#and I think horikoshi gave us such a concept there

[granny-griffin]

ok so I know he has arms again but I'd already drawn this and im not redoing it

[gojooooo]

man i love open endings. the fact that thanks to yuuji there might indeed be the next time sukuna talks about in case some idiot decides to eat a finger again. and we need fics where yuuji is that idiot

[dynamightmite]

you seem optimistic so you think we’re still getting shigaraki back? :( i’m really sad the way hori has handled the izuku tenko plotline as of right now like i just can’t wrap my head around this

I mean, I definitely think it's a possibility. We still don't know exactly what happened to overhaul/decay, and how it may be used in the future. We saw Tenko and Deku touch fists; theoretically there could have been some kind of exchange there, or he could be existing as a vestige in some way.

Then again, (and this is going to piss a lot of people off :')) I kind of... get where Horikoshi is going with it?

BEFORE YOU START BOOING!

I think a lot of the discomfort and hurt from fans comes from the perception that Izuku failed to save Tenko. That, by allowing him to die, the narrative is in fact saying he didn't deserve to be save--that Horikoshi himself doesn't believe Tenko truly deserved it. I have also seen a lot of talk about how it doesn't fit in with the ongoing, overarching themes of the narrative, and (while I'm not saying these people are wrong) I would like to push back on that a little, because I think there is precedence in the story as to why Tenko's death holds up, despite it being terrible.

The culmination of Tenko's arc broaches a crossroad of two major concepts in the story: heroes, and saving, and what both of those ideas mean. And, I think, in Tenko's death, we get and answer to both, and more importantly, an answer to his overall purpose.

What does it mean to save? In BNHA, the concept is a little vague. I've often people ascribe the "total victory" mindset as one of protection, as preventing any tragedy or harm. Through that lens, Tenko's death therefore is an automatic failure--a nonstarter. HE's dead, so he wasn't saved. The end. However, while "saving" might seem like a simple, straight forward concept, I would like to dig a little deeper, because I think what Horikoshi's doing is much more interesting.

Saving (Deku's definition of it, anyway) is a lot closer to freeing than it is to protecting. Which sounds weird, but I'll do my best to explain. I think the two best examples of this particular nuance to his definition are actually in two characters people tend to forget he saved: Shoto and Gentle Criminal.

Because he did save both of them. Not in the really obvious, black-and-white way he saved Eri, no, but he did save them. And both times were... painful, to say the least.

When Deku went after Shoto during the sport's festival, it wasn't, like, nice. He dug his little nerd fingers in where it hurt the worst and dragged out Shoto's biggest fears and insecurities, and then he said GET OVER THEM. Stop letting them control you. Stop letting your father control you. You're your own person, and you get to make your own choices.

He didn't punch Endeavor. He didn't even take pity on Shoto, or say he was sorry. But you know what he did do? Deku cut the leash. AND he damn near killed Shoto (and himself) making sure that Shoto understood that he was free. He gave Shoto back something that he'd been missing, something he was afraid to look in the face; something that Deku picked up, brushed off, and said, "please stop throwing this away, it's important. You're important".

And it works, goddamit.

Gentle is both different and similar. In a similar vein, the way Deku saves Gentle is sort of... not obvious. But I think if you look here:

Gentle isn't a bad person. He's ambitious and a little lax about the law, but he never set out to hurt anybody. But we see over the course of his arc how he gets so tangled up in his own pain and his desperation to be seen that he forgets his own ideals, his own morals. In the face of becoming someone, he loses sight of what matters most to him: just like Deku, Gentle wants to be a hero.

Which, in the end, he is. And Deku's the one who pushes him there.

But what about Tenko? What about the crying child inside him? Why wasn't he saved?

When people talk about child Tenko, they often seem to see him as a symbol of the person that Deku's trying to save. But I think that, just maybe, that's wrong. I think maybe, actually, Deku is trying to save Tenko from that child.

Child Tenko is, in many ways, a symbol of nothing but AFO's power. That is a child stripped of his name, of his original quirk, of his family, of his sense of self. That is a puppet controlled by AFO, without any autonomy of its own. That child is a wound that Tenko cannot escape for as long as AFO still holds any power over him.

That's why this chapter All Might said that maybe Deku did save Tenko, if he no longer saw the child version of him in the vestige realm. Deku did save him. Because Tenko isn't a child anymore, and he isn't AFO's puppet; he's a free man, for the first time in his life.

A free man who chooses to be a hero.

Heroes get talked about a lot in BNHA (duh), but what is the defining quality of a true hero? Someone who wins? Sure. Someone who saves? Yeah, of course. But the actual test of what differentiates a hero from everybody else is their willingness to sacrifice. To give up everything for the greater good. Even if it hurts. Sometimes especially if it hurts. I mean, this has come up a lot through the manga. Deku running in to attack the sludge villain, Mirio giving up his quirk, Eraserhead throwing himself in front of his students, Edgeshot shortening his lifespan to save Bakugo, All Might standing quirkless in front of the greatest evil of his time-- literally the constant refrain from the narrative has been that being willing to sacrifice it all is what makes a hero a hero.

Tenko's final wish from last chapter is gut wrenching, but: he wanted to be a hero for the Villains. The rest of the world can rot for all he cares, but his friends, those disenfranchised, hurt people that everyone else gave up on? Those people who have never been saved, those people who have never been protected... he wants to be their hero. In the face of danger, of certain doom, he is a free man, and he has a choice.

So he makes a sacrifice. His final act is to become a hero. For them.

Cue the sobbing tears.

Additionally, I think it's relevant to point out here how strongly the narrative has advocated for victimhood to be divorced from being a perpetual self-identity. It really emphasizes the power of choosing to rise above your situation and pain to help other people, while also suggesting that your pain does not excuse you from hurting people. You can be a victim and you can be a perpetrator; they are not mutually exclusive. And because of this, after Deku saves Tenko, he does not owe him. He saved Tenko, but he could not keep him alive, and... I don't think that it's about Tenko deserving or not deserving to die. It's just that Tenko had reached a point of no return where his only choices were to die a slave or die free and he broke his shackles. But he was always going to die. Doomed by the narrative, both literally and figuratively. We can argue all day as to what degree of responsibility he holds for his actions as a highly abused, traumatized, often shell of a person. But the point is that at every junction of the story, Tenko (and the story around him) escalated until he was trapped. There wasn't a way out, and it's heartbreaking, and maybe that's the point.

I'm not saying it's fair. I'm certainly not saying you have to like it. But... I don't know. I don't feel like this is some completely out of pocket, off-the-rails end that destroyed all its characters. And who knows! Maybe Tenko will be brought back later. Maybe the epilogue will get progressively worse and I'll hate it. Maybe I'll finally get some sleep and regret writing this at all. I have no idea. Really. But we're all in this together, so these are my thoughts right now :)

[epickiya722]

You know what the moment it was revealed Izuku was left with the embers back in 424, I knew he was going to become Horikoshi's previous protagonist from 2008... Jack Midoriya.

I'm sure almost everyone has heard of Jack Midoriya, right?

Well, guess what, you are today!

Let me just point out something that I noticed when it comes to Horikoshi and his concepts and characters. Some of the characters are characters from his previous works and maybe he has used a certain concept before. Izuku Midoriya and his story is no different. It's been told before but in a different flavor.

(I kid you not that every time I think I'm done finding every character and concept Horikoshi has used before, I'm not done. I'll probably make a post of a list!)

For those who don't know, Horikoshi had an one-shot manga published back in 2008, which is 16 years ago, called My Hero. Already seems familiar, doesn't it?

Well, it should be. My Hero Academia is like a more revamped version of that story, just expanded with more added themes and characters and a different setting.

In summary of My Hero, Jack Midoriya is a salesman who wants to be a hero, but due to being anemic and failing his Hero License exam (yes, that exists), he can't become one officially. However, it doesn't stop him from trying! Throughout the story, Jack does still try to be a hero, using the gadgets the company he works for makes. Spoiler alert, by the end of the story, he is recognized as a hero. Especially, by the one person he has looked up, Snipe aka the real Positive, the mantle Jack used during his vigilante run.

Now, how does this may relate to Izuku Midoriya?

Throughout the story, it seemed that a quirk, a good one, is what was needed for someone to be a Hero. Izuku was born Quirkless and his dreams of being a Hero seemed fruitless, nearly shut down when his role model, All Might tells him so. (Which Snipe does to Jack.) However, after trying to save Katsuki, All Might sees that Izuku does have the ambition to be a Hero and Izuku inherits the One For All Quirk from him.

Now I know some of you said that was pointless for him to have a Quirk and then lose if he was going to become a Hero anyways using gadgets.

But, folks, that was it. There is a point. And the point is... it was pointless.

Here's what I'm getting...

One theme I think is often looked over is "be your unapologetic self" and another could be "work with what you have".

Izuku never needed a Quirk to be the best Hero he could be because he already had Heroic qualities, but he did need a Quirk to see that.

One For All was a Quirk that needed to be gone. It was a curse disguised as a blessing. It worked so to challenge Izuku into becoming the Hero he always meant to be. Just as Jack Midoriya did in his story.

Now that Izuku is Quirkless, he now can become that Hero. He still has room to grow and learn from what he did fail at in the past to be better in the future.

It wasn't something he was going to learn overnight just as society isn't going to change overnight.

While MHA has some fantasy elements, just like many other stories before and after, it is a reflection of the real world sometimes. One reality is that it takes a long time to finally understand something.

In real life, it takes people years to understand "Hey, that's not right" or "maybe I should change this about me".

The characters of MHA are no different.

"Society hasn't changed, there's still discrimination, there's still rankings and---"

Well, yeah. Again reflection of the real world.

And just because the changes aren't seen, doesn't mean that they can't happen or that they didn't happen.

The last chapter gave us glimpses of what transpires over the eight years. What if those events have changed? Even not then, what about later?

"What about the talk between Katsuki and Izuku?" Just because we didn't see it, didn't mean it didn't happen. It was revealed Katsuki put in a lot of money for Izuku's Hero equipment, so that's a sign for me that they did talk some more because knowing Katsuki, he wouldn't have just done that unless he knew Izuku would be okay with it somehow.

Hell, they still had two years of high school left together. You're telling me it's impossible that they didn't have a talk?!

Sometimes I feel like some of you decide "this sucks" is because you just don't have the patience to try to decipher the message yourself. You want it handed out to you.

