#basically everyone loves Nana but when it's time to be a performer/personal glory it's just business they put that friendship aside

[nozomijoestar]

i really like the dichotomy of everyone respecting Nana as their friend off stage (and the darker feeling she has that they All take from her in one way or another except Karen) but inside the stage duels as performers with her as their ultimate test, they're all still prideful enough to treat it as every man's glory for themselves, making it so they can't hold a grudge against Nana outside the Revues because to everyone the Revues are Just Business and a space for words that don't belong outside it- which plays into the repression that's hurting all their relationships, they really thought of everything making this series

[twinkluffy]

Hero society analysis (for the future)

Hi, after reading the chapter 300 of my hero academia manga I thought it was interesting to make a revision of what we know about how the hero society was built and its apparent downfall. So we are going to review 1) Vigilantes era, 2) quirk’s regulation and pro heroes, 3) the construction of the symbol of peace, 4) the destruction of the symbol of peace and 5) the future of hero society + me rambling about said future.

This is of course my reading of the events transpiring so far in the manga. I will try to keep spoilers at minimum, but there would be a few if you don’t read the manga.

1) Vigilantes era

With the manifestation of quirks, criminals with these newfound superpowers made use of it for evil-doing. Ordinary civilians with their own powers gathered to stop those criminals and bring order to society, that is how Vigilantes were born. All for one became a symbol of society unity in this period of time, making use of his own quirk he removed the quirk from those who didn’t want it and gave it to those who wanted to have superpowers. Obviously this wasn’t a selfless act on his part, he was gathering loyal followers for his goal and ruled Japan from the shadows.

At some point, one for all opposed to what all for one was doing, he saw through those “selfless action”, fought and passed his quirk to the second torchbearer.

The police force moved to prioritize leadership and to maintain the status quo, and decided to no use quirks as weapons.

2) Quirk’s regulation and pro heroes

The pro hero system started on Rhode Island in America under the "Rhode Island New State Statute". 189 Vigilantes were affected by this statute, with only 7 being accepted as official Heroes. Quirk usage has been restricted by the law, that is why groups as the meta liberation army were formed, they believed that the free use of their superhuman abilities should be a basic human right and not only a privilege for heroes.

Depending on their performance, pro heroes have the potential to receive government pay, along with fame and glory. This govt. pay, fame and glory is important, a lot of heroes aren’t into the heroic world because they think it is the best for the world, but mostly because it pays good.

3) The construction of the symbol of peace

At some point, quirkless Toshinori Yagi met the 7th OFA torchbearer: Nana Shimura, when the world was still in chaos with criminals rampaging through the streets and citizens had no one to believe.

Toshi wanted to create a new age of harmony, where this chaotic age of crime was left behind and everyone can have a future to laugh and live together. Toshinori wanted to be that pillar, this symbol of peace for everyone, for the civilians, for other heroes and even for the criminals, for them to see what is waiting if they make a wrong move.

Nana chose Toshinori as his successor, making him the 8th torchbearer of one for all. His body was already strong so he could use this power at it 100% and his training was to learn how to fight properly. Nana died in his fight against afo to make sure that Toshinori and Gran torino escaped safely. This caused a big impact on Toshinori, who thought about Nana as his own mother. Torino recommended him to travel to the united states and continue with his training there, while at the same time being safe of the threat that afo was for him as the eight torchbearer.

From here on onwards I don't think it is necessary to make a list of the heroic things Yagi did to be recognized as the symbol of peace, but we need to talk about what he almost unconsciously constructed as the symbol of peace in the civilians and his fellow heroes eyes. A hero that is always with a smile on his face, charismatic, devoted to the point that he didn’t have any personal time, selfless, indestructible, unwavering, always the winner no matter who he fought, no matter what happened all might’s would always be there to protect everyone. He took all the burden of Japan's safety on his shoulders, reducing the criminal activity to around the 5%.

(I don’t want to sound like Izuku Midoriya is ghost-writing this post, but damn if i don’t tear up thinking about Toshinori carrying that weight on his shoulders alone for so many years)

And this is the central problem of what is going on now in the bnhaverse, the archetype of the symbol of peace that all might create, those are such big shoes to fill and at this point no one can. He became an unreachable pillar, even other heroes acknowledge the pressure of being the #1 that they let all might carry alone, this pressure that he didn’t waver to carry even when he was badly injured.

Toshi in his effort to make a better world unconsciously make everyone dependable of him or what he constructed as the symbol of peace. His fight against AFO marks the beginning of the end of the hero society as we know, the slow collapse of the unreacheable pillar of the symbol of peace.

4) The destruction of the symbol of peace

This “destruction” of the symbol of peace isn’t something new, small blow after small blow villains has been working towards this one goal. As readers we could be expectators of this fall, villain after villain, of small actions becoming bolder. Small fries, solo workers and leagues, villains have been gathering, seeing the cracks on the pillar of Japan's best hero and trying their shot.

