#bnha 382

[is-bakugou-alive-yet]

Bakugou has been dead for 215 days and counting since August 2nd.

[jutsuuu]

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH

[yellowbluemoonshine]

Toga’s Love/Quirk Theory;

‘I love Tomura-kun and Touya-kun too, but their quirks won’t come out like Jin-kun’s or Ochako-chan’s. I also tried it before this battle...and they wouldn’t come out! Even though I love him... Even though I can become someone I ‘love’... Even though Jin-kun could make them come out... ‘

Translations made in here by @pikahlua​.

Recently in chapter 382, we see Toga’s unable to become people she loves (Tomura and Dabi), despite the fact that she became Ochaco and Jin and used their quirks and i would argue that problem is not that she didnt love them enough. (This scene also remind me of the time La Brava gets depressed when her love quirk isnt powerfull enough and she questions her love, kinda parallels.)

But i dont think thats the case. Not after Shigaraki became the first person who believed in her, gave a place she belong to her and everything he did for her and not after Dabi and Toga recently connected through Jin’s death and we even get a official art of him imitating Dabi, more details in here.

I believe in you, Toga, that your love for them is geniue too.

So what’s the problem?

I think its no coincidence that the people whom she couldnt use their quirks happenned to be Shigaraki and Dabi. Suicidal brats who is full of hatred and have personal agenda in league the most, unlike Toga who wants to live, even if its her own way and she is living for love.

Toga cant fully become them because she cant understand them. She doesnt understand whats going on their head. She cant relate to their hatred and she doesnt understand their thoughts.

Compared to this;

Uraraka is Toga’s foil. She is someone who is just like Toga. This is exactly why Toga ran away to talk with her. Because they are similar. Their feelings, the way they tried to shut their feelings down because Toga did the same in the past, the good girls who repress their needs and they both want to become their crushes. This is why Toga thought if its Ochaco, then she can understand her and they could talk about love.

In Jin’s case, he is Toga’s bestie and someone she cares as big brother. They have many similarities, they both live for the connections. They both felt lonely. They both were abandonded by society and they wanted to live easier life. They saw league as home and they wanted to do their best to help people they care about.

Basically, Toga can understand their inner thoughts and relate to their inner feelings. I dont blame Toga for this really. Shigaraki and Dabi are too complicated to understand, especially if you dont know their story and inner thoughts. And they dont even talk about their past to connect with league so it makes sense why Toga cant use their quirks.

Well, you could say Toga cant become them because she doesnt want to become them? But i kinda disagree with that. There is a theory made in here by me and several people already mentioned that Toga is imitating Shigaraki and she seems to wanting to be more like him. I would even argue that when she says ‘Even though I love him... Even though I can become someone I ‘love’’, she is talking about Shigaraki.

‘I loved people’s happy faces. That’s why, for that girl, I won’t turn a blind eye to her tears.‘

Toga is a character who geniuely want to connect with people she care about but key point of love is understanding the person you love. I guess it happens to be good time to talk about love. And last panel with Uraraka and Toga is parallel with Deku’s last panel with Shigaraki, that they wont turn a blind eye to crying face, even though they are villains, they want to save them. So good luck, Toga and Ochaco.

[yreapwhatyasow]

“Toga starts making clones of Shigaraki and Dabi only to find she can’t use their quirks, she says that she loves them and doesn’t understand why it won’t work. “

I usually don’t post leaks but.. my favourites……. none of you deserve this

[anyosu]

so chapter 382 huh

[itsnothingofinterest]

So...does anyone find it kinda scetchy that Shinsou’s using his brainwashing to make an imprisoned villain fight other villains for the heroes?

Like, do you think he was he told to do that or did he decide to do it himself?

Would we have to worry about that being a regular thing once he turns pro? Because considering where his arc started, it’d be a real bitter ending for him if he ends up the heroes’ next go-to human rights violation.

[dynamightmite]

Teenager AFO givin off some real Light Yagami type vibes. His eyes SCREAM that he has a hidden murder notebook somewhere.

[birf]

nice to see his face again 🫠

[helga-grinduil]

TOGA DOESN'T WANT TO BE LIKE THE REST OF THE LEAGUE ENOUGH TO USE THEIR QUIRKS! SHE LOVES THEM, BUT DOESN'T WANT TO BE THEM

[littleholmes]

I can’t stop smiling, I’m so proud of this kid, Aizawa raised him well

[maythebaebewithyou]

[actuallyidontgiveadamn]

i've never been vocal about bnha before but chapter 382 leaks depiction of AFO and Hawks as equal opposites got me so good I will explode if I don't rant about it and Hawks character development in general

If you want to read about the chapter 382 only, skip to the part with the manga pages

But I think it's necessary to start from the beginning so here are my quick thoughts

Given his late introduction, sparse appearances and mostly support role in any given situation Hawks can be narratively classified as a side character even to side characters (pro-heroes, with students being the main heroes). Within the narrative he himself insists on being a support to other heroes, from cheering them up (mostly through manipulating emotions and lying, but that's a topic for another rant) to gathering information on the enemy, and assisting in fights.

