#bnha 295

[codenamesazanka]

So there’s Spinner. and it’s the end of March. and in the past two, three hours he’s survived a massive ambush of Heroes, learned that Twice died, and rode Machia who plowed through several cities to arrive at a barren wasteland where Shigaraki - Spinner’s friend, his leader, his gaming buddy, the boy that’s become the most important person in his life - and who Spinner hasn’t seen in months - is a comatose, charred wreck. It’s probably not how Spinner imagined their reunion to go.

One of Spinner’s remaining teammates suddenly reveals he’s the son of the Number 1 Hero (who for the sake of Pro-Heroics has use eugenics and abused his own family, all to be at the top of the system) and now Dabi is seeking to commit fratricide and praticide in one go, ready to burn himself up for it. Thankfully Dabi got stopped at the last second; unthankfully that’s because another Hero has shown up with steel cables to tie them all up tight enough to suffocate them. Machia has fainted. Shigaraki still isn’t waking up.

There’s no good options here, so Mr. Compress attempts to sacrifice himself - fully expecting to die - by gouging out chunks of his body in order to give Spinner a chance to wake Shigaraki and escape with the rest of the League because Shigaraki is literally the only person capable of doing anything about this situation. Mr. Compress is counting on Spinner (who is the most devoted to Shigaraki, who knows Shigaraki best, who Compress trusts and believes in to save Shigaraki and the rest of the team)

Basically everyone that’s left in their rapidly depleting League is counting on Spinner.

The Heroes’ backup have started to arrive and if they capture the League, the best case scenario is that they will throw Spinner and everyone in the indefinite detention that is Tartarus where he’ll literally never see the light of day - much less his friends - ever again for as long as he live.

Worst case scenario, Heroes will just kill him and everyone he cares about; they’ve already done so to Twice, and judging by the current state of Shigaraki, they’ve also tried really hard here too.

With only seconds left, Spinner has to try something. So he takes a gamble and his very last ditch effort to wake up Shigaraki - friend, leader, gaming buddy, someone he does not want to lose; and the only person capable of doing anything to save everyone - is to remind him of his rage—

Not because Spinner thinks rage is cool. But because Spinner himself knows and understands and empathizes with that rage - he feels it himself. It’s what motivated him to do something about the hell of an unjust society he’s living in; it’s what barely staves off the gaping and agonizing emptiness inside of him but hey, it’s something. It’s rage that keeps him going, has made Spinner finally feel alive after years of barely-living. Spinner know this and understand it and so does Shigaraki, how it’s the only thing left in both of their hollow shells when everything else failed, that rage—

So Spinner puts the hand on Shigaraki.

That's why he puts the hand on Shigaraki.

-

I think. if the hand must stand for afo’s toxic control and nothing else, then I think one must consider the additional relevant symbolic meaning that turning to AFO is a life-or-death decision of the hopelessly scared and desperate, because Heroes offered nothing else, or something even worse.

[thequietmanno1]

Thelreads, MHA 295, Replies Part 2

(MHA ch 291) 1) “Shigaraki please, you’re missing the big reveal, they are gonna need to explain it to you after you wake up and you’re not gonna believe it!”- Well, he’s awake but….it’s not Tomura in the driver’s seat anymore. There may not even be any “Tomura” left inside by the end of this.

2) “WAIT, ARE YOU IMPLYING THAT HE WILL BE ABLE TO DO THAT LATER, BECAUSE YOU'RE GONNA LET HIM GO, OR THAT THIS WAS SOMETHING BEYOND HIS REACH BECAUSE YOU'RE IN CHARGE OF THE MEAT VESSEL NOW?”- He’s being disingenuous. For all that he’s referred to Tomura as his own man and his “successor”, in actuality, he’s never seen him as somebody separate from himself – rather, merely an incubating vision of the person he’s going to become for the sake of AFO’s ambitions, a new vessel and body that can outlive his old one with greater strength than he can achieve alone, and whose identity and selse of self will become fertiliser to enable AFo to “evolve” into a new vision of the Demon Lord he used to be. For all that Tomura is serving as a hate battery that powers their mental fusion, eventually, whatever comprises his Id and Ego will be subsumed by AFO’s, leaving only the ever-present emotion of hatred powering this new self.