But after AFO imprisonment and all might’s career end, they have become even bolder. The hero society is weaker than ever, because All might was the biggest threat to the villains

The symbol of peace that all might carefully constructed can’t be imitated. Endeavor and the rest of the heroes couldn’t even start to fill the spot of All might legacy.

I’m not saying that heroes aren’t doing their best to prevent the fall of the status quo of society till this moment, i’m saying that civilians and even the press don’t let the heroes do their work. There is so much fear in the population and the villains know this, every villainous act helps them and makes the civilians lose their faith in the heroes.

We see this shortly after Endeavor takes the spot of the #1 and fight against that high gamma nomu:

a)The collective trauma of what happened to all might. The fight was recorded by the press, everyone saw the horrible face of the world's biggest criminal and the hero everyone loved ending his career to ensure their safety. Even when this was about Endeavor risking his life to save everyone, as the #1 should, they only can think about All might.

b) This second panel is the same as the previous one, we can see again the lost faith in the symbol of peace. Endeavor is risking his life to protect the city, probably in a way different from what all might approach to fighting villains was, but this also says a lot about this fourth point: there isn’t a sense of safety in the population. They saw their symbol of peace fall, why would be this former #2 any different?, this man who never could take the #1 spot from all might at his best.

And the last blow to the title of the symbol of peace took was Dabi exposing everything Endeavor did to his family in his desire to be the #1. Dude, the timing of all this was beautifully executed, it exposed and proved the reasons of the failing hero system that the league of villains preach about. This speech made everyone think about the dichotomy of “heroes and villains”, after this there isn’t just black and white, good and bad, there are grey areas mingling, there are heroes that in their personal life act as villains and the population is starting to see the flaws in the system.

5)The future of hero society (spoilers of chapter 300)

This fight against the league and MLA marks the end of hero society as we know it, first because it make clear to civilians that heroes aren’t invincible and that their safety isn’t guaranteed anymore and second it make other heroes that were safe behind the shadow of the symbol of peace, know that dark times are approaching and they jobs are riskier than ever.

We have to remember that being a hero is a job option for anyone with a quirk useful enough to combat, not everyone is doing this job because they have a hero heart. In this moment, with shit hitting the fan in the hero society, the good pay, fame and glory isn’t worth to being killed. Hence a lot of pro heros quitting the job, and also a lot of heroes died in the fight against the league; that’s causing a big impact in the structure of japan’s hero society.

The police can’t fight against quirks as well as heroes can (they don’t use quirks as weapons) and they are already busy trying to arrest the people who escaped from the different prisons, civilians are buying (hero) support items to protect themselves because a lot of hero agencies have closed.

Endeavor, who is supposed to be the #1 hero, is broken to the core after having a physical proof in the form of dabi of what his ambition caused. We have seen other characters showing a kind of support to Endeavor, seeing a change in him, but this isn’t going to be enough to gain the civilians approval.

On another topic, I think Vigilantes are going to appear again, of course they never disappeared, but in this moment the public image of them wouldn’t be that bad in civilians eyes. Of course the hero association is going to be against it.

The UA kids have gone through lots of things in their short time being students and having their provisional hero license, but we have also seen their hearts, every one of them being ready to put their life on the line if that is what it takes to save lives. This last fight was the hardest they had to face, they suffered the loss of a dear teacher (Kayama), watched their friends hurting/destroying their bodies fighting and having a first line seat to see the collapse of this hero society that they were so eager to partake in.

This can a) boost them to train harder to be a good hero or b) make them retire early and discard their dream. I personally think that of what we have seen of them, the first is the most logical option, but also they are kids and their parents make the legal decisions for them and after seeing how heroes are handling things, they couldn’t entrust their kids to UA anymore.

Talking about kids, the craziest one of the bunch, Izuku, said something in chapters prior that amazed me and made me love him even more. He said that Shigaraki's face looked like he needed to be saved. We don’t know if afo used someone else before in the way he is using shigaraki to gain power and become a “demon lord”, but if that was the case, you think that any of the previous torchbearers even thought about saving their destined rival?. This is what makes Izuku so different that even the first one for all user, all for one little brother, acknowledges his worth.

So at this point the question we can make ourselves is, what is gonna happen now? Personally and this absolutely my reading of the possible turns of events: i think the hero system is going to be re-constructed, which isn’t going to be easy, but those UA kids would make sure of it somehow. There isn’t going to be a next symbol of peace.

I know you guys are thinking that the next symbol of peace should be izuku, because he is the only one who can fight against shigaraki, has the same vision of heroics that all might and in chapter one we learn that he is narrating the history of how he became a great hero / the greatest hero(i know there are a lot of different translation to this), but looking at what i have writing so long, putting the pressure of japan’s safety in the shoulders of only one person is what dragged the hero society to this point and izuku is smart enough to know that too.

Sorry for this long ramble tho and any typos, when i get excited it's gets harder to translate the words to english my mind hahaha

PS: I feel like we are going to have a time skip after Izuku wakes up.