Not me, I want a writer to challenge my imagination because that gets my mind working and really engaged with the story. I might not understand it, but it's not that big of a deal for me. I'll still try to understand and if I never get it, I'll just move on.

Really my overall take from "Izuku being Quirkless again but still a Hero" among other things is that yeah, work with what you have. Just because you receive something that may be a blessing, it will also curse you in some way. The things and changes you want won't happen overnight, it takes time. Izuku was already a Hero, or at least one in the making.

And honestly, Izuku wearing a suit (because he's a teacher) and still being a Hero with gadgets just visually is like a reminder of "I'm not forgetting where I started" from Horikoshi.

It's wholesome in a way that he went back to an earlier work and still used his intended concept for Izuku (he wanted to make him an adult but had to change it to Izuku being a high schooler) of his last chapter. Full circle! My Hero may not be Horikoshi's first work (yes, folks, it's not), but it's familiar.

And I know some of you may not care for my opinion because I'm sure this post made you feel some kind of way (not my intention, but damn it, I'm tired of not expressing how I feel), but I know some of you might.

My overall thought of the finale? It is not as bad as some of you make it out to be. I'm sure there are worse endings out there and it's not like Izuku didn't become a Hero. It's not like Izuku didn't have people by his side because he did.

"But he was lonely." Well, you would, too if you couldn't hang out with your friends. But they're adults now and busy. Izuku is busy, too, he's a teacher.

"But Izuku's feelings!" Cut it because this is the same fandom where some of you don't care how he feels. He cries, it was annoying to you. Oh, but when he was neglecting himself y'all sure was like "yeah so badass".

I see myself in Izuku with how he treats his emotions. He's expressive, but he also tends to keep in his feelings. He even keeps them from us, the audience.

"Eight years it took him to be a Hero again!" Back to my original point. Izuku was always a Hero. You don't have to go out there and fight to be one. You don't need a Quirk to be one.

Overall, I don't hate the ending at all. It have easily been worse.

Sure I would have loved more Miruko, but I'm glad she's alive and some other Heroes didn't get the spotlight like that anyways. She is still a minor character, so I'm not actually upset. 😆

[lifeofmysteries]

my opinions on the bnha ending (not that anyone asked but I'm having thoughts so u also have to see them), generally the ending of bnha is framed like a bittersweet tragedy. the villains stick to their core values and get what they want

tenko's heart is saved and what afo did to him is revealed, and he goes out proud in being a hero to the villains. he's not fully a victim hapless in afo's wits, he would have been there again for the lov if he could

touya wanted his father's attention his whole life and was willing to burn himself up to get it, and he finally does as he's dying and also manages to connect with his siblings

toga finally gets loved and seen for herself, and dies to keep that returned love alive (and then gets to haunt ochako's thoughts for the rest of her life)

i don't have an issue with these in a vacuum. what the issue is is with the execution. bnha is a manga where a boy can lose his quirk and somehow his best friend can feel it in an unexplained soulmate like connection, and this same guy gets his quirk back offscreen

bnha is a manga where they defeat the main villain over the series using the power of friendship where the whole of class a bands together

bnha is a manga where the class hosts a festival to help people's spirits

the issue with bnha is not that it has tragic endings, the issue with bnha is that the tragic endings don't feel congruent with the rest of the manga AND that these tragic endings occurred at a time when the manga's pace was sped up so much that a lot of smaller emotional elements were now lost

the whole 431 debacle is part of the same problem for me. as pikahlua has said, 431 breaks the fantasy because izuku no longer seems to care about being a hero. he's okay to commit to being a teacher and doesn't seem incredibly excited at being able to be a hero once more. heroism has been made into a job much like other law enforcement, with attempts to reduce it from the celebritified mess it was once was. given izuku's and the rest of the classes desires, this feels like a tragedy. the dream of becoming a hero is replaced by the mundane realities of adulthood. i think this is an interesting concept to explore, the issue is is that bnha is not the manga where this feels tonally consistent, given it has so many illogical almost-magical emotional beats like reaching out to someones heart to heal them, people staying alive through pure strength of will. it feels too real to fit amongst those plot beats.

bnha is not the manga where people wanted a tragic ending.

those r just my thoughts, and i wish the ending could have had a bit longer to cook without the insane pressure of the manga industry, but oh well. its interesting to think abt in hindsight. I'm thankful at least for the joy I got out of what horikoshi gave us, even if the ending didn't match expectations.

[denimorigami]

You ever think about how Horikoshi gave us like five seasons/however many fucking chapters to build up Bakugou’s relationship with Jeanist and then when there was a really great opportunity for an emotional payoff he just didn’t do that. Like okay I am a big Edgeshot fan, I like Edgeshot for a lot of reasons, and I think his character was very underutilized throughout the series, but I also don’t think this needed to be his moment. I understand that the general intention with choosing Edgeshot to save Bakugou was to go “look!!! This is a hero acting heroically and it doesn’t even involve an emotional attachment to the person being saved!!!” but… this is immediately undermined by the Edgeshot-Jeanist flashback sequence. He doesn’t have an emotional attachment to Bakugou, but this is still being done with personal motivations not solely related to heroism for the sake of heroism. In some capacity, we are being suggested that it is partly out of his bond with Jeanist that he is making this sacrifice in order to save someone he knows Jeanist cares about. Which is fine, and I enjoy the flashback scene for a number of reasons, but again, this undermines the point of making it purely selfless. So, if the sacrifice being made is not truly from a purely selfless motivation,

Why was it not Jeanist ??

Again, five seasons of build up on this relationship. Yes, most of it happens in the background/side plots, or it is vaguely implied offscreen, but it very much is the case that they have a relationship. This is Bakugou’s non-teacher mentor figure in the series, and it is clear that in spite of his standoffish “I don’t like anyone ever” attitude, Bakugou does actually seem to like him. He seems to have learned some things. The two have some neat parallels with each other. It’s a good, solid relationship even if it isn’t the most deeply explored thing in the series.

So… this was the opportunity for an emotional payoff. A culmination of their relationship with something that actually matters to happen between them, which really hadn’t happened in the series since they first met. It is a bit harder to come up with something equally impactful to a literal sacrifice of one’s life, but again… this concept was also immediately undermined with the original scene as well which really removes any of the draw of including it in the first place. It’s great that, in theory, Edgeshot was willing to die for him. This did not actually happen, though, which cheapens the entire thing and, in my opinion, makes it pointless to even include. Either actually kill the character you are killing, or don’t bother fake-killing them if you don’t want them dead. I’m perfectly fine with a death fake out (Jeanist has multiple of these that I actually enjoy), but in a high stakes emotional climax? Bad time for that and just feels pointless.

I can think of at least two good ways to get that payoff I’ve been talking about, and if I can come up with alternative plot lines, I really feel like Horikoshi could too. Edgeshot being willing to do a heroic thing that ultimately has no consequences for a generally vague reason (because Horikoshi doesn’t choose to really… explain much of anything about who Edgeshot is or why he does fucking anything ever) doesn’t really add anything new to this story. He’s a pro hero who does the heroic thing because he’s a pro hero, and also that’s his best friend’s weird little surrogate child figure, I guess. It just doesn’t feel satisfying so much as “here’s a guy with a quirk that maybe could solve this situation if you squint and suspend your disbelief really hard.” It just seems like such a missed opportunity, not only to explore one of the deuteragonist’s important relationships, but to have a scene that really adds something to the themes of the story.

[sapphic-agent]

I think one of my main annoyances in Hori writing is him trying to redeem every villain and hero that some of them just doesn’t deserve that redemption.

Like; it’s reminds me too much of Naruto. But the difference is Naruto isn’t being held by modern standards since it set in a fictional world with ninjas while bnha is set in 200+ years in the future in modern japan.

I absolutely despise Endeavor and how he abused his family as a whole; in modern society he would have been put in jail, and yet he still gets a redemption arc. It’s feels like it’s cheapen all of the todorokis trauma.

And shoto being bakugo friend is another thing, since bakugo is so much like endeavor… like, if I had a classmate that act so much like my abusive parent that I absolutely despise I wouldn’t be close to them at all.

It’s gave me bad feeling how Hori just brushes all of the trauma the characters have from the actions of other characters selfish acts.

When I started reading the manga in 2015 I thought the concept is really good and having a main character with anxiety and socialization problems (in the start) made me hooked, because I had those things too. But looking at it now 8 years later I just feel so much dissatisfaction and disappointments..

You have a great point about Naruto. I mean, I'm not a fan of Naruto because of reasons, but it's the same concept as to why I like Vegeta better than Bakugou despite Vegeta technically being a worse person. Because MHA and DBZ are two very different shows. One is about becoming stronger and being able to face any threat to the world no matter what, the other is trying to push a narrative about morality and being a "true hero." The Z Fighters do have their own moral compasses, but it varies between every character. So there's no overarching theme that's beating us over the head.

Someone described this problem with MHA perfectly; it's constantly preaching about morality while willfully being tone deaf about its own overlaying issues. And that wouldn't even be so bad if so many of these issues weren't set up in the beginning to be addressed later.

I talk a lot about Bakugou, but I think we should focus on Endeavor like you mentioned. Not only are they similar in nature (temperamental, overzealous, dangerously ambitious), they're also two characters who benefit the most from the system in MHA.

...And it's barely ever acknowledged.

I mean sure, Dabi calls Endeavor out and it leads to the public losing faith in heroes. But not only does the family he abused and/or neglected choose to help him (I can't get over Fuyumi and Natsu taking blame for Touya when they were LITERAL CHILDREN wtf, not to mention Rei), why he was allowed to do this is never addressed. People knew he wasn't the kind hero All Might was, and it was something his fans admired along with his strength. Because as long as you have a strong quirk, you're admired in the MHA world and allowed to get away with whatever you want. Yet this is overlooked so easily.

(I like Hawks (because of Zeno Robinson mainly), but him dismissing this is so weird?? Why on Earth would Horikoshi go out of his way to introduce a character with an abusive father and make him an Endeavor fan? With no moment of clarity either?? There's something really off about that)

Bakugou's apology (one day I'll make a post critiquing this scene) is a little better in this regard as he does acknowledge that he was enabled because of his quirk. But again, it's really just skimmed over and only referenced to give Bakugou an excuse.

And the people who do question society and its system are either villains who are use it as an excuse to cause destruction and hurt people (the LOV and Overhaul) or bloodthirsty murderers (Stain). I would have loved for Horikoshi to introduce a group of vigilantes or anti-heroes who work outside of the HPSC and call out how discriminatory their system is.