What I think we the readers and he himself has been failing to see is that he's not just supporting, he's actually leading. He was initially shown as an arrogant hero who works alone and ignores his sidekicks and interns because he couldn't bother with them being slow, but the moment a given situation gets more serious we can see that he's actually good at working with others. He's good at reading people and circumstances, bending any given situation even as it actively unfolds, manipulating people and coordinating fights.

When we first see him, he successfully pulls an 'ignorant brat' stunt on both public and heroes, which manipulates public opinion on Endeavor and Endeavor's opinion on him, both to his desired outcomes.

The High-End fight was basically staged by him, and when it happens in the middle of a city very much not according to plan he still manages to ensure that it ends with no casualties.

Operation against the PLF is once again his doing and I personally would've very much loved to see him coordinating it instead of being incapacitated at the very start.

Then again, the moment he gets up from the hospital bed, he's taking everything in his hands. He encourages Endeavor to keep fighting by walking in on his family meeting just at the right time (absolutely not a coincidence) and saying just the right words. He's the one to come up with heroes' public speech. He appears to support Deku and other heroes politely suggesting what they should do and how they should behave when basically he's giving orders right and left to three most experienced and proper adult heroes. All while being a crippled 23yo who never had a normal life. He's two days out of Comissions control, he's injured beyond recognition, and he opts to leading others, which he still views as just supporting them.

And now the final fight against the final Big Bad of the entire series. Hawks enters it yet again considering himself an Endeavor's sidekick. After all, the final battle should be between the Worst Villain and the Top Hero, right? And then this rapidly changes to show us who is actually carrying that fight. Even while Endeavor is still fighting, we see how Hawks is the one coordinating the fight and keeping Endeavor focused.

When Endeavor falls, Hawk's role as the leader shines to its fullest. He is still crippled and so he understands he's no match to AFO and yet he's succesfull in fighting, stalling, manipulating, and annoying the main villain.

He denies AFO leaving, denies him proceeding with his plans, gets support from other heroes and supports them in return, he's now successfully leading a team effort. And even though Hawks doesn't know who may or may not come to his aid, he's fast to adapt to the changes. He's relentless and AFO is noticing it.

Enters chapter 382 and its composition.

Hawks is now actually mirrored to AFO. Through art and panels and phrases.

First of all notice how they are being simultaneously addressed to as "2人の男" - "Two men". Their panels are obviously mirrored despite them not actually facing each other since Hawks is standing behind Tokoyami's back at the moment and AFO is in the air. This mirror is getting even better in the page below. They now have a same sentence for both of them with a one word difference.

For AFO it's "The situation still isn't the best" and for Hawks "The situation still isn't the worst", with 'best' and 'worst' written on their respective sides.

Then we get main focus of this chapter on Toga, but in the end we're brought full circle to AFO and Hawks, with the same mirror panels and almost the exact same sentence again.

Once again 'two men' and once again 'the situation' sentence starts being written for both characters but then it changes.

First of all 'still' (まだ) changes to 'already' (もう), and continues for AFO as 'The situation is already becoming the best'. But then suddenly it starts over and has 'still' in it as in the beginning. As if Hawks is refusing to recognise the change of circumstances in AFO's favor. For Hawks it's 'The situation is still' - and then even continued by Hawks himself speaking it out loud - "not the worst"'. Hawks insists on saying 'still' though he too clearly sees that things just got worse for the heroes. (And I have a feeling that this sentence and Hawks' response is a big nod to his "I'm an optimist" line).

So in this chapter Hawks is obviously shown as an equal opposite to AFO. He's finally acknowledged having the same role as the mastermind and the leader but on the heroes' side. Throughout the battle (and the whole previous manga) he's been shown as smart, quick-thinking, both parts supportive and leading, and most of all unyielding despite all the circumstances. Getting him finally recognised for these qualities is a huge development and an acknowledgement for a 'side character'.

Insane part is that he himself still doesn't seem to get it. At that moment he's supporting Tokoyami and feeling unworthy of it.

[transhawks]

So Toga says she can't get it out (her quirk) and that she tried using, and while she should be able to because she "loves" Tomura and Touya-kun, she just can't. Ochako notices how unhappy all the Twice clones are.

I think the... factor in all this is going to be Toga realizing how broken all of them are...were. That without Twice to hold things up, the League fell apart precisely because of what Compress told us:

"A collection of warped minds who never bothered prying into each other's pasts."

