#and horikoshi has been hinting at deku and ochako's relationship since the start

[idolomantises]

I was just complaining about Dandadan fans being weirdly against shipping but after seeing the BNHA fandom's behavior uh. i get it now.

[kacchanrawr]

Things I want to see in the future of MHA

(not just post-war stuff, but also the entire series. Some of these are kinda self-indulgent)

1. Endeavor and Hawks’ judgment

I honestly don’t know if I want to see them punished or pardoned. I’m interested in both of those so I’ll just trust Horikoshi on that one. But anyways, there’s no way they aren’t getting shit for this.

2. Whatever the ‘fake heroes’ are gonna do after this

Going back to Stain’s ideology about fake heroes. I agree with parts of it, there are a lot of people that become heroes without the conviction. They get into it by treating it the same way as any other office job, not as a mission to be well, heroes. But I don’t agree that they should be killed or eliminated. Being a hero for money isn’t inherently a bad thing, it’s when you let greed take over you to the point that you forget what it means to be a hero. Some of those ‘fake heroes’ like Mt. Lady who was originally in it for the fame and money have grown to become real heroes. Others who really have zero conviction, will probably quit after facing this amount of despair, like the guy in chapter 296.

3. The Todoroki family’s image

How will everyone else see the victims of the situation, Natsuo, Fuyumi, Rei and Shoto after this? Especially Shoto. Now that his past is out in the public, that will probably affect his future as a pro. Would his classmates and peers see him or treat him differently after this? Like out of pity or sympathy?

4. The public’s backlash in general

How will the public start viewing not just Endeavor, Hawks, and the Todoroki family, but all heroes? Will they lose faith in heroes? We know they kinda already are when UA had a lot of backlash when Bakugo was kidnapped. UA as well, will it get shut down?

5. Bakudeku’s talk

I don’t think their relationship is actually gonna stay the same after this whole ‘my body moved on its own because I care for you and wanted to save you so I just got stabbed and risked my life for you and even told you to stop trying to be so selfless and do everything by yourself’ thing. All Might also did foreshadow that they were gonna talk soon. Maybe we could get the long awaited Bakugo apology scene ? Though it feels way too soon. And if Hori feeds us Bakudekus even more I think we’re just gonna combust.

5. Deku’s character development

His mindset and view of the world will probably be way darker and even more serious after this. I also want to see how Bakugo getting hurt for his sake and saying “don’t play hero all by yourself” will affect him. We know that he has decided to become a hero that wouldn’t make anyone worry about him when he had a flashback of his mom crying and being worried for him. He decided that the solution to that is to be stronger, but now maybe he can learn that selflessness doesn’t necessarily mean that he has to carry all the weight by himself. But then there’s the 4th user’s quirk that will probably push him to be even more selfless.

6. Ochako’s development

Please please PLEASE let this girl have more development. The way her fight against Toga ended, and her seeing the grievous side of being a hero? Probably a set up for her development.

7. Basically the rest of the kids’ development?

Obviously it’s not just the people involved in the fight against Shigaraki, or Ochako that are gonna view the world differently after this. I wanna see how they will deal with this. Kirishima and Mina will probably be some of the highlights. Also Momo, since Midnight meant a lot to her when she was the one that trusted Momo to lead their classes in the battle against Gigantomachia.

8. Aizawa and Present Mic dealing with Midnight’s death

Those two are especially highlighted amongst all of the other UA staff members because they have a past with her, as shown in vigilantes. We saw their anger and sadness about Shirakumo, what more when it comes to Midnight?

9. The villains dealing with their losses

Yes, know Toga went on a rampage after Twice’s death, but how will she and deal with it in the long run? How about losing Mr. Compress? How will Shigaraki react to both of those, and having the other Paranormal Liberation Front members like Geten captured? Not just emotionally, but how about the loss in terms of strength and power?

10. Prison break arc

People have been talking about this for years, maybe ever since we knew All for One was only imprisoned and not killed. We’ll probably see it happen next chapter. Will it cause the public to lose even more faith in the hero system? How will it affect the villains? Will AFO be their boss now, or will they resist him and stay loyal to Shigaraki?

11. All for One vs Shigaraki

Related to the previous point. We know Shigaraki really doesn’t want AFO bossing him around. They’ll probably have a fight. Maybe Deku and Shigaraki vs AFO? Then they’ll go back to fighting each other once the common threat is gone. This doesn’t feel very likely, but it could be a way of interpreting Deku’s “you looked like you needed saving” at the end of chapter 295.

