is becoming more selfless and learning what it means to be a hero and he has his own ideals. Plus his quirk is really amazing! 

I don’t even need to talk about Izuku, BUT I WILL because that boy deserves the absolute WORLD and he is doing everything he can to be the best and gain control of his quirks. He’s come SO FAR in life up til this point and I am SO PROUD of him. He’s doing amazing and I love him. 

I love Shouto. He is my favorite character (besides Izuku) and I’d die for him. I personally would love it if he were part of the big 3 as well, but my personal headcanon is that he doesn’t care about rank anymore. He is improving to be a better hero so he can do his job because he wants to help people and defend them because he himself has the means to do so. That’s what his ideals are. It’s a hero’s job to save people. That’s his image of a hero and that’s what he’s aspiring to be. He wants to be the type of hero that makes people feel safe with his presence. I see him wanting to improve and learn from his father. Strength = power and power gives you opportunity. Shouto is using this opportunity and his power to gain wisdom and knowledge to HELP people, not to reach the top spot. I think he has the potential to be a top ranking hero. He’s got the face and the quirk for it. And trust me, he will be very popular because of his looks alone. He will be popular because of his quirks alone. ANd he will be popular because of his relationship to endeavor. He’s smart, he has the skills and the potential, and he has the drive. I just can’t see him aiming for the top anymore. And it’s okay to not aim for the top spot. There’s nothing wrong with just doing your job. He’s not settling. I hate that correlation between not wanting to be the best and settling for what you have. I love All Might and he means well and his words are motivating for IZUKU, who WANTS to be the BEST, but I don’t see them applied to Shouto. Shouto is working with what he has and will do what he can to save others. It would make my whole life if he gets to be the hero he wants to become. I sound like a mother right now: do what makes you happy, not what others expect of you!!! 

Sorry, i know you were talking about other characters, but I had to give my 2 cents on Shouto. 

Also, I totally agree. Nerf Katsuki in the face. DON’T make him part of the big 3. His attitude is just so ugh and even though he’s smart and talented, I can’t see him being a top 10 hero if he’s this vocal of an asshole. Now I know, how did endeavor become #2 if he and Katsuki are similar? endeavor kinda contains his private life and he only shows his face, not his family life or anything related to his life. He’s very reserved. Katsuki will yell in your face. Idk...how do heroes get ranked anyway? I had the impression they’re voted by the public and also the public safety commission? Kinda like eurovision now lmfao. Even though Katsuki would probably resolve a lot of cases, and big cases because he’d want the spotlight, he would probably be like top ranked, but not #1. He’s not charismatic. He’s very volatile. I’m even scared for him interacting with people. Look at how he yelled at the kids when he was interning with Best Jeanist. He’s going to learn, but man he’s not gonna be great at it. I doubt he’ll be #1. Unpopular opinion: I don’t want him to be #1. Let his ego take a huge hit. I don’t care about this wonder duo and him doing the whole fight to save and save to win, it just feels so...forced to me imo? Like Idk maybe i’m missing the point I guess. ANd I went off topic again, but anyways yeah, Katsuki not being part of the big 3 is a galaxy brain mood, send tweet.

[justatalkingface]

i really like how you analyze things you know how hard it is to find people who can criticize things properly? Very lol but I guess I'm guilty of that myself but I really like the analysis you've given about MHA. I kind of have a question even though it might be a lame one? But what's your take on the female characters of MHA? I'm personally disappointed by them because... I don't know they have potential yet haven't shown any sort of real depth that makes me really root for them. Does that make sense?

It makes perfect sense, actually. In the simplest, most brutal way possible, there's nothing actually there to root for, though I hasten to mention that's not actually their fault; they have potential, like you said, plenty of it. Hori's female characters have just, broadly, been abandoned on the side of road, like he has so many others (Class B, literally the entire school of Shiketsu, who has a nigh Todoroki level character, to name a few), but it's just that much worse because it's all of them.

Seriously, off the top of my head, the last time a female who isn't Toga or Mirko did anything really relevant was... when Uraraka talked down the crowd? If I'm being honest, (and minor manga spoilers here, if you're not up to date) Hori's about to have all the female characters involved in a fight in the manga, so maybe something will happen there, but to be even more honest, there's something about that whole scenario when the main members of the fights are all female that screams 'catfight' in the worst kind of way. I know they just joined a bunch of others, but how much do you bet that it'll end up being Toga, Uraraka, and maybe Tsu again somehow?