Someone's talked about this before, but the Todoroki and Bakugou "friendship" was so forced and unnecessary. Bakugou has, at every turn, been completely unsympathetic towards the fact that Todoroki was abused and yelled at his sister for talking about it in her own home (but sure, let's call Bakugou an abuse victim I guess). Todoroki should have at the very least remained indifferent towards Bakugou like he was in the beginning.

Izuku deserves so much better than how Horikoshi treats him. He's either used as a tool to make Bakugou better or he's shoved into the background of his own show. He was so relatable in the beginning of the series only for the plot to suck his character dry.

[bnhaobservation]

I think that Shigaraki was absolutely right about the Hero Society and he should have been allowed to destroy it along with his LoV friends!

Well...

Shigaraki was mostly right on Hero society but Tomura destroying it sadly wouldn't have created a better world.

Something Tomura is often scolded for how he has no plan, he has no real aim to build up something, anything.

He's kind of an anarchist, he's against all forms of authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, advocating for the replacement of the state with stateless society. He doesn't really want to rule, he just wants to destroy the rules that currently exist because they're wrong.

I doubt though he would manage to mantain an anarchic state of things were he to destroy Hero society.

My guess, had he managed to destroy society fully and not just partially in the Paranormal Liberation War (where he was not yet possessed) we could have had two possible developments after.

The first is that Re-Destro and/or his underlings of the Meta Liberation Army (like Trumpet, Skeptic and the nameless Heteromorph guys) would have eventually tried to take control (maybe poisoning Tomura or tricking him in any other way and having the rest of the league follow shortly were they try to oppose).

While Tomura claims people must be free and the MLA seemed to claim the same, hence they could join forces, the MLA isn't anarchic but it's more on the Darwinist side. They apply biological concepts of natural selection and survival of the fittest to sociology, economics and politics and believe that the strong should see their wealth and power increase, while the weak should see their wealth and power decrease. For them what makes a person weak or strong is their Quirk so of course a Quirkless person would be worthless for example while people with strong Quirk should rule.

In the long run this would just end up replacing the ruling powers in the Hero society without changing much the general idea.

The second option is that, as he has always planned to do AFO would take control of Tomura and rule from his body.

AFO is autoritarian and totalitarian, in short he wants to promote a dictatorship with him as the sole rule of the world. As 'all should be for him' a person value would be tied to how useful one would be to him. There would be no freedom.

So yeah, Hero society wasn't good, but in comparison, for the masses it's better.

At the end of his manga though, Horikoshi tries to 'replace' Hero society with a more collectivistic one. People should view themselves and others as members of a collective unit who should hold collective responsibility for the helping other people. They all should do their best to reach out and save people, not just Heroes.

If this could be realistically applied to everyone yeah, it would be a better society because no one would be left behind... because people like Tomura, Himiko, Touya, Jin, Iguchi would have been helped not abandoned... but in the story it mostly works in his story because people get 'magically' inspired by Midoriya to reach out and do their best, Uraraka's Quirk program 'magically' fixes everything, and Hawks' new Hero ranking somehow also 'magically' inspire people.

I guess Shouji also gave his contribute against Quirk racism but Hero society had already magically confined it solely to rural areas and, anyway, even if Shouji gets a award for his efforts in finding peaceful solutions for conflicts surrounding discrimination, we aren't told he has drastically reduced conflicts, just that now Shouji solves them pacifically. How it's up to speculation.

I don't want to sound bitter but the problem is that the story tackled real life problems like abuse, homeless, discrimination, manipulation and so on and then said 'If everyone cared and nobody cried / If everyone loved and nobody lied / And if everyone shared and swallowed their pride / Then we'd see the day when nobody died' so everyone should be inspired by Midoriya to care!

I'm of course oversimplifying the message, but somehow I feel the story made the solution too easy, case in point how Uraraka tells Togata and the others (who have no preparation whatsoever to deal with kids with Quirk troubles) how they'll surely spot signals (with the implication they also surely will be able to fix whatever problem there is) when in real life professionals can miss signals and fail to help.

I get optimism but when it's over the top it ends up downplaying difficulties too much in a way that feels unreal.

Sorry, this wasn't exactly what you were asking and, I fear, I ended up letting my bitterness for the ending be a tad too evident, but I wanted the story to just give a better world to Tomura and Co, and this would have helped me to believe something could be done for the others in similar conditions too, and the story instead went and killed Tomura and Co and then told me 'but fear not, because now we'll stop people from turning into Tomura, because now we'll be nicer and we'll try hard and look, didn't we save random kid with tragic backstory in a blink?' and it only felt forced to me.

But whatever, maybe it's just me.

Sorry again for derailing in my answer so much and thank you for your ask!

[polysyndetonaddictsupportgroup]

Just finished reading Pez Dispenser Debris (I don’t even go there but I am fueled by Wiki articles and a love for your storytelling) and first of all—amazing!!! 10/10, I think I need to watch this series now. 

Second, I  noticed that (while very much distinct) Yuuta & Izuku have a lot of similarities in the voice you gave them—maybe it’s the constant panic attacks or perhaps both of  them placing blame for everything squarely on their own shoulders, but ough it makes for the perfect blend of gut-punching angst. I’d love to hear any ramblings you currently have about either of them. I am currently obsessed with both of them now and am placing the blame on you <3

I’m gonna pretty heavily discuss some spoilers for my hero academia in this. I figured that was okay since you’d already read my fanfic and the wiki so the cat is out of the metaphorical bag. That being said, maybe wait to read this answer if you want to not be spoiled for more details in my hero.

Yuuta and Izuku absolutely have the most similar voices out of all of my narrators and it is 90% because they are both completely insane and in violent need of a Xanax and a nice soothing cup of chamomile tea. God I love them both so much. They should each be heavily medicated.

My hero academia is a pretty great watch through the Shie Hassaikai arc. The concept is entertaining, the characters are GREAT, and the world building is really cool.

Then the story sort of. Went to shit.

I tried for a while after that, but eventually had to stop watching. My friends and I have a group chat named “horikoshi just call us” because we got so despondent at the writing decisions after that arc.

Horikoshi. If you’re out there. If you’re reading this. Just call us. We just want to help.

That being said, my love for the characters maintains its death grip on me. I simply adore them. They’re delights.

Yuuta and Izuku, on their face, have a lot of similarities as protagonists. The aforementioned insanity and need of Xanax, of course, but the skeleton of the stories has a lot of common touchstones and themes, like:

Both characters have some kind of history with suicidal ideation or tendencies. In the second scene of JJK0, it’s established that Yuuta canonically tried to kill himself. In the first episode of BNHA, Izuku is told to kill himself by his bullies, in an act which appears to be common to izuku’s life, and the only reason Izuku comes up with to not do it is “then you’d get in trouble for telling me to do it.”

Both characters have severe self worth issues. Yuuta’s looking for a reason to be alive at the start of JJK0. He’s looking for a right to be alive. In a way, Izuku is too at the start of BNHA. At the open of action, he is told by everyone in his life that he is useless. His nickname is “Deku,” which uses some of the same kanji as “Dekunobo,” meaning blockhead. The most direct translation were given is that this is a way of calling him useless. He’s the powerless member of a society choked with superpower, and he’s been told his entire life that he can do nothing, that his dreams are pointless, and that he’s a burden who would be better off dead.

They’re both saddled with power they can’t fully control. Yuuta with Rika, and Izuku with One for All, a transferable power that’s too strong to be contained in his body.

They both have a close relationship with an impossibly strong mentor that they are implied to be the successor of. Yuuta with Gojo, as he’s second only to Gojo in the modern age, and Izuku with All Might (aka Toshinori Yaga), who he is more literally taking on the mantle of One for All from.

They both are chugging that Loving Their Friends Juice and have tried to kill grown men with their bare hands as a result

That all being said, they could not be more different characters and honestly aren’t all that similar.

I have this sort of lasting grievance with literary analysis when people take a list of common plot points or events and use them to make the argument that characters are similar or parallel one another. Like, that’s all facial. The real question is how do they substantively handle those events. How do their story arcs treat those things? How does their character react to them?

Yuuta and Izuku’s actual substantive characters don’t really react to those events in the same way at all. The analysis could go on all day in this respect, really, but the biggest difference is how their respective story arcs treat the cornerstone of their original conflicts.

Yuuta opens action with Rika as the cornerstone of his conflict. She’s who he wants to free, she’s who he’s chained to, and it’s her protection of him that makes him think he deserves to die. Izuku’s cornerstone, meanwhile, is his own Quirklessness. He desperately wants to be a hero, and everyone in his life tells him he can’t be because he is Quirkless. He’s useless because he’s Quirkless. He should kill himself because he’s Quirkless. He’s a burden and always will be because he’s Quirkless.

And while Yuuta’s arc reconciles him with his cornerstone, Izuku’s forgoes it entirely.

The story just. Forgets. That he’s Quirkless. They stop talking about it. It never comes up again. It doesn’t make any real big impact on his character or decisions. It’s one of my biggest axes to grind with how the story developed, and it’s actually one of the biggest reasons why I wrote pez dispenser debris.

Pez dispenser debris was actually inspired by this one piece of my hero academia art where Izuku is hugging his younger self. I don’t know if it was official art or fan art, and I have no idea where it is or where to find it because by god have I tried so I can find it and link it for credit/to boost it. I saw it literally years ago, thought “oh that’s cool,” wrote the original first scene of the fic (where Midoriya stops the bus and is hit by the Quirk), wasn’t feeling it, got distracted by other projects, went to law school, graduated law school, signed up to take the bar exam, and was suddenly electrified in the last fucking month of studying with this fugue state of feverish artistic inspiration. I have never written so easily or so compulsively in my life. I’d write for eight unbroken hours and it would be fucking magic every time. It was like an addiction. I was writhing with a need to create and had so much fucking anxiety about the test I was not studying for instead. The words could not be restrained.

Anyway I taught myself three subjects on the plane ride to the state I was taking it in and passed anyway so it’s fine we’re fine

The moral of the story is that this story has been cooking long enough for me to get two more diplomas than I had when I started it and I have no idea where to find that fucking piece of art that inspired it, but if I find it, I’ll reblog it so y’all can see it too.