11. Deku’s arms?

I don’t know if I want him to lose them and get prosthetics, or get healed by Eri. It would be great to see him experience a major loss, but ability-wise and emotionally? Not so good for him, though that’s kinda the point. Also he might not be able to use OFA in his arms anymore and I kinda don’t wanna see that. Even if he can, will he be able to use it at 100%? So far, we’ve seen that the level of technology in MHA aren’t enough to withstand 100%

12. Deku mastering One for All

I wanna see him consistently use 100% without injuring himself. I want to see him do more with black whip, float and the fourth user’s quirk. I’m also curious about the other three quirks left.

13. Power buff for everyone else

I kinda don’t wanna see the MC getting so ahead of everyone else, to the point that they leave everyone else in the dust. But I know that it’s been established way earlier on that Deku will surpass everyone in terms of strength. Even now, Bakugo, one of the strongest in Class 1-A could barely catch up with 30% OFA. But from his internal dialogue in chapter 293, I’m guessing he already had a quirk evolution when he saw Deku at the verge of death. I want to see more details on that though.

14. Everyone else’s reaction to Bakugo’s sacrifice

It’s gonna be a big thing for his character and all, but I don’t think this is gonna happen because of well, everything else being a mess. But maybe at least All Might’s?

15. Deku’s father

I don’t want him to be a really big famous, important figure, or someone involved in this whole AFO vs OFA stuff. It will kinda ruin Deku’s character of like, ‘just an ordinary boy that was lucky and so his character arc is to be worthy of that blessing’. If Deku’s father was someone like that, that would mean he was the fated or chosen one in the first place anyways? But what else can Deku’s dad be? I honestly don’t know.

16. All Might’s death

I see so many people complain that he should’ve died in Kamino, but I disagree because saving that big moment for later was actually a good decision. We know he’s gonna die, he has death flags everywhere. But I wonder how exactly he will die, when he will die, and how big of an impact his death will have.

17. The final battle

As in, the last battle of the entire series. Deku vs Shigaraki rematch, Ochako vs Toga, Shoto vs Dabi. And for Bakugo, well...... he doesn’t really have a villain nemesis? (Huh maybe I’ll talk about that some other time) But the best I could think of right now is Bakugo and Deku vs Shigaraki, like in Heroes Rising. If the Heroes Rising ending was the original series ending, maybe Hori was hinting that Bakugo and Deku will be fighting the final boss together?

18. Bakugo and Deku as a hero duo

Related to the previous point. Shipping lenses aside, I think there’s plenty of foreshadowing for that? Even if they wouldn’t officially be hero partners, I’m guessing they’re both gonna be important pillars. “Win to save, save to win”

19. The ending

I want to see how they will fix the broken hero society. I want to see Class 1-A as wonderful heroes. I want satisfying closure for the villains as well. What I don’t want to see is everyone getting married and having kids like Naruto, and those kids being the characters for a sequel series. I’m sorry but as much as I like a lot of the ships, I think that’s probably one of the worst endings possible. But a next generation sequel actually wouldn’t be that bad if the main characters were the established kid characters we already know and love, Eri, Kota, Katsuma and Mahoro. We can see through them how the new hero system/society works, and maybe all the smaller subtle stuff that they still need to patch up. Other than that, I don’t think there’s anything else good about it.

20. Deku becoming the greatest hero

Also very much related to the previous point but I only remembered it afterwards. We know it’s gonna happen, but how? Also notice that while Bakugo always says ‘number one hero’, Deku always just says ‘greatest hero’, which kinda aren’t the same thing. Maybe it’s just cuz I’m a Bakugo stan, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to just let the rival characters be content with number two? Either ‘Bakugo is the number one in ranking while Deku is the greatest hero’, or ‘Deku is the greatest and number one hero but their rivalry hasn’t ended and it’s a push-pull’ thing. Or just kill one of them (cough Bakugo cough) and it’ll be fine.

21. Other people finding out about OFA

I don't think it's going to stay a secret between Deku, Bakugo and All Might anymore. At the very least, the people involved in the fight against Shigaraki, like Shoto, Aizawa and Endeavor should be given an explanation on why Shigaraki was targeting Deku in particular. At worst, it becomes public news and Deku will now have to deal with a much a greater pressure of everyone expecting him to take up All Might's mantle. I'd rather go with the former, but the latter is also interesting I guess. Or if not those, they'd have to come up with a really good excuse.