This wasn't a good thing. It was good for acceptance, but it wasn't what they needed all along because most of them were hurting regardless. They didn't feel a need to open up with another, especially outside of Twice and Toga, and that's the problem because so much of this manga is about trusting others, reaching out to others and allowing yourself to be vulnerable. Sako straight up told us that in the end they didn't fully do that. Twice's quirk depends on "knowing" stuff about the other person. Twice would memorize things he measured to have some good spatial idea of the person. But Toga functions differently. To her knowing someone is likely something else entirely and in a space like the League, where outside of Jin and his open humanity, she didn't fully grasp the others.

To put in real life terms, there's friendships where you enjoy things with other people, where you work for similar goals, but you come out from meeting up still not knowing the other people well. You have no idea of their inner life, their inner thoughts. And that's what's happened here. It wasn't deep enough, I think, and that's the tragedy of it all. Where they wanted love and acceptance, in trying to create a facsimile of it, there just wasn't openness to start with.

Sure they wanted a place where they'd be accepted who they are, but that's not the end all be all of friendships and friend groups. The next steps to really get to know each other were not taken as a group. And we're seeing the result here. They're splintering. They should have pried.

It just wasn't enough and now it's gone.

[cyber-phobia]

You and me rn

I am shocked. appalled. horrified even.

[is-bakugou-alive-yet]

Is Bakugou alive yet?

03/01/2023

No

[oshiawaseni]

The deal with Togachaco

There was a little bit of confusion about what’s going on with these two and why Toga can’t use Shiggy and Dabi’s quirks. This is what I came up with about Toga's situation.

Disclaimer: this is all only theorycraft and any or all of it could be wrong of course!

My theory here is what’s lacking is not Toga’s love for them. She admits to caring about them. But their inability to love her. They lack any real connection. The two people who we know she has used quirks of are Twice and Ochaco.

Twice is obvious. They had a pretty close relationship and Twice felt very cared for when he died and told her that. Her heart broke for him so their feelings of love were reciprocated ones that had formed a strong connection and we aren’t talking romantic love, just love in general for another person. That’s what they had.

"But Ochaco didn't love Toga." True... but she did by proxy! One of Ochaco's key cornerstones is wanting everybody to be happy and smile. I think this was brought up again this chapter because it’ll be a very important theme for Toga’s arc to circle back to later!

During MVA, Toga’s love for Ochaco was reciprocated in a way - simply by default. There’s three points we should take note of here.

1. Toga was being loved back through proxy of Ochaco’s wide compassion for all of society.

2. Toga, someone who’s life has been utterly ruined from birth by her suffering of being excluded from society, is a *VALID* PART of society and is deserving of compassion, according to Ochaco's feelings.

3. Toga’s own quirk itself acknowledges Toga as a part of Ochaco’s “people," or "everyone," or "society." Even her own quirk knows she is valid and should be included in Ochaco’s compassion for everyone. (And now she genuinely cares for her too.)

And the deal with Dabi and Shigaraki: I really do think Toga’s quirk is affected by mutual love. Dabi and Shigaraki don’t have any love left in their body. All they are capable of right now is hate. They live for their hatred. This series is stacked up with parallels that juxtapose both love and hate against each other and this is another one. Those two will set themselves on fire in the name of hate. So Toga was unable to form a meaningful love connection with them. She can’t fully become them. Her quirk is the worst match with people like them.

Another interesting thing about Toga’s love is that Froppy (Hori) refers to it in Japanese quotation marks. I think this is more commentary of Toga not understanding what love means, and it’s like saying “love” to refer to it more as Toga’s concept of love. Something she obsessively fantasises about and thinks she understands, but doesn’t really.

Izuku also said to her: "If you love me, why don't you also want to share the same heart as me?" (values, morals, and protecting instead of hurting those she loves.) And this only made her think of her sad upbringing...

Toga never received any real love while growing up to form the basis of it. Not from her parents or her peers. Her quirk affects her personality a lot and is a factor in this too. So Toga-chan doesn’t really know what True Love is and I think that’s something Ochaco is going to help show her.

If her quirk works like this then her destiny was never meant to be a villain at all, as LoV are all bound together by hate for quirk society and they don’t know what love is either, which hinders her connection with them. So the only place her character can truly shine in, is when she is being surrounded by people she loves who can also love her in return. Like the condition to lift the beast’s curse in Beauty and the Beast.

I think Toga finding out what rule is affecting her ability to truly become people will be pivotal in saving her from all this mental pain she’s grown up with. This is her burden she's been baring all alone for years, and I believe whatever it is she has going on with Ochaco, will surely put some light into her heart, maybe for the first time ever.