These are not scenes of a master speaking to a pupil, it’s a twisted vision of a “future” AFO speaking to his “younger” self, preparing him to properly fit his mental framework like a human suit. Whenever he says “Tomura” will be doing something, he really means “I will be doing something” once he’s gotten a handle on using Tomura’s rage properly along with this new enhanced body. It’s a sign of AFO’s sheer narcissism that he earnestly cannot perceive people are beings in their own rights, merely tools he can utilise for his own needs. Even outwith Tomura, this shows in how he speaks to his Brother’s vestige.

He speaks of “making him his” whilst looking right at him, but what he really means is taking OFA into his own Quirk. Because of his psychopathic perception of people, he earnestly can’t see the difference between his brother as a living being and his power, and the same outlook applies to Tomura as well. “Tomura” is not a person to AFO, he’s a source of emotional strength created as a weapon to beat his brother’s power into submission with, and by the same token, the whole reason this is possible is that there is no difference between AFO as a person and his Quirk. He is his power, and thus, taking it within Tomura enabled him to start “eating” his mind and identity whilst preserving his heart underneath to empower himself into a god-like being.

3) “OKAY, SO IF I'M GETTING THIS RIGHT THIS ISN'T A FULL TAKEOVER, JUST AN EMERGENCY ONE, TO GET HIM OUT OF TROUBLE. 

OKAY

THERE'S STILL A CHANCE TO HAVE SHIGARAKI BACK”- Well, technically, an emergency takeover to get his new body out of danger now it’s on the verge of actually losing for the first time since the fighting started, but like a kid who loves to hog the game controller, AFO won’t be relinquishing control back to Tomura any time soon. Tomura though he was the player, but he was really the game console itself for AFO, and its finally time for him to start making everyone play by his rules. 4) “WELL FUCK YOU TOO AFO JUST BECAUSE I WAS ABOUT TO KEEP MY HOPE

FUCK YOU AND THAT BOMBER CELL BULLSHIT YOU HAD BEFORE”- And despite what pretentions he layers on it, this showcases AFO’s underlying cowardice and refusal to “fight fair”. Tomura started the fight at a disadvantage due to being ambushed early, and was willing to keep fighting even as his parts were coming off, but when AFO takes command, he checks out the state of Tomura’s injuries that he was willing to ignore, verifies that the heroes are nearly beaten, but still capable of fighting back, and decides it’s more pragmatic to simply high-tail it out of there and wait until his true overwhelming might is ready, so they have no slim chance to take him down whatsoever. 

Does it mean abandoning everybody who loyally followed Tomura in a warzone? Yep, but loyalty, despite hard-coding it into the Nomus, is not something AFO has ever really possessed. Even Machia isn’t spared from this, simply because AFO judges it too risky to continue a fight where there’s odds of a fair victory for both sides, instead wanting to stack the deck as much as he can until his own, singular victory is assured. It’s despicable, and yet, you have to admit it is arguably the best choice for him to take if merely looking at the logical outcome of this conflict rather than the emotional one everybody’s invested in my now.

(MHA ch 275)

5) “Yeah but I think that he`ll need to go a bit higher than that against Shigaraki if he wishes to have a shot. Although they won`t kill him here, otherwise it would be some very awkward next 120 chapters, but they need to at least push him back, and that`s definitely gonna be tricky.”- Push him back, or…beat him up enough that he can’t resist the mental attacks of his master, who’s perfectly happy to leave before the heroes could eke out a slim victory. (MHA ch 287)

6) “Oh Midoriya, you know he will. He’s just like you in that aspect

He won’t obey his master, he’ll stay and fight. He won’t leave until all that he hates is destroyed

The End is here for you

and there’s no escaping it”- Actually, as it turns out, AFO doesn’t have the decency to stick to a fight if he’s not completely certain of his victory in the end, unlike Tomura. If he thinks it’ll be more devastating for the heroes to cut and run, despite all the losses his side has incurred, he’ll do that without a second thought, because his eye is on the long-term goal, not this short-term victory everybody’s fighting so hard for, on both sides of the conflict. 7) “YES BUT WE HAVE MORE PRESSING MATTERS RIGHT NOW PEOPLE AFO JUST CAME BACK

AND THERE'S ALSO THE ONE IN TARTARUS. SO THERE'S TWO OF THEM.