Anyways that’s all I can think of for now? There’s probably way more at the back of my head. I’ll just edit whenever.

[makeste]

I was glad to see you enjoyed my Top 10 ask. You did mention you had a ranking for the arcs - would you do a ranking for them? Like, worst to best? (My guess (of the arcs you've finished): Internship arc, Hero Killer Arc, License Exam, USJ, Intro Arc, Culture Fest, Battle Trial, Pro-Hero arc, Final Exams, Sports Fest, Camino Ward, DvKp2; since you haven't liveblogged Joint Training Arc yet, no clue.) Just curious.

good morning evening everyone, and welcome to another Wednesday episode of “makeste tries to answer asks from two months ago while on the bus.” this one is a bit of an interesting challenge since it involves ranking and that always takes me a long time, but as you said, I did have an ongoing ranking of the arcs in my head, so we’ll see. at the very least the ones at the beginning and end shouldn’t be too hard, and you can probably guess them already. (in fact, you actually did.)

(ETA: yeah this took me two sittings to do, so I ended up posting it on the ride home lol. I just like BnHA you guys. almost as much as I like talking about how much I like it!)

okay so here goes.

14. Basement arc - yeah so let’s just go ahead and get this over with. this is the one and only BnHA arc that I actually dislike. fortunately it’s an outlier and suffered from a bunch of one-time issues, most of which stem from the fact that Horikoshi was apparently trying to write a longer and darker arc than usual. well he succeeded! and thankfully learned his lesson. and at least this arc gave us Eri and Mirio and some good Kirishima flashbacks and Chekov’s Quirk-Be-Gone bullets and the Highway to Hell. hopefully the anime can improve on the rest.

13. Provisional License arc - okay, so it might surprise a few people that this arc is all the way down here. let me explain. this is a perfectly fine arc, and I like it well enough, but it’s a bit longer than it needs to be, and not that much happens in it aside from our introduction to best boy Yoarashi Inasa, and the Great Toga Conspiracy (which is admittedly excellent). there are some great moments (Aoyama doing his best impression of “THE BEACONS ARE LIT” from RotK comes to mind), but overall it’s fairly forgettable, and it suffers from being placed directly in between my two absolute favorite arcs, which means I have a tendency to overlook it, which isn’t really the arc’s fault.

12. Hero Killer arc - this one is interesting because I really lost patience with it during my first read-through, but strangely enough when I watched it in the anime I actually really enjoyed it. it was also much shorter than I remembered. I’ve belatedly realized that reading it while doing commentary really slowed me down, because for the parts that I wasn’t feeling, doing the commentary took a long time and also left me dwelling on a lot of the things I didn’t like. but in actuality, Stain’s Annoying Rants aside, this is a pretty enjoyable arc full of Big Hero 6 flashbacks, hot revenge-driven Iida, Gran Torino’s introduction, Deku learning full cowl, Bakugou’s Best Jeanist internship, and Todoroki saving Deku and Iida’s lives by being glued to his phone when he really should have been paying attention to his own internship. get off that social media already Shouto.

11. USJ arc - this is a great arc, but it just feels small compared to everything that happens afterward. but it’s fun to look back on because there are lots of little hints for future developments to come. the traitor theory, for instance. and this is also our introduction to the League and to Tomura and the Noumu. and that final fight between All Might and the Noumu is still one of my favorite scenes in the whole series, especially in the anime. it’s so fucking good you guys. shit.

10. Intro arc - just FYI, I lump everything from the first chapter up until USJ into one arc since it’s easier. anyways, so this is roughly on the same level as USJ, but gets a slight edge because there are some iconic moments here. namely, the first chapter (which is still one of the best shounen intro chapters I’ve ever read, if not the best); Kacchan VS Deku 1; the entrance exam; and our introduction to the rest of class 1-A, particularly Ochako and Iida. oh, and Aizawa! gotta love how he starts out all ready to expel some bitches only to wind up falling in love with the whole class. fatherhood agrees with him.

9. Band AU arc - I actually love this arc. I just love all of the ones above it on the list a bit more, and I can’t really justify it being any higher than this. but it has The Band and the Babysitting Squad and Mirio being the best big brother in the world and Eri being just ridiculously, astonishingly cute. Gentle and La Brava are also great villains, if not quite my favorites. there are a few questionable plot holes in the arc, and it lacks any sort of big impact on the rest of the series, but it’s basically a canon filler arc and it’s so much fun and I can’t wait to see it animated.