The thing is, the narrative sort of forcibly excluding Izuku’s past as Quirkless would make total sense to me if it was used as something Izuku himself was doing.

Izuku necessarily had to hide the truth of his former Quirkless status at the start of action—he needed to keep the secret of One for All. Like, he could not let people find out that a Quirk was transferrable, but you know, just the most powerful one, and also he had it, please come torture it out of him.

But as the narrative goes on, that rationale becomes less important. He has people he can trust with it. And yeah, eventually One for All becomes more known, but the discussion is all about him being all might’s successor. Him being Quirkless and how that affected him and still affects him isn’t really discussed or treated as important. And Izuku doesn’t act like it’s important to him either. He never really thinks about it.

And I just hated that. Like. He spent almost his entire life as a member of society who was spit on. He’s had a Quirk for less than a year. How are his experiences with Quirklessness not important to how he interacts with the world?

The other point of contention I had was Mirio.

Mirio is this superstar of a senpai who takes Izuku under his wing. He has an extremely powerful quirk that’s only as effective as it is because he put in the work and learned how to handle it. He’s a perfect, eternally smiling paragon of heroism. He’s flagged early as the one out of everyone, including heroes with established careers, who is most likely to replace All Might.

He’s also the one who was supposed to get One for All.

His mentor had found him and trained him to be All Might’s successor. Before All Might could meet him, however, he found this feral raccoon child in a sewer and said “oh my god I can’t not offer him incomprehensible power within the first three hours of meeting him” and tripped face first into fatherhood.

During a rescue mission, Mirio loses his Quirk in a way that’s borderline irreversible. There’s no known cure, and the only possible one is dependent on a little girl learning how to control an extremely volatile and dangerous quirk and using it in a way she never has before.

So surely, they’re going to commit to that writing decision, right? He’s Quirkless. We’re bringing back having Quirkless characters. It’s going to be this sick as hell juxtaposition between Izuku and Mirio. We are at least going to force Izuku to reflect on his own times as Quirkless or have some kind of discussion about how Mirio is treated differently now that he is Quirkless.

But no. He gets his Quirk back by the next season. We don’t talk about it much. It’s more of a minor inconvenience than anything.

It’s almost as if the show accepted as an actual rule that you couldn’t be a hero without a Quirk. And then just. Forgot. Everything it had to do with its literal protagonist.

Anyway, I hated it.

In contrast, I fucking loved how yuuta’s storyline with Rika ends. That scene where Yuuta’s turning back to Rika, thanking her for loving him, telling him they can die together? I’m obsessed with it. I recently moved across the country and listened to that theme song on loop during the drive.

Yuuta and Rika’s love was unhealthy. They hurt each other. But it wasn’t malicious.

They just didn’t know how to love each other in a way that didn’t hurt.

They were in shit circumstances. But the love was there.

Yuuta felt guilty for Rika’s love for him and his for her almost the entire narrative. He thought he cursed her with his love. He wanted to kill himself because of how she hurt people out of love for him. It’s why I have moments in sea glass gardens where Yuuta talks about begging Rika to stop loving him—he didn’t know why love had to hurt so goddamn bad, and he’s sorry for that, he really is. He wishes he was better at it than he was.

At the end of JJK0, Yuuta truly is the last person who remembers Rika as she was and still loves her for who she is. He’s faced with Geto, who wants to use her as a weapon. Everyone treats her as a threat or a tool, except for Yuuta.

Like. Just that moment. Of loving someone so genuinely, and being the last one who does, and knowing that everyone else will just use them. I’m obsessed with it.

Yuuta reconciles with his love for Rika and her love for him, and they’re both finally freed. It’s this perfect moment of acceptance that I adore. He comes to terms with his past. It doesn’t hurt him so much anymore.

I wrote pez dispenser debris to sort of force Izuku to have that kind of reconciliation. As it is, he hasn’t reconciled with his own Quirklessness and how that affected him. I wanted to give him something he couldn’t physically escape and had to face.

[codenamesazanka]

I think there are too many things about the AFO gave Decay theory that do not work out. It would cause more problems than it would solve, and although Horikoshi is no stranger to bad/lazy writing, the memory does feel like a red herring. Perhaps it is also notable that both the Tenko from the one-shot and the Sazanka concept character were (apparently) born with their Quirks.

(This is mostly me clinging to hope, though... But it feels like if this was all supposed to be AFO's doing, Shigaraki's character arc would have played out differently. I like your idea that even if AFO gave Tenko Decay, it doesn't matter anymore because Shigaraki has embraced the Quirk as his own, but that leads to another problem: if the reveal doesn't change anything, it doesn't have a point. It would just be there for shock value, and that would be some frighteningly bad writing.)

Yesssss, Tenko and Sazanka! Love them so much. Yeah, Oneshot Tenko says he has had 『the power to disintegration things he touches with both hands』 ever since he was born - doesn't know how or why, but that's his power; meanwhile Sazanka seems to have simply manifested the power to 『take away life with only a touch』 as his quirk (which is the freudian excuse for why he becomes a 'peacekeeping' vigilante who prowls the streets targeting people who has quirks "too chaotic for society"). I have also clung to these two as flimsy reassurances that Decay is Shigaraki/Tenko's original quirk, but gotta admit - doesn't mean much. Shigaraki Tomura Hero Academia is ultimately his own character with his own backstory. 

It would be fun, though, if the memory is a red herring. Like, in-story, Deku himself thinks he's getting 'there', getting 'closer'...

...but to what? The root cause? the foundational trauma? The pain Shigaraki put a lid on? What exactly does Deku think he's getting closer to? More importantly, why? Is it because the memories are, for the most part, chronologically going backwards, and he hasn't cracked all of the Shell of Hatred yet? Is it because he sees black-hair child Tenko, and thinks he's reaching The Crying Child moment? But we readers know The Crying Child Full Of Sadness he saw back in 305 was after Suit Man Brings Tenko Home?

So maybe you're right, that that glimpse of the memory is for the readers. Make us wonder, because we already know all/nearly all the shit that went down with Shimura Tenko—because Deku probably shouldn't know what meaning that memory has? (Unless we get another flashback to explain that Deku had some hidden knowledge all along, somehow. That is also sadly very possible.) 

Like I said before, AFO being revealed to have given 'Decay' to Tenko is something I'm not too opposed to in and of itself; what worries me is how the story will use it. And my worries are the same as yours - imo lazy writing, everything evil in the world is AFO's doing, and how it doesn't really do anything for Shigaraki's character beyond giving him one more tragic backstory element among many.

I've seen people argue that that's fine, it fits with what we know about Shigaraki already - he's just a pawn, he has no agency and never did, he's basically an overgrown Eri who needs to be saved and swaddled and then the Heroes can put on a concert in Tartarus 2.0 to make him smile. :D 

As you've noticed, though, Shigaraki's character arc haven't quite played out like that. Those same people mentioned above might argue that nothing Shigaraki does is actually by his own choice, that he's been so manipulated that he doesn't know up from down and basically everything he is and does is trauma/engineered by AFO/brainwashed into him (except for conveniently, magically, the good things), he needs to understand he’s actually Shimura Tenko, the sweet kid who only cried and made people feel awkward but could carry on the pretense of peace, thank goodness he doesn’t get angry and make people feel threatened and have to change things - but in the story, Shigaraki hasn’t forgotten that he’s Shimura Tenko - he remembers, he acknowledges, and he only says he’s become Shigaraki Tomura.

He still hates being rejected and being denied. He hates being looked down on. He's declared he doesn't want to take up AFO's previous title of Emperor of Darkness, or even be like AFO, eventually breaking out of AFO's possession with his own indomitable will; he's been literally shouting about following his own dreams. He's gone and found his own followers, his friends, and part of the reason he destroys is because of those friends. He’s wrong in choosing destruction, and yeah, maybe he was spurred on by trauma, but he’s not wrong in his reasons - same as Toga, Dabi, the heteromorphs, who were also spurred on by trauma, who were wrong in choosing violence, but not wrong that they were failed by society and not wrong about being angry. Like them, Shigaraki has fought to be seen, to live. Shigaraki has fought so insistently and consistently to be himself. 

But if so, and if we still get the ‘AFO gave Decay’ reveal and it doesn’t change anything, does it have a point? 

It does, actually! Not for Shigaraki, but for Deku. Currently Deku still has the excuse of not knowing a single thing about Shigaraki, so he can still only care about saving Shimura Tenko. Readers don’t have that excuse, so they have to blame everything that went wrong all on AFO. What the ‘AFO gave Decay’ reveal can do, though, is to shut both of those down. AFO gave Tenko Decay… but Shigaraki doesn’t care anymore, he’s actively choosing to pursue the path regardless. AFO gave Tenko Decay, but it doesn’t change anything about how the house his father built was abusive and enabling. AFO gave Tenko Decay, but that was 15 fucking years ago, and in all that time, from the moment the massacre occurred to when All Might raided the bar, no Hero had ever arrived to save Tenko/Tomura from AFO’s clutches. 

And Deku should have to reckon with that.

Let’s cope together. Thanks for the ask! 

[dekusleftsock]

I am begging you and every other MHA fan to raise your standards cause Kohei gave everyone a yuri couple only to immediately kill one off.

…how many times has horikoshi faked deaths in this series. Because it’s A LOT. Afo, allmight, izuku losing his arm, bakugou, touya, Ochako literally last chapter, like… the story isn’t done yet my dude.

BUT HEY IF YOU WANNA ACTUALLY CRITIQUE HORIKOSHIS WRITING THEN IM ALL FOR IT HAHA

So how do I think horikoshi has seriously failed mha… hmm…

1: her

Her entire character. Well, not entire character. She GOT a lot of screen time and development don’t get me wrong, especially later in the series, and yes I love the fact that bakugou and dekus relationship was more prioritized than Izuku and Ochakos, but does that mean he prioritized her character? No! Nope! NADDA! Ochako is repeatedly sidelined throughout the story, and is also somehow excluded from a lot of arcs that SERIOUSLY RELATE TO HER CHARACTER.

Imagine if ochako was a part of the stain arc at all. She joined for selfish reasons like iida, he has a blood quirk like toga (which could’ve EASILY been foreshadowing to her not being freaked out by blood like most people), could’ve been a great way to show some nuance to her character….