NOW IT'S ALL FOR TWO”- Even when Luke faced down both Emperor Palpetine and Darth Vader, he never had to face them down fighting in synch together. Izuku’s odds are not looking good, especially because AFO’s made it clear here that OFA is his priority, and All Might’s victory won’t get repeated again, no matter how much cheating he has to pull off.

8) “DON'T TALK LIKE THAT ABOUT YOUR SON YOU PIECE OF SHIT”- In fitting with his “can only see people as powers” viewpoint, Izuku’s inherently Quirkless nature means he registers as less than worthless to AFO, merely serving as the receptacle for his brother’s power until he’s ready to brutally rip it out of him

9) “MIDORIYA, WHATEVER YOU HAVE TO SAY, SAY IT NOW BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE. DECLARE THAT YOU WILL DEFEAT HIM AND SAVE SHIGARAKI, PLANT THAT SEED OF FEAR IN HIS DARK HEART, LET HIM NOW THERE WON'T BE REST WHILE YOU STILL BREATHS”- At this point, it’s unclear if Tomura’s ears could even pick up on Izuku’s words and relay them to the part of him that’s still “him” inside there. But then again, Izuku’s speaking from his heart, and Tomura’s heart is something that AFO can’t directly utilise himself, not unlike an actual Heartless, so maybe, in some metaphysical way, Izuku doesn’t need to speak for Tomura to get his message here.

10) “AND SO IT SHALL BE

MIDORIYA HAS A MISSION NOW. NOT ONLY WINNING, BUT SAVING THE ONE IN NEED OF SAVING.CLOSE THE CURTAINS IN THE BATTLE AGAINST THE END. EVIL WON TODAY, BUT IT SHALL NOT WIN THIS WAR.”- Actually, the only true winner of this war was the Evil AFO. Both the heroes and Villains on either side sacrificed so much to achieve success for their side, with severe, irreplaceable losses being taken by both, yet with this last action of just swooping in to Hijack Tomura before a conclusion can be reached, AFO manages to render all efforts made utterly pointless. The PLF have lost their leadership, their command structure and the soul of the young tyrant they swore loyalty to, the League have fractured and irreversibly lost some members, and what remains is deeply broken over it and the divide in their ideologies and aims made apparent by Dabi, and the heroes failed to stop the unstoppable juggernaut that was Tomura from escaping to become stronger, after both he and Machia caused disasters on a national level with untold casualties from innocent civilians. Everyone who put their maximum effort into scoring a meaningful outcome in this fight had it rendered pointless by AFO’s selfish choice to flee and prioritise himself, and all he had to do was show up and play by his own rules rather than engage in a “fair” confrontation.

From: Doodlelotl

@thelreads

[scarlettcryptid]

tfw you think of eri running away and deku hugging her, wanting to help her and then you remember shigaraki walking around the streets being ignored with no one bothering to help him

[class1akids]

So this is a genuine question that I hope comes across alright…

As a meta writer, what makes you so confident in knowing the themes of the manga and analyzing it? If you were to look at other analysis that are the opposite and show a different opinion, would you agree with it or now? So when it comes to the MHA ending, with what HK shows and how so many people expected the villains to die, which in the end they did, what made you so fixated on believing that HK was intending for them to live in the end only for him to switch it up. What if it was HK’s intention in the end?