8. Fanfic Lodge arc - you guys this arc started out so fucking cute and ended up so fucking tense. and this was our intro to the League of Villains proper, including Spinner, Twice, Tuxedo Mask, the prodigal Todoroki son, and my best girl Toga. Deku VS Muscular is still hard for me to read (his liiiiiiiimbs) but it’s one of Deku’s best moments regardless. and the angst at the end of the arc is almost unparalleled. god I love it.

7. Final Exam arc - a.k.a. the one where all the kids team up with each other to shoot their teachers in the fucking face. this arc has it all: Momo character development, Bakugou character development, TodoMomo, BakuDeku, and Aizawa being a total badass. (and All Might too, but he’s kind of overkill tbh. which is its own kind of awesome though.) there’s so much good stuff in this arc that this description is a bit vague because if I got any more specific we’d be here all day. it’s just a lot of good stuff that I like.

6. Joint Training arc - dudes I love this arc so much. class B and their array of ridiculously awesome quirks! class A and their impeccable teamwork! Bakugou joining the OFA Scooby Squad and showing off his new WIN AND RESCUE COMBO! Monoma! Shinsou!! SIXQUIRKS!!! god there’s so much great content.

5. Endeavorhawks arc - this arc would be even higher except that it’s a bit short (though it’s perfectly paced, so that might actually be a plus) and it doesn’t feature as many of my faves. but Hawks’s intro + our intro to The Great Noumu Conspiracy + Todoroki Family Drama + some of the best character development I’ve seen in a shounen manga (god I still can’t get over what a ballsy move it is to try and redeem Endeavor) = solid gold. and it’s so well done. and caps off with one of the best plot twists in the series to date, which sets up what promises to be one hell of an interesting arc later down the line. just. it’s so good. possibly the best-written arc to date, even if it doesn’t quite top my list.

4. My Villain Academia arc - and this isn’t even done yet!! and it’s still already this high!! Tomura flashbacks! Toga flashbacks! TOUYA FLASHBACKS???! (we’ll see??) creepy cults! my new favorite character One-Handed Giran, the biggest badass in the whole fucking series! worldbuilding for days! Dr. Robotnik! more Noumu shit! etc. etc. this arc has been non-stop goodness and I almost feel spoiled at this point.

3. Sports Festival arc - the most fun of all the arcs. I have rewatched the cavalry battle in the anime like a bazillion times. there used to be this show on Nickelodeon called Wild & Crazy Kids where kids teamed up for all these zany competitions (water balloons were usually involved), and I fucking loved that show, and parts of this arc kinda have that same kind of spirit. it’s just fun. and then to top it all off we have our Shouto character development, as well as Bakugou’s little character arc that he also has which is excellent. not to mention what is probably Ochako’s most badass moment to date. love it.

2. Kamino arc - guyyyys where do I even start? this arc is perfection. good VS evil. All Might taking a stand even when he’s got nothing left in the tank, because the world needs him and he won’t let them down. the sheer visceral terror of AFO’s introduction. my favorite character getting fucking kidnapped and being brave AF and his friends rallying to save him yesssss. and the reveal of All Might’s secret, which is arguably the most powerful scene in the series. I get chills every time. “my heart is still the heart of the symbol of peace.” if All Might had announced at that moment that he was starting a new religion I would have been like “yeah okay.” I would follow him to the ends of the earth. how can one man be that selfless and brave. anyways this arc is absolutely incredible and objectively one of the best in all of shounen.

1. Deku VS Kacchan Part 2 - nothing to see here, just two boys who’ve known each other since they were in diapers, who’ve done everything together and have always been together but have never actually understood each other until now. just the two of them finally opening up to each other, because the one who always tried to act so tough actually isn’t that tough, in truth, and in spite of everything, he trusts the other enough to let his guard down around him this one time. just two rivals, sorting out their shit and figuring out what it all really means. and their dad, helping to facilitate the whole thing because he knows that one day, somewhere down the road, this bond between them will mean absolutely everything. is this really even an arc?? it’s only like six chapters, and only one event actually takes place. but do I care?? yeah, no. Deku and Kacchan’s relationship is the series to me, so yeah. to me it counts as an arc. and not just any arc, but the best arc.

so there you have it! I hope I haven’t accidentally left something out lol. but this should hopefully be a pretty definitive list, at least for now. looking back at all of this really makes it sink in just how good of a story this is, though. damn.