Also, I'm going to note Toga and Miruko for later in that they have special issues, but I'm on a roll here.

The potential is there. The way that the ones in 1A alone could be more relevant are broad; Mina's acid could be used in ways like water attacks are in Naruto, for example. Give me an acid dragon, Hori, that sounds awesome. Kyoka's sounds are strong enough to shatter the ground, with some support tech, yet she can't get something to focus them, make them hit harder? You know, how Bakugou somehow does with his explosions, and, like, his fingers, somehow, yet you have all this support gear right there. Concentrate all that noise down to foot of area and it'd hit like a truck. Momo is literally the poster child for wasted potential here, along with how Hori just left all the women behind: she's a recommended student, which comes with this built in hype of 'this one, this one is going to be good'. And... she never is. Out of the all the stuff we've seen her make, has a gas grenade of some kind never came to her? One with sleeping gas maybe? Or how about a tranq gun? And don't tell me about Japan and their gun laws; Snipe exists. (On a personal note, do you know what I yearn to see? A little cartoon or comic or something of Momo going, "I'm going to beat you with the power of friendship. And this gun I found!" Can you imagine? She's so serious, so refined, then she says that, dead ass serious, while pulling out one out of her arm??? I laugh every time I think about it. I really do.) Momo is scary in a way lot of the characters aren't, and it's not for her raw power, but her flexibility, and how she can target weaknesses with it. Weaknesses like breathing. The thing is that she's just not allowed to use it. Seriously, they struggle so much to try and put Gigantomachia to sleep, yet a few arc later she pulls out this giant ass machine to drug up Izuku, and it's just so... overcomplicated, how many steps they're taking to make her less useful. The tools are there. The potential is right the fuck there. These two things I've mentioned alone are simpler than some of the things she's made before, and the narration has made it clear that she's more than smart enough to think of these basic ass solutions. She's just not allowed to be, well, that useful. And Asui, honestly, is an interesting case. On the face of it, Frog is kind of a weak Quirk, but Mirko exists. In all brutal honesty, Asui has the same kind of Quirk as Mirko, it's just the less sex appealing version. And if Mirko could be a top hero on Rabbit, why can't Asui with Frog?

And that's the other thing. Out of all the female cast, we have a small handful of relevant people, like Mirko and Toga, and all of them seem to embody some sort of sex appeal. Midnight, before she was killed off off screen, was a joke character that got more development in a spin off in her entire run, and was literally a walking bondage costume. Toga is the token female for the League, but the reason she has so much focus is that she's popular, and she's popular because she's, as I've heard someone put it, some kind of Yandere otome character. Uraraka is the Hinata to Izuku's Naruto, and so has some One True Waifu energy. Nana's built like a brick house. Mirko is literally a bunny girl. These things? These things that people find attractive, and judging by his sketches, I'd expect that Hori is one of those people. Moreover, almost all of them have their characters defined by this one attractive quality, if only because they aren't allowed to show literally anything else.

It gets worse when you realize how many things happen just for that, for the sex appeal: Toga needs to be naked for her Quirk. Actually, this is an oddly common 'flaw': Toru has no clothes for her hero costume. She is literally running around naked. Momo's descriptions all talk about how she exposes skin to use her Quirk better. Mirio exists. Mirio literally phases out his clothes, but because he's a man, and thus not attractive, his costume is made of his hairs, somehow, and so phases with him and he never accidently flashes anyone. Hmm, UA. I wonder who else could use something like that. This is so mysterious.

That's not even mention how Mirko keeps getting brutalized like a toy owned by a particularly careless child, and by the way it keeps happening, the way it focuses on her pain, it seems Hori is into that? The worst part of that, I think, is if he had just done that once, he probably could have gotten away with it, and no one would have noticed. But it keeps happening. Mirko has no limbs now, Hori what the fuck?

So, yeah, Anon. I'm disappointed in the female characters too. I'm disappointed that Hori never gave them a chance.