I was on the side of believing the villains would live after seeing the meta blogs on Tumblr that have me hope. So my heart hurts to see what happened. The worst part is previously, I thought they would die but then became confident after reading so many analysis. Unfortunately turns out they did 😭

To be honest, the themes of a manga like BNHA are not that difficult, since Horikoshi is very "loud" about his set-ups. It's not subtle at all - he tends to emphasize his set-up panels and also repeat them several times.

I feel like the "saving villains" storyline was clearly set up with the following moments:

Hawks' attempt and failure at saving Twice

Toga asking "who are saved by heroes / are villains people too"?

Deku's line in 295 - "you looked like you needed saving"

Shoto's line in 298 - "he is me"

Deku in 305 "OFA is meant to save not to kill, I want to save that boy" - which becomes his "win condition"

a whole arc about understanding villains (supposedly)

Ch 342 - weirdo discussion and udon scene

Now, the ending tries to tell you that the villains were "saved" - at least their souls - but ask yourself the questions:

Are you convinced that the villains are truly saved?

Do you feel that there was a satisfying pay-off for the saving themes?

Do you feel like Deku delivered on the "greatest hero" promise?

Do you feel like the new generation did something profoundly different than the previous one and did it believably transform society?

If the pay-off just doesn't seem good enough, it's not because the meta writers did bad analysis, but it's because the writing fell apart in the 3rd act.

When you are in mid-story, it's hard to tell if the narrative is truly off the rails, or it just takes twists and turns. Up until Ch 422, there were ways for a pay-off with the LoV trio and there was a possibility for them to be truly saved. The way 423 ended so abruptly and the whole fandom was like "huh? this was the big finale?" shows that the themes were not implemented convincingly.

And the way Deku became the target of endless memes also shows that the readership did not feel convinced that he surpassed All Might in any meaningful way.

(fwiw, I stopped writing meta towards the end, when it became clear that Hori has failed to deliver the themes he set-up. There is no way to make good predictions on a narrative that has abandoned its themes).

[antiquity1111]

Sorry to trouble you but was curious if you’re still doing MHA meta and work? Your stuff is amazing and insightful, always a pleasure to read and re-read, but it seems a lot of meta-writers for the fandom have slowly been disappearing.

Welcome to my Tumblr page! :) Thank you so much for your kind words and for checking in. You're not bothering me, I promise. I've definitely noticed a decline in the number of fans creating meta and translations for BNHA. There are all kinds of reasons for why people decide to take a step back from the fandom or abandon it altogether. Some are disappointed by the direction the manga has taken and is taking and are finding it difficult or impossible to enjoy the series the way they did in the past; some find certain narrative choices unforgivable; some have grown disillusioned with the manga, the fanbase, or both; some have found other series they're more emotionally invested in and giving more time to; some have become lurkers, consuming content from the shadows and avoiding direct interaction with other fans; and some have just been distracted with, well, life. Things have been rough on the home front for a while now, and I've been feeling absolutely drained by all of it. I've also spent the past month applying for jobs, and one finally came through! I'm working part-time Monday through Friday as an assistant preschool teacher for infants age 6 months to 13 months at a child development center in my area. Between work, family, and doing my part to keep my household running smoothly, I've been busy. I know it's been a minute (a month? more?) since I last shared anything BNHA-related, but I can assure you I'm working on more content to share with you all! I had originally planned to upload four different posts--direct Japanese to English translations for No.375 and No.376, an English vs. Japanese translation comparison for Spinner's 288 speech to Toga, and an English vs. Japanese translation comparison for No.294 and No.295 for Mr. Compress--all at once, but I've been dragging on that last one. It's taking longer to finish than I ever anticipated it would because of everything else going on. My new plan is to upload the other three posts as soon as possible. With any luck, I'll have at least one up tonight! Fingers crossed! They'll all be uploaded to Tumblr first. The links will then be added to the ever-evolving Google doc pinned to my Twitter page and shared in a separate tweet announcing the uploads. I hope you enjoy them as much as you have the others! <3

P.S. You're my first ask. <333

[betchyoubetter]

WHAT

[eri-cheri]

Hori’s been on fire with the memes lately.

[colleen191]

What's next?! We find out who the UA traitor is?!!