[makeste]

the good, the bad, and the basement

so @caliginouscarpacian asked me a while back if I could post my thoughts about the strengths and weaknesses of the Overhaul/Yakuza/Internship Arc once I finished up. so this is my post about that, now that I’ve had a little bit of time to reflect. I decided to do one of those alternating good/bad list things, so we’ll see how that goes.

this is quite a long post, so it’s under a cut. and just to be clear, this post is chock full of spoilers up through the end of the Internship Arc (chapter 161).

the good: the villains

okay, I’m starting with this one because truthfully, it’s my favorite thing about the whole arc. the League of Villains finally came into their own, and it was everything I could have hoped for. they are competent but not too overpowered. they are smart and willing to be patient and bide their time for the sake of cool plot twists. THERE’S A FUCKING CAR CHASE. there is character development! these guys actually care about each other! holy shit. there’s actual chemistry between them. they trust one another and they trust Tomura, and he shows for the first time that he might just actually be worthy of that trust. unlike some other villains I can name. anyways. these guys are amazing, and if this arc did nothing else, it firmly established them as serious, in-it-for-the-long-haul adversaries who are cool and interesting and can hold their own on-screen and whose lives and relationships I’m actually invested in. and like, they’re still evil. just to be clear. but they’re also cool and compelling and a genuine delight whenever they make an appearance, and I can’t wait to see what shenanigans they get up to next.

the bad: the villains

hahaha. okay, so I’m not even gonna talk about Overhaul yet -- he gets his own little mini-rant all to himself. but let’s talk about the Eight Precepts for a moment. I was so let down by these guys it’s not even funny. YOU ASSHOLES WERE SUPPOSED TO BE COOL. you’re the fucking yakuza for fuck’s sake! but instead they’re just boring. not one of them felt even remotely threatening, and it was just obnoxious to watch the good guys struggling against some of them. none of them had interesting personalities or backstories. a few of them did have interesting quirks (thinking specifically of the Thief quirk and the truth serum confession quirk), but they go to waste since they’re used in decidedly uninteresting ways. (seriously though, that is such a mind-blowing waste of a truth serum quirk that it’s painful to think about. it could have been used for character development, interrogations... any number of plot uses. and what does this asshole do instead? HE TRIES TO MAKE MIRIO SAD. come the fuck on.)

and arguably worse than that is the fact that they all wear the same mask. that was such a bad move on Horikoshi’s part. it means there’s no way for any of them to stand out. if their quirks or personalities weren’t going to cut it, their appearances were the only thing left, and he goes and designs them all to essentially have the same fucking face. why would you do that. as if they didn’t all blend together enough to start with.

and lastly, the blind, ferocious loyalty they all have to Overhaul is completely absurd and makes no fucking sense. like, several of them were literally like, “oh I was treated like shit all my life, and then this guy came along who also treats me like shit, but ~with him I have a place~.” the truth serum guy IIRC liked Overhaul simply because he was honest. at least Chance the Rappa had a decent reason for liking him which was that he was freakishly strong and he just wanted to defeat him. meanwhile his monk friend supposedly doesn’t like violence, and yet here he is loyally serving a man who offs his own subordinates at the drop of a hat, and whose master plan hinges on the perpetual torture of a kindergartner.

just. they all suck so much.

 the good: Sir Nighteye

Nighteye had such a great arc. I’m not the biggest fan of how it ended, because that was a perfectly good heart of mine that they ripped out and stomped all over, but aside from that, yeah. he starts out as this cold, disdainful pencil of a man, only for it to gradually be revealed that he’s really just a broken shell of himself, afraid to use his own quirk because he’s scared of whatever horrors he might see that he’ll be helpless to do anything about. he supports Mirio over Deku because he loves Mirio and genuinely thinks he’ll be the better successor, and because he loves All Might, and he’s desperate to stop his premonition from six years ago from actually coming true. it didn’t really surprise me that he became a more likable character in the end, but the degree to which it happened really caught me off guard. I was not expecting to end up loving him so much. and also I just really love the idea of the foresight quirk being as mentally damaging as it turns out to be, because it makes perfect sense, and it’s the perfect way to put such a potentially overpowered quirk in check. just, well done on every aspect of Nighteye’s character and his story arc.