And yet… AND YET…

That brings me to mistake number 2: Shoto Todoroki

Do I think shoto’s character is written badly or wrong? No! Of course I don’t! The entirety of the todoroki storyline, especially with its connection to hawks and the dirty parts of heroics, is really really good! I think it’s one of the most well handled abusive families in all of fiction. It understands EVERYONE in the family, and horikoshi is still able to show so much character and development in just a few scenes, like Natsuo or Rei.

So what IS my problem?

The fact that Ochako, her story, her CHARACTER AS A WHOLE… becomes sidelined due to horikoshi’s choice to prioritize his character over her’s. Again, it’s a great story and I wish he could balance both of them in mha, but he COULDNT, and he made the choice to sacrifice a woman’s character over a man’s.

Though I will say, a note on how ochako could’ve been in the stain arc: toga as a concept was created later and for ochako specifically, so it does kind of make sense as to why she wasn’t involved. Plans change and writers change, their ideas for their characters and what direction they go will ALWAYS change, and sadly you can’t predict that you won’t change a character or it’s direction at any point. It sucks! But that’s how a lot of these really long manga’s go. They have to write and then draw it pretty fucking fast.

And tbh I don’t really know what id do in horikoshi’s shoes with ochako and shoto! But it is definitely a critique we can acknowledge. It would take some seriously extraordinary writing skills to be able to balance, what, 3 deuteragonists? Katsuki, Ochako, AND Todoroki? Especially since one of those characters has a very complex trauma storyline that involves like five other characters? I honestly wouldn’t know what to do in his shoes!

I just wish he had picked the woman out of the two of them, but I think everyone knows that his manga wouldn’t be half as popular were he to have made it focus on two guys and a girl, instead of three guys, one of which is conventionally attractive and has major main character energy.

Anyway number 3: the overhaul arc

Ugh I have such mixed opinions on this arc. On one hand it has some really interesting storylines… when they’re on their own.

From what I understand, horikoshi did this arc because he wanted to try his hands at a longer arc and he had never really done that before. And while it’s great and very obvious he learned things from this arc, it just… takes up so much god damn space and gives us absolutely nothing long term.

Like yeah it makes a few points, like how high schoolers shouldn’t be involved in all of this and kinda sets up the ending rn where the actual adult heroes are sacrificing themselves for the next generation (ex: the guy that I forget the name of who’s now bakugous heart, allmight for deku, midnight for Mina/all the other kids, Mount lady, Aizawa for deku and all the other kids, Mirko for bakugou, etc etc), where as villains sacrifice the next generation for THEMSELVES (ex: afo and shigaraki, overhaul and eri, the gun arm girl for deku, also afo for dabi, etc etc) which is really good to do!

It’s just. Yk. Done by basically every other arc.

AIZAWA REPEATEDLY SHOWS THIS, ALLMIGHT REPEATEDLY SHOWS THIS, ENDEAVOR REPEATEDLY SHOWS THIS. Like it’s the entirety of Mount ladies arc, learning to be a hero and sacrifice for the next generation. Sacrifice and the fact that we forget 1-A are high schoolers is constantly shoved down our fucking throats; we don’t need this arc that takes so god damn long, only adds more characters that aren’t that important, TAKES AWAY FROM YOUR MAIN CAST OTHER THAN DEKU AND ALLMIGHT, JUST for it to tell you explicitly that “kids shouldn’t be fighting the battles of the previous generation, but they have to”. It just. Ugh.

There’s so much time in that arc fucking WASTED on nighteye or mirio’s character. Do I think the big three are really interesting? Of course! The contrast between mirio to deku is fascinating! It really shows how much deku can’t become allmight.

But you know. We talked about that a season ago mha. Yk. When he learns to use kicks instead of punches. Or yk. Gran Torino’s entire arc surrounds that. Everything about deku is nothing like allmight. That’s the entirety of their characters together. It’s repeatedly shown to be dekus biggest insecurity. He’s not allmight. YOU DIDNY NEED THIS ARC TO TELL YOU THAT AGAIN.

It’s like, everything that matters in this arc has already been shouting at you throughout the entire show, and everything else is never really used again outside of a mention here or there. It’s REALLY CLEAR Horikoshi was just doing this arc to try doing a long arc, not thinking about the long term of said arc.

Hmmm what else is there to complain about…

Eh, I guess the fan service? Which is, yk, in every other shonen anime/manga out there. Sometimes with people far younger than anyone in mha.

Ugh it’s like people like you just want me to be screaming “horikoshi did this! Horikoshi did that!” Every five seconds. I read the manga, I’ve talked about these flaws before on my account. Sorry if I… enjoy the manga???? Wait… omg!

It’s almost like I’m an mha account and it says RIGHT HERE IN MY BIO! Crazy!

Like seriously, what was your point? You were mad at drawings on a screen and someone enjoying that story and just… wanted to make someone’s day worse?

Did you expect me to heave over and be like “yes master anon! Toga is the worst written character in mha and horikoshi is a bad writer!” He’s a capable writer who understands his audience more than people give him credit for.

EVERY story has flaws. Every. Single. One. And because mha is literally everywhere and the fandom can get annoying because, it’s literally everywhere, I can understand getting annoyed sometimes. But you can’t sit here and expect me to solely focus on how bad horikoshi’s writing is because you’re mad at one thing. Toga SHOULD be selfless for ochako, sorry that it means thinking that she’s going to die???? What do you want from me?

I don’t have to “raise my standards” because horikoshi uses a lot of subtext and symbolism. I have other gay media I watch or read.

But like every single lgbtq movement that’s ever happened, it takes BABY STEPS. There aren’t many, if any, gay shonens out there, and if mha wants to be the first one it has to play by the rules. It has to make you think this is every other heterosexual shonen ever.

Shojo didn’t just become gay, it had to have shows like sailor moon censor a lesbian couple to be “cousins” so that other shows could exist. Madoka had to be at least semi subtle about its queer coding.

That whole meme where it shows one show saying “x show walked so that y show could run”, yeah that’s how every gay genre was made. Horror didn’t just become gay, it had to have community and relatability build up over the years, along with those new gay writers remembering where they came from, who paved the way.

My point being: I don’t give a shit if you think horikoshi is an awful writer who you think I can’t criticize. However I DO KNOW that if toga and ochako fully get together you’ll NEVER be able to avoid mha. And that thought makes me smile so much more than just the fact that they’re canon.

[fluffykitteninabox]

¿What are your thoughts on the controversial Hagakure cover?

Hi cute question mark anon ✨✨✨

I don't think this is a separate issue from how Horikoshi handles his female characters in general so I'm going to talk more generally rant a bit (oops sorry)

also one reason this took so long is that I decided to join in the trend and gave the poor girl some clothes:

The sexualisation of female characters in anime and manga is a big issue, especially when a big portion of them are underage (shonen is the most popular genre after all).

In my hero academia we see this with basically every single female character Horikoshi creates.

Momo, Hagakure, Himiko and Midnight all have "excuses" by the story to get naked on screen regularly. Supposedly it's because of their quirks, however there's plenty of male characters who's clothes don't get destroyed in every fight they're in, even if it would logically make sense for that to happen.

Male characters get to keep their dignity, but females don't get that same privilege.

The only male character that we see get fully naked because of their quirk is Mirio, but that's only one instance, and in every scene after that we get the explanation that he got a special costume made from his hair. If that's an option for him, why isn't it for Hagakure? Why does she have to run around naked in battle? Why do we need "jokes" about others accidentally touching her boobs because they didn't see her? We don't need that, she's a teenager!

Then there's Momo's design which is not only disgusting, but also doesn't make logical sense either. Supposedly the opening at the front is for practicality.

She "needs" to have big areas of skin open to make bigger objects.

Except that's a lie. We never really see her use the boob window for that. She mostly uses her arms to make things. And the biggest space she could have open for big objects is her back. And we actually see her use her back (and destroying her clothes in the process because of course she did!)

Most of the time when a female character is naked she gets objectified by the narrative and/or the framing/camera movement in a scene, while when a male character is naked it works as a form of fantasy fulfillment for the male target audience. I think this is part of "the male gaze" and not separate from it.

Here's a great video about this topic.

There's also the issue of Mineta's entire existence!

Mineta is the other reason I took so long to answer, because I went on tangent about how the concept for his character could have worked, and how I would have fixed it. But I realised this doesn't fit here so I took it out. (I might make a separate post about this)

This character (that Horikoshi has apparently admitted is a form of self insert) exists purely to objectify every single female character that's on screen. Every scene he's in, every line of dialogue he has adds no value to the story. He's supposedly there for comic relief, but most normal people don't find blatant sexism funny.

Some might say "oh but he gets punished for it. it's supposed to show how bad that is". Well yes but actually no. Mineta gets punished for his behaviour, but the viewers still get to see naked underage anime girls on screen. It's not a subversion of the trope if you're still doing the trope.

and Mineta's "jokes" get progressively worse as time goes on, which to me shows that this really isn't about the subversion of tropes/meta humour. It's just an excuse to sexualise female characters.

Thankfully this has seemingly stopped now (after the awful "joke" with Eri) presumably because Hori got backlash for it. He should have been getting backlash from the start but better late than never I suppose.

However Horikoshi hasn't (as far as I know) officially apologised for this. Even if he did stop inserting such jokes into the story, he clearly continued sexualising his female characters behind closed doors.

The Hagakure colour page is the culmination of all of those previous instances.

Horikoshi was able to freely sexualise underage female characters in his series time and time again with little to no backlash, because this type of thing is normalised in anime. So it makes sense that as this went on and he saw how much he was able to get away with, he kept doing it.

The page is truly disgusting to look at. Besides being completely naked there's also the pose itself, the weird barely there censors in the form of "keep out" tape of all things, but also something that I haven't seen anyone else talk about.

Her hand placement always felt weird to me. Even if she was wearing clothes, showing her hands in between her legs like that looks overtly sexual. It also creates this strong "V" shape, that deliberately directs the viewer's eyes downward towards that area instead of directing them up towards her face. (That's why I changed her hands to rest on top of her legs in my redraw)

Horikoshi is a professional artist, he knows what he's doing and he is known for his really intresting character designs. In this colour page, Hagakure is a sexual object first and a character second.

This is why Horikoshi's statement of "wanting to test her colour scheme" rings hollow to me. When you want to test what colours go well on a character you draw multiple versions of them and you basically play dress up by putting them in different outfits and changing the colours around. If he wanted to just test her hair and eyes, he could have just done a portrait from the neck and up.

The way I see it, this is clearly just a poor excuse to avoid responsibility.