[niks-minion]

Hello, here is your weekly load of pain

Enjoy ...

[direwolfs-stuff]

And now comes the continuation to that post

[harmonyscarf]

izuku midoriya 🤝 tomura shigaraki

telling all for one to shut the fuck up

they r right and they should say it

[sualne]

Canon isn’t real.

[thequietmanno1]

Thelreads, MHA 295, Replies Part 1

1) “You know who else is on the wrong which is actually relevant? Horikoshi for taking away Mr Compress’ ass. We were robbed, robbed I tell you! But we’ll have time to complain more while he bleeds to death in the battlefield, because not it’s time to get started with Chapter 294: Tenacious.”- So, does mis-typing the chapter number make you in the wrong, or?.... 2) “Back to the world of the living Link- I mean, Midoriya? You were out for quite sometime, you even missed a celebrity reveal.”- Honestly, Midoria needs his own time in the healing tank after this. Boy’s reduced himself to a torso moving with the aid of semi-flight and tentacles extruded from his mouth, and he still eats up another big hit before the fighting’s done. 3) “Yeah that was the ghostly icepick of god trying to scramble your brain so you make a stupid decision, but you’re refusing to do so.”- And this new “Danger Sense” seems to work on much the same nebulous rules as Spidy’s, getting triggered at the mere impending danger from Tomura getting awakened, because of how massive the threat he represents to Izuku is.

4) “WAIT FUCK I CAN’T BELIEVE IT MIDORIYA HAS A SPIDER SENSE

OH MY GOD

DID YOU ALREADY HEARD ABOUT IT? I CAN’T REMEMBER, BUT I’M PRETTY SURE HE DIDN’T

SUCK ON THAT KOICHI, MIDORIYA HAS AN ACTUAL SPIDER SENSE TO TINGLE”- Koichi got the bootleg hacked version that happened to integrate so well with his existing software that it basically turned him into a badass through hijacking his movements over the course of a single fight. Izuku has the legit OG Spider Sense Software installed in him, and accordingly, now he’s starting to use it, will now have to deal with the same issues that run Superman ragged – being able to sense danger all around him happening to others and not being able to be there for everyone. 5) “Are you sure it’s a quirk Midoriya, it might just be a normal untreated anxiety attack”- Izuku’s been handling anxiety attacks since he was in kindergarden, they’re old-school to him. Having an unexpected warning klaxon go off inside your skull every time somebody’s aiming for you, that’s defiantly a new experience for him. 6) “DAMMIT COMPRESS CAN YOU CHILL THE FUCK OUT WE ALREADY LOST YOUR ASS, WE DON’T WANT TO LOSE MORE BITS OF YOU

Also I definitely don’t think you have a shot against Mirio, but give your best, any second matters.”- Yeah, Compress’ plan basically amounted to giving his allies some breathing room to act freely however he could, even going to the extreme of self-mutilation to achieve that. It makes it darkly ironic that he refers to it as an “escape artist performance” when he himself never planned to escape, only to let his friends find a way out. In theory, it was a stupid, reckless move that shouldn’t have worked…but that’s the same principle behind some of Izuku’s own heroic strategies, trusting in his allies to help save the day whilst only having a half-formed idea and making it up as he goes along. Once again, the villains becoming the protagonists for a moment enables them to make use of the same reality-bending logic that allows their success against the odds…although for Spinner, this still isn’t really a win for their side either… 7) “OH MY FUCKING GOD HE IS AWARE OF IT

BUT THANK GOD HE COULDN’T USE THEM, THAT POWER WOULD HAVE SHOOK THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE EARTH”- I’ma be real with you. I don’t know what Caleb was smoking when he translated it this way, only that he’d been watching a lot of Monty Python. 

It’s even worded confusingly in the original Japanese to boot, so I can’t really blame him for this. Best guess I’ve got is that Compress was desperate enough to try and entangle himself in Miro and hopefully sit on him until the others had got away?? 8) “Yes, that’s exactly the case, if he wakes up that is. Which he will, any moment now. But it remains to be seen if it will be Shigaraki or All for One the one that will wake up.”- Well now, that’s certainly an interesting philosophical question to ask. When two become one, are they both, or neither?