the bad: Overhaul

Overhaul started out with so much potential and it all just went to shit. I’ll start with the good stuff first: his quirk is cool and terrifying, I like his character design, and I like the little touch with him being a germaphobe, even if they didn’t really do much with it in the end.

now the bad. I think my main complaint about Overhaul is that as a rule of thumb, I think that good villains should be written as though they genuinely believe they’re the heroes of their own story. this goes for all types of villains. even sociopaths take pride in being smart enough to take advantage of what they view as the stupidity and weakness of others. meanwhile, righteous villains justify their heinous acts as being for the sake of the greater good. and those villains who are in-between may feel some guilt about some of the things they’ve done, but they justify those acts as being something they had to do, or something the victim deserved, or something they themselves deserved after all of their own pain and suffering. (Tomura is a good example of this type of villain.) then you’ve got anarchist villains who are just in it for the lulz and figure there’s no real purpose to life, so they might as well enjoy themselves. all of these are valid villain personalities and motivations.

the problem with Overhaul is that he acts like a sociopath, and yet supposedly he’s doing all of this in order to somehow pay back his boss for his kindness. and that just doesn’t track. he has not demonstrated himself to be even remotely capable of empathy, so that level of loyalty from him feels forced and entirely unbelievable. I would have much preferred if instead he’d just gone full sociopath. maybe even have it turn out that he was making a power play all along and that he in fact was the one who caused the previous boss’s medical issues in order to seize power. that would have at least made sense with his level of evilness. but instead we have a guy who does shit without remorse that no one with even the barest hint of a functional empathy switch should be able to consider. his boss even tells him on multiple occasions, “hey that’s fucked up, don’t do that.” and he completely fucking ignores him, and we’re supposed to believe that in the end this is his way of trying to show his gratitude? there’s just no internal logic to it at all, and it makes me completely unable to take Overhaul seriously as a character, and so in the end he’s just annoying. 

the good: Kirishima

Kirishima is definitely a highlight of this arc. having sneaked up on everyone to become the surprise 5th most popular character, I guess Horikoshi took that as a sign that it was time to give him more development. and it’s such good development. it’s so unexpected to see middle school Kirishima -- brave, sturdy, loyal-to-a-fault Kirishima -- freezing up in the face of danger and panicking and not being able to do anything when others are in peril. and then we learn that he actually has massive self-esteem issues and has no real confidence in his own “boring” quirk, and despite his dream, he finds it difficult to see himself as worthy of being a hero. and yet he managed to overcome that and become the Kirishima we know today, who’s determined to become the manly hero he’s always wanted to be, even if he has to fake it till he makes it. it’s just good stuff, and it was great to see him get the spotlight.

the bad: Kirishima

lol. but having said that, I’m going to be real here: as much as I love him, there’s just no denying the fact that Kiri, when you get down to it, Only Does One Thing. he makes his body harder. that’s it. yes, it’s a very strong and powerful quirk, and he’s absolutely worthy of being in U.A. and will make a great hero one day for sure. but that said, one-on-one Kirishima fights are just not that interesting to watch. Horikoshi has yet to find a way to mix things up and do anything remotely surprising with his quirk. Kiri just makes himself as hard as possible and tries to hold out against whoever he’s fighting until he can either knock them out, or they tire themselves out, or he gets backup, or he loses. so I’ll go ahead and say this here: there was absolutely no fucking reason to give him two multi-chapter fights in this arc. it makes no sense. just combine the two. or at the very least shorten one of them if you absolutely must have him fight twice for whatever reason. but just. I don’t know why we had to sit through so many chapters of him just standing there getting hit by bad guys. jesus christ. and meanwhile neither Ochako or Tsuyu ended up seeing any onscreen action at all, which is fucking ridiculous. they’re both just as deserving of fight time as Kiri is, and Tsuyu in particular has never had her own one-on-one fight and it would have kicked ass. you can’t tell me it wouldn’t have. so yeah. this was definitely a misstep IMO.

the good: the overall dark mood of the arc

this arc was craaaaaaazy dark. like yikes!dark. guns. drugs. the fucking mob. child abuse. depression. anxiety. prophecies of death. lost powers. dead mentors. just, holy shit. it does what it set out to do, which IMO was to introduce the dark side of the hero world, and all the horrors that the job can lead to. this is what you guys are signing up for. this is the reality of what you’ll be facing at times. it’s brutal, but it sure is realistic.