The issue isn't just Horikoshi himself, it's about how the sexualisation of women (underage or not) in anime is so normalised that it is presented as "part of the culture", and if you complain about it people will tell that "this is just how anime/Japan is" and that "you should just accept it"

If "part of a culture" promotes sexism then this is an objectively bad thing and said culture SHOULD be changed.

[bibibbon]

I remember hearing that horikoshi focused on making the manga be something like a modernised tale from a comic book which explains why he tries to make things so clearly cut black and white but ends up failing and creating a very grey society that has a lot of mixed MESSAGES.

I made a post about MHAs horrible mixed messaging and how that ended up really destroying the series but it doesn't help that horikoshi is somewhat of a hypocrite when it comes to his wiring because he uses the villain characters to criticise something in society but then uses horrible hero characters to praise the same thing he was once criticising.

Another thing that MHA really lacks is the world building. You can argue that the MHA universe is supposed to be our universe just with superpowers but with that comes a lot of interesting concepts that are dismissed, not discussed or developed enough and clearly rushed. For example quirkless discrimination only somehow happens to izuku midoriya and we never really focus on how that has impacted him or what other quirkless people went through.

Stain was a great villain and he could of added a whole lot more to how morally grey society is and how horrible it was the same goes for overhaul and the hero comission but stain is the only character that gets some sort of spotlight when it comes to this and it isn't even enough 🤷‍♀️. Unpopular opinion but stain is a big part as to why iida's character arc was so good because it actually developed both iida and the world building to a certain extent.

Iam not an all might hater but personally speaking I would of loved if all mights character revolved a bit around him being both a victim to hero society and being the reason as to why hero society is so down in the trenches and sucks so badly 🤷‍♀️. I think it would if added more depth to him and would of been 100X better then introducing the iron might or quirkless hero all might plot point because if ANYONE SHOULD OF BEEN A QUIRKLESS HERO IT SHOULD OF BEEN IZUKU MIDORIYA!!!!!

Iam still saying that Enji todoroki should of never been redeemed and him not being redeemed would if helped the narrative so much more by (1) having the todoroki arc actually focus on shoto and the family (2) him becoming a worse person could been greatly contrasted to bakugo who is trying to change (3) would of had him be a symbol for the corrupt heroes in society (4) would of given more complexity to hawks character.

UA not properly teaching children to be heroes is another fascinating factor as it could of just been UA is a bad and corrupt school/facility that could of contributed greatly to the story. This could of really helped the world building and you could of had aizawa (who sucks and got ruined to be hori's mouthpiece) be the one to try and help the children and for the children to realise this and change how horrible the system is especially izuku and others characters who have faced systematic oppression for things they cannot control

Currently I doubt a lot would change after the final war arc I feel like horikoshi wouldn't make a new system but uphold the oppressive and horrible system presented in MHA (low-key reminds me of harry potter)

Oh and don't get me started on how much of a cancerous annoyance bakugo is there is no point for him to be attached to Izuku's character or for him to do or achieve the things he actually did. I stand by the point that bakugo should of actually faced proper challenges/concequences for his actions and should of spent the entire series trying to change and become better while having an accomplishment of working together with another person and hero to defeat a villain. ALSO CHANGE BAKUGOS REASONING FOR BULLYING IZUKU THAT STUFF SUCKS!!!! I still can't believe that the only reason he picked on izuku and gave him all that trauma was cos he thought that izuku was too good like that's some great A+ bs it makes more sense in the story to have him start to bulky izuku after izukus lack of quirk and he does it because of societal expectations and his ego but no that's not what we get and somehow the abuser rules the story yet again

The longer BNHA goes on, the more I start to ask this question.

Is this a story worth telling?

It brought up some interesting things to think about like what it really means to be a hero and if villains really are evil or people that society failed.

But then comes the muddled messages, characters that barely do anything significant other than to be plot devices, the overhyping of one character that ruins the purpose and development of the main character, and the inconsistencies and conclusions that characters come to that makes little to no sense.

Then you just have a story that just goes NOWHERE!

Because let's be honest, how much will society actually change by the end of it all? How will it treat quirkless and those with less than stellar quirks? And will they actually allow people like Bakugou to become heroes all because they "try really hard"?

Hi there, @theloganator101 First off, thank you for the question.

Also, TLDR.

Long before, I had made a somewhat similar post, talking about the same points. What makes a hero a hero? Because it's more than wearing a cape and punching issues and problems into submission. Bad guys simply go to jail and rot till their dying breath. And why is the world of BNHA so black and white? So 'this is good and this is bad'? We have a very compartmentalized version of human society. But you and I both know very well that human nature, human social interactions are the most complex and difficult things to understand. And even though I had seen these flaws in the series much earlier, I was still forgiving of the author because I genuinely thought he would eventually come around and explain why things are they way in the BNHA verse. But that NEVER happened at any point in the series so forget about Hori addressing these issues now because BNHA as a whole doesn't matter.

It's a no brainer to say that the job of a 'hero' is to save the day. But what about those who are the victims of school bullying? (cough cough BkDk is a totally normal and a healthy relationship, you're just a homophobe if you dont ship them) or those who had to keep their voice and entire existence heavily suppressed because your marriage was just a means to an end? (Endeavour is a loving husband, a doting father and a hard working hero) What about those kids who are victims of child abuse, child neglect and discrimination? (the Todoroki kids, Shigaraki, Toga and heck, even low key Spinner grew up in loving and healthy households). The Creature Rejection Clan was created to combat racism and All Might, someone who's name itself reduced crime in Japan by a half simply by existing, did NOTHING against the CRC. I thought 'heroes' were meant to protect the weak and deliver justice to the evil doers irrespective of who or what they are. I thought that's what's really meant to be a hero, to be defenders of mankind. Because lets face it, what's the difference between a villain who kills and a hero who abuses his family members on a physical, mental and an emotional level? What are the required criteria to judge these very two damnable actions with a bias attitude?

Which brings me to another question: Why are the students at UA high only taught martial or physical training? Don't they have special classes where they have to moral education classes or something along those line? Besides the rigorous physical training they need to fight against heroes, they have normal, regular-degular academic curriculum. These so called heroes-in-training are well educated in the art of understanding the topography of a battle field but the system has FAILED to educate the kids to understand why villains are the way they are. The entire system, the root itself, the very foundation of the hero society, FAILED to protect what they claimed to be. People like Toga, Dabi, Overhaul, Spinner, Shigaraki, Twice, Stain, Magne, are all nothing but the products of the hero society, the actual end result of this superficial, celebrity-like lifestyle of hero worship. But many fail to see beyond the stars and shimmers of this artificially constructed world.

The above points are heavily tied to Stain's ideologies. He didn't put up arms and struggles against the hero society for nothing. He knew what he was doing.

This may not be the answer that you're looking for but the way I see it, the MHA story shows us a horrifying representation of our already dark and twisted world but that's where it stops. It wants to do nothing with it because the story doesn't know where to go with it and how to go about doing it. It started something it couldn't finish. It created issues it couldn't solve. So the plot choose a different path to tread upon: focus on the popular people from the hero society who are highly questionable and romanticize their words and actions. It doesn't matter if you faced quirk discrimination or worse, became a butt of ridicule for not having any quirk at all. So long as a bully has given a half baked ''apology'' and works hard to be a hero to satisfy their own ego, it's all good at the end of the day. Self worth issues, self inflicted bodily harm, lack of self worth received by the victim (definitely NOT Izu because Bk treats him with utmost respect and comradery), all melt away due to the power of 'apology' and friendship. It teaches us that celebrity worship, fake sense of heroism, the desire to be the top at the expanse of others are to be treated with normalcy because the show must go on no matter what. The other message is that it's ok be a wife beater and a bully so long as you're doing it for heroism, name, fame, recognition.

Our priorities in the MHA universe are all messed up. We don't even have an inkling of a thought about how Izu feels about quirkless discrimination and the manga is wrapping itself up. So all the answers we can provide ourselves with regarding the matter will be head canon.That's why the main message of the story is that it fails on so many levels in terms of writing a morally upright story. The main hero of our story is nothing to offer, no words of hope and encouragement. That's the other message it has conveyed to us. I'm not saying this, the manga has proven to us time and again what i just said. The other thing it hammers home is the fact that, so long as you're a hero, your unjust behavior will be swept under the rug by your school and higher authorities. The message that MHA time and again conveys is that it loves hypocrisy and double standards. These are the solid reasons as to why the plot cannot logically and cohesively march forward.

"With great power comes with great responsibility" and the MHA verse failed to understand this concept by becoming the very thing the villains are condemned for in this series. That, my friend, is the general message of the story. That, my friend, is the moral lesson of the MHA verse.

#MHA critical thinking #bk is a bully #Izu deserved better #Izu is the protagonist not Bk #Izu matters Bk doesnt #Hori cant write shit

[epickiya722]

Actually, now I'm thinking about it, it's odd to me that Midoriya and Uraraka look similar and maybe that's on purpose.

Round eyes & face

Facial marks (Freckles for Midoriya, blush stickers for Uraraka)

"Brunette" (green hair is considered being a brunet/te in anime logic)

Shorter than the others

Now given that, what if Uraraka "falling in love" with Midoriya wasn't her actually falling in love? What if it was her having a self-reflection and accepting herself?

Further thinking about it... they're practically the same person.

They're both compassionate, kind. They learn to adapt to changes. They're cute, but they're vicious if pushed far enough. They won't give up on people or in a fight. Hell, they both float, use long range attacks, and close range ones. Works in teams of three (Uraraka-Asui-Hado, Midoriya-Bakugou-Todoroki) under a top Pro Hero.

And they both "rival" some feral blond that they don't act "normal" around.

What if Midoriya wasn't meant to be Uraraka's crush but her mirror? Mind you whenever someone points out her "crush" it's not someone you would turn to for love advice.

Aoyama is Aoyama (think about that reveal), Ashido practically ships anybody with anybody when there's no real chemistry, and Toga has a twisted concept of love.

You really think I would trust any of them on telling me I have a "crush"?

There's also the fact that Uraraka herself during her talk with Midoriya says they're both "oddballs". That whole talk during 342 comes off more as someone talking about their feelings about their identity and relating to a friend who feels the same about themselves than supposedly "romantic". When someone is called an "oddball", it means that person is "weird". They're not part of the "norm".

Sometimes it comes off as having different interests, like someone liking the arts unlike the majority of the group who likes sports.