9) “Wait, when did you got Dabi, I don’t remember that. Hold on, let me check the last chapter”- Compress seriously came in clutch here for his side, even if he sacrificed so much to pull off that narrow escape. Even with his Quirk weakened, it was his understanding and faith in his teammates that enabled him to pull off a dark-horse victory upset at the eleventh hour, whereas Dabi very clearly had no plans for leaving here until Endeavour passed out, showing how he’d basically lead the league into a charge that would have resulted in their capture or worse at the heroes’ hands without care for the consequences, because hey, not like that’d matter to him, right? 10) ““most devoted follower” suuuure let’s leave it at that, hehe…”- Definitely another way of saying “Best/ Only true friend who understands me like no-one else”. Spinner’s like an underpowered Bakugou to Tomura’s Izuku. 11) “OH SPINNER GOT THE HAND

HE BROUGHT IT HERE, AND THAT’S WHAT IS GONNA WAKE UP SHIGARAKI

WHICH MEANS THAT HE WILL DEFINITELY OVERPOWER AFO ATTEMPTS TO TAKE OVER THE BODY”-  No, sadly. Spinner knew it’d rouse him because of his personal insight into Tomura’s psyche (plus having shit-all options besides) but you can’t fight Fire with Fire, nor smother Hatred with More Hatred. AFO is feeding off of Tomura’s negative emotions like a Quirk-based heartless, so the more he gives into that rage, however unexpectedly it may come upon him, the stronger the bond/unwitting fusion between them becomes. It’s a twisted reflection of izuku’s own interlink with OFA, but whereas they can partially control/move Izuku’s body at times when he himself willed it whilst under extreme emotions (like under Shinso’s brainwashing), Tomura’s omnipresent hatred, bred into him like a seed from childhood, just allows AFO a direct link to puppeteer Tomura’s body under his own will entirely. And the more Tomura hates this fact, the stronger his control becomes too. The downward spiral of Tomura’s reign as the leading villain has started, and there’s nothing he can do to stop it – after all, AFO never taught him how to feel anything else that could potential fight off this hatred link, so he can’t control his own heart from cementing this fusion with him in a subservient role to his “master” – just like it was planned all along. 12) “HE IS BACK

THE END HAS AWOKEN

AND NOTHING SHALL STAND IN HIS PATH”- Back but…not as either side wanted him. For all his omni-present hatred and maiming of the heroes, Tomura is nowhere near as malicious as AFO, and now that mind’s in command of all the power Tomura believed would be his… 13) “FUCK FUCK FUCK IT IS NOT SHIGARAKI THAT WOKE UP, IT’S AFO

FUCKING FUCKWHY DID YOU DO THAT SPINNER, YOU MESSED THINGS UP FOR HIM”- Not his fault. After all, this is the first time Spinner’s seen Tomura since he went into the test-tube months ago. If anything, the fact he understood his best buddy well enough to know that tidbit about the hands rousing his instinctive emotional response is a sign of how well Spinner was in synch with Tomura – it was months ago that he told them that, yet on seeing the burned hand of Nana, Spinner instantly recalls it as a way out of their predicament. And for all that time, the development of AFO’s plan to hijack Tomura internally at the final hour is something that Spinner, the league and all their followers are completely in the dark on – not to mention that the whole “vestige realm” deal is something seemingly unique to OFA and AFO’s Quirks due to their type of powers, so Spinner has no reason to believe that something like demonic possession straight out of a horror movie is possible until this moment.

14) “JESUS FUCKING CHRIST HE’S TRYING TO HATCH FROM INSIDE SHIGARAKI WHAT THE FUCK DUDE”- Meet…. TomurAFO, the true final opponent as All For One envisioned to face Izuku in. @thelreads

[dabidabidahh]

Nah, cuz I had to laugh😭💀

[iarts165]

[imbeccablee]

Deku in 295 like