the bad: apparently there is such a thing as too much angst

yeah. who knew? and look, okay, I fucking love angst. love it. but at some point it just gets to be too much. this isn’t fucking Breaking Bad. you’ve gotta throw us a bone here every so often. we need some humor sprinkled here and there, and the occasional moment of triumph and hope. you know it’s bad when somehow we end up having to rely on the villains for both of those things. and yet that’s what happened here, and Toga and Twice basically saved the arc when it was reaching its most frustrating point, and injected some much-needed life back into it.

and speaking of dark, while I was mostly speaking figuratively, I do also mean that quite literally as well. this arc was too dark. lesson learned: never set your 20-chapters-long climax in a fucking basement. chapter after chapter of drab gray settings. no background variation whatsoever. just, god. why would you fucking do that.

the good: girl power

I got so excited when I realized that for the first time ever, the arc was going to feature precisely two female and two male class 1-A students. a fucking 1:1 ratio. 50/50. and this was in addition to Hadou and Ryuukyuu (Ryuukyuu being the very first female top ten ranked hero we’d been introduced to). all in all I was fucking pumped.

the bad: ...but not really

so fucking go figure that right off the bat, they get attacked on the way in and ALL OF THE GIRL CHARACTERS STAY OUTSIDE while the guys go on to continue the arc. except for Bubble, but she gets left behind barely pages later. and then we don’t see any of the ladies again until the very fucking end. fucking travesty tbh. 

honestly, none of the girls has really gotten any spotlight action since Ochako fought Bakugou all the way back in the sports festival arc, and it’s getting tired at this point. this is probably one of the reasons why Toga has climbed so high on my favorite character list. because at least we still get to see her fighting, and it’s always entertaining. but I need more ladies kicking ass goddammit.

 anyways, this is getting quite long and my will to rant is waning, so I’ll just list the rest of the pros and cons I can think of real quick.

the good: Mirio (such a good boy); the quirk-be-gone and trigger drugs; Eri (who is so sweet and precious and I honestly love her quirk, even if it’s ridiculously overpowered. that’s why they gave it to a six-year-old lol. I don’t think we have to worry about it becoming too broken for a long time); the prophecy and all related angst; and of course, that ending which ripped my heart out and also made me cheer so hard when Overhaul got his comeuppance.

the bad: the basement (yes, I mentioned it before, but honestly it deserves another mention); Overhaul’s lack of an actual master plan (such a letdown, smdh); lack of all of our other faves for like 30 chapters. Bakugou. Todoroki. Momo. Kaminari. Mina. Iida. Sero. god but I missed them so, so much.

 final verdict: all in all, this was an excellent arc for world-building, and  it set up a few things which I think will have a lasting impact on the story (Nighteye’s premonition; Eri; the whole concept of internships; and last but not least Tomura getting hold of the quirk-erasing drug). it also gave us some decent character development on the heroes’ side, and some frankly excellent character development for nearly every last member of the League of Villains. I am very appreciative of that last in particular, and if I ever go back to reread any parts of the arc once I’m done with the recaps, it will probably be those chapters.

having said that, this arc marked the first time that the series, to me, has ever felt dragged-out and dull, and for multiple chapters in a row at that. I was seriously getting concerned at some points, because it felt nothing at all like the fast-paced series I’d grown accustomed to for the first 120 chapters, with most arcs being resolved in a dozen chapters or less, and moving right along to the next arc. I hate the feeling of having to force myself to read something, and that was the case for quite a few chapters in this arc, which sucks. and there was no reason for it, really. it was just bad writing.

probably the best example of this is coming up in just a few chapters in the recaps. I am referring to chapter 138, which is probably my least favorite chapter in the series to date. this chapter begins with the heroes gathered outside of Overhaul’s house getting ready to enter. it ends with the heroes still outside the fucking house, still having not entered. they literally spend an entire chapter, 19 full pages, trying to go inside a house. the pacing is abysmal. hardly anything interesting happens aside from that really big guy busting through the front gate, and Ryuukyuu turning into her dragon form to stop him. that’s basically it. it’s just boring as fuck. this chapter basically sums up all of the problems I have with this arc in one go.

was it an important arc for the story? yes. would I read it again? probably not, LoV antics aside. basically those are my feelings in a nutshell.

 anyways, I’m curious what everyone else’s thoughts are on this arc if anyone else feels like sharing! now that I’m finished with it, it’s a lot more fun to talk about. some things are just more enjoyable in hindsight, when you have finally moved on past them and can joke about them from a safe distance lol.