Or it's someone who identifies as queer.

What if these last few chapters of Toga and Uraraka was Uraraka accepting herself?

@darkcircles4lyfe points out a detail that I didn't catch until now in this post here.

In this scene, Toga has a hold of that All Might keychain. We know it's of importance to Uraraka because Midoriya gave it to her. We also know that once before Uraraka snatched it away from her when Toga first got a hold of it during the PLF War Arc. Here, she doesn't do it. Granted, because she's bang the hell up and probably even isn't aware of her surroundings. But on Horikoshi's part, what if that's on purpose? What if here, Toga is taking the keychain as a way of saying Uraraka is finally accepting herself and her feelings? That Midoriya was that mirror she kept looking into and questioning until this very moment?

And let's be honest here, it's not like Horikoshi isn't incapable of writing M/F ships. I just think IzuOcha is a ship he doesn't intend to make romantic because of how underdeveloped it is.

Compare it to Kamijirou and Kirimina, it is pale. Also, make note of those two pairs.

The characters in those ships also have opposing physical features.

Kamijirou - dark and light hair colors, the extrovert and the introvert

Kirimina - Spiky hair and curly hair, sharp edges and round curves

A lot of pairs Horikoshi puts together in which the characters are close (romantic or platonic) have some opposing features to them.

Gentle Crimimal and La Brava - tall and short, dark hair and light hair, one is more hands on and the other isn't

Eraser Head & Present Mic - quiet and loud, dark hair and light hair, close combat & long range

Bakugou's and Jiro's parents - quiet & loud, dark hair and light hair

It's his shtick.

But for Midoriya and Uraraka? They are just genderbend versions of each other!

That's really all I have to say here. And if you disagree, fine. Don't care for the input though, keep it to yourselves. (I say this because some of you are just damn disrespectful.)

I myself don't think IzuOcha is a bad ship, but I just don't think it's a ship Horikoshi has on his agenda. Let alone wants the audience to perceive them as "romantic" but as a "mirror".

[shotorozu]

hello! i hope you're doing well~

can i request headcanons (or with scenario if you'd like) where bakugo's s/o falls asleep on him while crying 🥺 and if it's okay with you, can s/o have the emotion deprivation quirk because i really loved those hcs you made before :)))

i really really love your blog btw. your writing is always sweet and fun to read ❤

passing out after crying on them

character(s) : bakugou katsuki, shinsou hitoshi

legend : [Y/N = your name] they/them pronouns, emotion deprivation quirk— the more you suppress your emotions, the more power you get.

headcanons : hurt and comfort, but mostly comfort.

note(s) : thank you for the love anon :)) i also added shinsou because i thought this concept fitted well with him too :))

»»————-　♡　————-««

bakugou katsuki

you were really unreadable— you’d understand that because of the nature of your quirk. however, being with katsuki gave him the ability to read you and your mannerisms

if your nails dug into your palms, that probably meant that your day was shit, if you kept looking at your nails, it means you’re trying not to cry, and running your hands across the surface meant that you were happy.

and unfortunately, he caught the sight of you digging your nails into your hands, not enough to actually do any harm but.. enough to keep you ‘focused’

he wants you to be comfortable enough to go to him with your problems, but then again— it was always something you struggled with, so he wasn’t expecting it

so now you’re alone with him, walking along the corridors of the dorms— and none of you guys are saying much.

“get in here,” he says, grabbing your wrist as he yanks you into his room, immediately setting you down on his bed.

“i don’t know what happened with you, but i don’t fuckin like seeing it.” he sets your head on the soft pillows, an arm bringing you close in positions

“nothing really happened,”

“yeah? then why the hell were you doing that then?” his words sound rather harsh, but he’s not raising his voice at you “you know what i mean.”

“i’m sorry, it’s just.. exhausting. having to suppress my emotions for long periods of time. i don’t know what to do because i’ll..”

and that’s when you start crying, which was probably the last thing on your check list— you’re getting his pillows wet, he’s not saying anything, you can feel yourself getting weaker

all of the doubts in your head run wild, and bakugou only shoves your head onto his chest “idiot, stop it with the apologies already. just let go.”

and you do exactly that. you heave into his chest, bawling like it’s been forever since you’ve done so. you’re getting his shirt wet, but katsuki couldn’t seem to care— he’s just glad that his hands are emitting enough heat

your ragged breathing eventually blended into soft breathing— you don’t seem to be shaking in tremors anymore, and he’s glad

he takes a look at your face. you’re out like a baby, cheeks still damp and your eyelashes were wet with tears.

“idiot Y/N,” he mutters to himself, wiping your damp face with his thumb, “you’re out like a baby. you’re not gonna hear this but next time, don’t be so stiff with coming forward to me for help.”

“i’m the last person that’s gonna judge you, i do love you after all. it might not seem like it but i really really really do.” he presses a kiss against the back of your ear.

he’s going to try to not wake you up, as he gets up from the bed— sprinting downstairs to prepare some water that he’s gonna force you to drink down later

when you wake up, you bet he’s making you put a cool towel on your eyes, reducing the puffiness as he has you on his lap.

shinsou hitoshi

can also tell if you had a good or bad day, and he really hates seeing you so.. miserable.

he can tell that you have so many thoughts in that head of yours, because of that powerful quirk. those were one of the few times he wished he had aizawa’s quirk.

he frowns when he sees you suffer in absolute silence, even though you’re wearing the most neutral face he has ever seen, he can quite literally see it— because you’re fidgetting with your hands on your lap.

unlike bakugou, the first thing he’ll talk to you about is how you’re feeling— the moment you guys are alone.

don’t try to deny it, because he knows already— this is just him giving you a heads up, just letting you know that he’s about to coddle you.

actions speak louder than words in moments like this, he has you pressed against him on the bed— allowing your arms to wrap around his torso like lifeline

“you don’t have to say anything right now, Y/N.” he reassures you, “let it happen.”

as if it was on command, your eyes water— and you shove your head onto his shoulder, finally breaking the barriers you were desperately trying to keep up.

you’re vunerable, a mess, and hitoshi allows you to cry like there’s no tomorrow— only resting his hand on your back, rubbing soft circles there

when you start shaking, hiccups escaping your lips— he panics for a moment, because you’re on the cusp of going into a panic attack

but that’s also when his baritone voice starts giving out soft instructions on stabilizing your breathing pattern. his quirk would always be the very last option.

and when the storm has finally calmed, your eyes flutter— a sudden wave of sleepiness washing over you, and you just allow yourself to fall asleep in his hold

he sighs in relief, and he doesn’t care that his sweater suddenly became soaked with your tears, it allow him to carry some of your burden— he’s just holding you with all of his attention.

his violet irises soften in adoration, and he’s kissing your tears off your cheeks, moving anything out of your face.

hitoshi being hitoshi wouldn’t be able to sleep, but he’ll spend a good moment thinking about what he’ll talk about with you the moment you wake up, and he’ll pask you about your issue, and how he can help.

but for now, he’s just thankful that you have so much trust him— to the point you’re okay with being vunerable around him, and he’s just so proud of you.

“sleep well, kitten. i love you a lot, please remember that.”

»»————-　♡　————-««

likes and reblogs are appreciated, thanks for reading!

i do not own bnha/mha and it’s characters, boku no hero academia/my hero academia belongs to horikoshi kohei. i only own the writing, and i don’t profit off my hobby.

do not plagiarize, reupload, translate, or use my works for audio readings without permission :))

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 318: On Your Left

Previously on BnHA: The Hawksquad+Lurkers were all “well this sucks” and sat around a bit talking about how maybe they should actually come up with a new plan that is actually good, but then in the end they were like “nah.” Deku was all, “THERE’S SOMETHING INSIDE ME THAT PULLS BENEATH THE SURFACE!! CONSUMING, CONFUSING!! THIS LACK OF SELF CONTROL I FEAR IS NEVERENDING. IT’S HAUNTING HOW I CANT SEEM TO FIND MYSELF AGAIN. MY WALLS ARE CLOSING IN.” Just, literally that whole entire song. All Might was all “Deku you should take care of yourself, try eating a thing,” and Deku was all “BYE, ALL MIGHT,” and just LEFT. He left!!! What the fuck!!!

Today on BnHA: Endeavor is all, “maybe if Deku didn’t listen to All Might he’ll listen to me instead.” Deku is all, “[doesn’t listen to Endeavor]” because, well, yeah. The Vestiges are all, “surprisingly, even we are a little concerned -- maybe you should get some rest, kid.” Deku is all, “((Ò ‸ Ó)).” The Vestiges are all, “holy shit.” Deku is all, “[wanders the ruined city streets terrifying the populace on account of him looking like Shelob had a baby with one of the Nazgul].” Some shriveled-up puppeteer villain asshole is all, “HORIKOSHI SAID IT’S MY TURN TO ATTACK DEKU TODAY SO I AM GOING TO SUMMON MY FRIGHTENED HELPLESS ATTACK MOB!!” Kacchan is all “WHADDYA MEAN THEY FOUND THE NERD!!! -- oh wait, that’s me, I found him. I found the nerd, you guys.” And just in time, too. I was about to owe a whole lot of people a whole lot of dollars.

so I have been super good about spoilers this week as always, but let me tell you guys, for the past 36 hours my dash filters have basically been nonstop “manga spoilers” this and “bnha 318” that, and so I’m coming in with a fair amount of hype here. your move, Horikoshi

oh, good! they got Endeavor to call Deku to try to talk him out of it. what a great and wonderful plan

“listen up kid, you haven’t slept since March and you are basically a walking biohazard right now, I’m just telling it like it is. didn’t you get shot like three times?? and there was a whole thing about how you urgently needed medical attention?? and supposedly we gave it to you, but I mean you haven’t even changed your clothes and don’t seem to have any fresh bandages or anything, so did we?? did we, really?? and also we all got blown up yesterday, so yeah.” hmm he’s making some reasonable points here you guys, but you sure do go on and on, Endeavor

oh he says foreign aid is finally on its way! I’m sure they’ll be very helpful. I mean in fairness they can hardly be worse than the home-grown heroes at this point

hey Enji, could you maybe try appealing to Deku the sixteen-year-old human boy, as opposed to Deku The World’s Last Hope? he does have value beyond his quirk. I know that’s always been an incredibly difficult concept for you to grasp, but could you maybe TRY, jesus

and also we’re worried about you as a person?? you’re just a kid and you’re pushing yourself way too hard?? you were going to say that part next, right. why the hell didn’t Hawks make this call instead

“don’t worry about me... I’m completely fine” Deku you do understand that saying it over and over again doesn’t actually make it true

and again with the rush!! all the rush rush rush!! we’re running out of time, we can’t let AFO and Tomura keep getting stronger, I have to end this now, there’s no time to rest, etc. etc. etc. just the constant pressure of this whole big countdown on top of everything else

holy shit, you KNOW it’s bad when even the Vestiges are telling him to chill

these guys are basically the walking talking embodiments of self-sacrifice; if even they’re telling him he needs to take five, then he must seriously be like half a step away from death’s door

OH SHIT LMAO

DIDN’T EVEN LET HIM FINISH HIS SENTENCE BEFORE HE SENT HIM INTO THE FUCKING SHADOW REALM WITH THAT FUCKING LOOK. HOLY FUCK. DIDN’T EVEN KNOW IT WAS POSSIBLE TO DIE TWICE. SHIT

(ETA: so I’m pretty sure this was just Danger Sense activating and so he cut them off to go do more hero stuff, but I’m gonna go ahead and stick to my original interpretation anyway lol.)

anyway so how’s everybody doing. we all good? En, you good? Banjou? Shino? I’m imagining you guys all curled up in a little ball on the floor right now lol. can’t say I blame you though, no shame

lmaoooooooooooo

“SHEESH.” sheesh indeed, lmao. “what in the FUCK was that”

see, this is why y’all need Kacchan. you need someone who’s not going to back down from him no matter what. if it’s a matter of out-stubborning Midoriya fucking Izuku, then there’s only one other person on the planet capable of that, and we all know it. don’t pretend like you don’t. I am not going to shut up about this! we’ve had our hurt so now what about SOME COMFORT, DAMMIT

“I’m afraid that he’s becoming influenced by my conscience” nah are you kidding Nana this is all 100% made-in-Japan pure original Deku right here

see, Banjou gets it. “that kid, he’s totally going on his own.” exactly. this was so inevitable it was basically scientific law

“well I for one don’t see the problem with Deku being so obsessed with saving everyone else that he pushes himself until his body and soul literally fall apart” okay, whose speech bubbles are these?? we’re about to have words

lol of course

well you always did prefer the direct route didn’t you. but even you can’t possibly think this is okay lol

dark AU!Kacchan please tell us more about your badass doomed timeline in which everything went to shit and you apparently had the same character arc that Deku is having right now except it somehow made you sexier instead of turning you into a rabid t-rex. I have so many questions

oh so now you want to help??? well -- good, actually. sorry if that sounded offended just now lol

(ETA: so at first when I got to the end of this chapter I was wondering if Katsuki B. had somehow summoned his alternate-universe counterpart through trippy OFA space telepathy lol. but in the original Japanese there’s no reference to “we”, so this appears to be a mistranslation. this line should probably read more like “if there’s something/someone out there that would be able to complement/complete the current Midoriya Izuku [it would be]…” which, oh hello, is that Horikoshi once again reaffirming that Deku and Bakugou complete each other lol. “guess what guys, the Vestiges ship it too" heck yeah. they know what’s up!)

look how admiring his boyfriends are. HORIKOSHI GIVE US THE REST OF THIS BACKSTORY ALREADY GODDAMMIT

“meanwhile somewhere in the depths of the ruined city, Deku was having a dance-off with the villains”

I like how the villains all have this “AHH WHAT THE FUCK” kind of body language to them lol. I mean if it were me, and an eldritch horror suddenly clawed its way from the shadows with its writhing glowy tentacles and pants-shitting nuclear death stare, I would probably just die on the spot. no need to stick around. only pain awaits

lol for a minute I thought this was Can’t Ya See-kun and I was like “WHAT A FASCINATING CROSSING OF PATHS” but it’s just some random girl

he seems genuinely confused lol

Deku it’s because you look like something that crawled out of a sewer drain, sweetheart

lol they just took his word for it?

so trusting. even though they’re immediately hauling ass anyway just to be safe lmao

“my appearance is frightening to others” no shit Deku it’s because you look like a fucking alien exorcism. you look like a Lich that got caught up in an oil spill my dude

NO NOT THE CHOSEN ONE ANGST AGAIN

I RAN OUT OF ESSAY JUICE FOR THIS ALREADY HORIKOSHI!! I’VE BEEN TALKING ABOUT IT FOR MONTHS NOW WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG!! BUT ANYWAYS, GOOD!! I MEAN, BAD, THOUGH, OBVIOUSLY. BUT YES

“ENJOY THIS MONTAGE OF DEKU BATTLING A RANDOM KAIJU AND WANDERING THE WOODS LIKE A DERANGED GREEN BABA YAGA” okay yes but sir, exactly how much longer is this going to go on. if it’s a matter of you wanting to make sure we get it, let me assure you that aside from a few stray chuunis who think that Deku embracing the Darkness is the coolest thing he’s ever done, all of us here in fandom fully comprehend that this is Not Good

-- OH SO IT’S LIKE THAT

really. with the flashbacks to his loved ones’ smiling faces and everything. not even gonna try to aim above the belt, huh

AND NO KACCHAN??! NO CLASSMATES?!?! IS HE PURPOSELY NOT THINKING OF THEM??? OR ARE THEY BEING SAVED FOR THE NEXT PAGE??? SO HELP ME, IF THE NEXT PART OF THIS SENTENCE IS “CAN PROTECT THEM”, OR EVEN WORSE, “CAN SEE THEIR SMILING FACES AGAIN”, I...

WHAT DID I JUST SAY

(ETA: my man did Sero and Kaminari fucking dirty lmao. I miss their smiling faces too omg.)

the sheer, unparalleled irony of him saying this while he stands there looking like the gargoyle demon from Fantasia got crossed with an umbrella that got struck by lightning. Deku :(

oi who the fuck is this clown

is he controlling this mob with his evil hair. “what if I made an exhausted, running-on-fumes Deku battle a brainwashed mob at Ground Zero.” Horikoshi do you just have like a checklist of horrible things you want to do to your protagonist

easy there Sasori

well joke’s on you buddy because he’s apparently “completely fine”, so

“here’s to hoping that you know more about AFO’s location than the others” jesus christ Deku you really have hung your mercy out to dry huh

now he’s forcing his mob of terrified prisoners to attack Deku ahhhh. sucks to be them. at least they’re not being controlled by bees

so Deku is saying that Sasori’s control can be broken with “physical trauma.” similar to Shinsou’s quirk I guess. but so does that mean he’s gonna have to hurt them? ( •﹏•)

NO NOT MORE SAD EYES

“DEATH BY EMPATHY!!!” HORIKOSHI NO

fuck. he looks like he’s on the verge of passing out

this is what happens when you nerf a character’s self-preservation stats in favor of spamming their bone-breaking stats instead. NOW ACCEPTING BRAIN CELL DONATIONS FOR A BOY IN NEED!! with your loving generosity we can hopefully help him live to the ripe old age of seventeen

OMGFGGG

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

[grabs your hands] ლ(*꒪ヮ꒪*)ლ [swings you in a circle] へ(ﾟ◇ﾟへ)

THASSSSSSSS WHATSSSSSSS UPPPPPPPPPP

HORIKOSHI REALLY SAID FUCK THAT MASK (ノ°ο°)ノ YOU FINALLY LEARNED!! IT’S CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT!!!!

JUST FOR YOU KACCHAN, HORIKOSHI LEFT THIS ONE BAD GUY WHO’S STILL WEAK TO FIRE. GOD BLESS

IT’S YOUR COUNTERPART, KATSUKI B!!!! HOW WE DOIN OVER THERE IN THE TRIPPY COSMIC OFA SPACE REALM LOL. DO WE BELIEVE YET, FANDOM???

LIGHTS!!!!

INSTANT RESULTS!!! IT’S SUPER EFFECTIVE!!!

(ETA: imagine what this must look like to Deku though. he’s been caught up in this dark cloud of despair and exhaustion that’s been building up over... I’m gonna go ahead and say “weeks”, because yeah. and now he finds himself here, in the place where All Might’s legacy ended and the torch was passed to him. and the world is in ruins, and he’s surrounded by frightened people who are all trying to hurt him -- because who isn’t trying to hurt him, these days -- and he’s scrambling to figure this all out, but meanwhile the weariness is finally starting to catch up to him, and so he’s basically just standing there in a fog of complete and utter misery.

and then all of a sudden through that haze, he hears the one voice that’s more familiar than any other that he knows. like, I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if he thought he was just imagining it at first. Kacchan showing up to save him right when he’s at his most desperate and feeling the most alone. Kacchan, showing up to save him.

this is the person he always looked up to as a child (to be fair he was quite a strange child lmao). the person who was even closer to him than All Might. the person he always thought was amazing. and bam, here he is now. appearing in the sky out of nowhere to one-shot the bad guy with a single blast (which, btw, that was his armor-piercing attack too lmao dslkjlk take it easy there kiddo). like, that must have felt absolutely surreal to him, especially coming at a time when he’s already half-delirious and barely hanging on to reality. he must have really thought that he was losing it there for a second.

but he’s really there. it really is him. and for this brief moment -- before the rest of the situation catches up to him, and he remembers about all of the fucked-up AFO stuff, and remembers why he was so afraid and why he was pushing everyone away -- for just this one brief moment, he’s too exhausted and stunned to do anything except to just react. just stands there, looking up at him in awe.

and you know, it almost reminds me of...

just. you guys. the character development. the freaking character development. someone who brings reassurance. someone who shows up and makes you think, “oh, it’s all going to be okay now, because [person] is here.” the role reversals. the growth. the payoff!! because who is the one person who always had faith that Kacchan would one day grow up to become an amazing hero like that. WHO IS IT. YOU ALREADY KNOW.

omg. anyways, bless you Horikoshi, my feels which have been on backorder since fucking September have finally arrived lmao. yes, good, thank you. worth the wait. it is always, always worth the wait. fuck yeah.)

“LOWFRIES” SO YOU’RE TELLING ME THE WHOLE GANG IS HERE, AHHHHHHHH (º̩̩́⌣º̩̩̀ )

BEAUTIFUL. WONDERFUL. SENSATIONAL. I DON’T EVEN CARE THAT JUMP IS ON BREAK NEXT WEEK. THIS RIGHT HERE WILL SUSTAIN ME