#bnha dabi analysis

[rainygirl2399]

how much self-awareness does dabi have?

Sorry for the late reply anon, I am trying to catch up with all the asks that have been sent to me over the past few months. I had a lot of school work to complete for college.

Anyway, regarding Dabi's self awareness, I would argue that he is one of the most self aware characters in the entire manga.

The entire theme around the Todorokis is "to see" and acknowledge each other as a family but also acknowledge the awful truths and problems they have that are rooted in Endeavor's awful decisions.

Examples of Dabi's self awareness are shown multiple times throughout the manga:

Dabi scouting Hawks yet also getting background information on him and his past by tracking down his mom and releasing his real name and past to the public just in case he turned out to be a spy. Even Hawks acknowledged how much he underestimated Dabi as a threat.

The next example would be how he called out his mom Rei's hypocrisy when it came to family expectations, he was that aware and he was only 13 years old.

Basically he tells her he knows her situation with her family and how she had no choice but to choose her marriage with Endeavor to fulfill her family's expectations of her and that is something he is doing too.

When she tells him to look beyond he tells her in his own way that she chose this path too and if she gives that advice to look beyond the hero world then she's basically a hypocrite who regrets her marriage to Enji and thus regrets having him to begin with.

Rei was being a hypocrite here as she was basically telling Toya not to do what she did but he knew she didn't care enough about him to stop having kids to replace him in Endeavor's ambitions and never took her own advice once in her life. While Rei was in a powerless position she acknowledges later on that she didn't .

The best example imo would be how he copied Shoto's Phosphor move because he has owned his battle intuition and quirk all for the sake of vengeance.

Toya always has to work an uphill battle against his own quirk and against others who underestimate him. While the case here is not that Shoto is weak but Toya is just stronger and willing to do anything to achieve his goal and Shoto is a hero who refuses to go all out it it means he'll hurt people unintentionally.

His awareness is not limited to simply gathering intel from heroes but battle intuition and learning moves and how they work by simply looking at them.

Heck even Ujiko commented on his good eye for noticing things.

[autumnmobile12]

Based on the way Touya and Fuyumi behaved in their very early years, I've always gotten the impression the Todoroki family started out with something of a healthy dynamic.

The reason they were born was pretty twisted and Endeavor's ambitions may have made the foundation rotten, but I think they were 'fine' until the genetic disparity with Touya's Quirk was detected. What's sad about that is if Touya didn't have that issue, he and Fuyumi would probably have been the only two siblings. Endeavor wanted Touya for a successor. Rei wanted Fuyumi so that Touya would have a sibling and they could support each other.

Natsuo and Shouto were born because Endeavor's ambitions meant more to him than his family.

And tragically, Touya and Fuyumi are the only two kids in that family who can remember this happy life. It's why Fuyumi was so desperate to get it back, and in his own warped way, Touya also tried to reclaim it.

Here's the thing that gets me, though:

It is very common and normal for a toddler to prefer one parent over the other. Usually, it's the parent they're the most family with: The one that stays home with and takes care of them.

Remember, to a toddler, everything is new and potentially scary, and that can often include a parent that is not always present: The parent that's working.

In the Todoroki house, Endeavor had his career as a hero, so we have the indication that Rei was the parent who stayed home. In that situation, the probability of Rei being the 'familiar parent' was more likely, so for Touya to prefer his father over his mother shows just how close he was to Endeavor. That probably happened because 1.) we can see Endeavor started training him at a very young age, and 2.) Fuyumi was the new baby and probably needed more attention from their mother, so Touya may have gravitated away from Rei on his own and went to his father instead.

Touya didn't see his father's ambitions for him. He didn't see that he was a successor as opposed to a son. What he, a child, saw and understood was that his father loved him and wanted to spend time with him. After the genetic disparity was detected and that pride and affection disappeared, he didn't know how to cope.

In contrast, Natsuo and Shouto never even saw the family happy. Natsuo was three-four years old when this happened. Fuyumi looks devastated that things aren't her version of normal. Natsuo just looks confused because, again, everything is new to toddlers. This was the normal he grew up with. Touya attacking Shouto might be one of his first memories, so he never stood a chance and that is why he left home the moment he had the opportunity.

It also explains his lack of understanding for Fuyumi's hope for a normal family. Fuyumi's mindset runs as, "We had that once. It's possible to have it again." Which in its own way, expecting things can just return to the way they were is a little disrespectful to her brother that died, and I think Touya's reappearance did shatter her illusion since she never brings up 'being a real family' after Dabi's Dance.

The point is, since Natsuo never saw what Fuyumi and Touya saw, he can't see what she wants to return to, so her decision to forgive their father is one he can't comprehend.

And if Natsuo can't remember the happy family, then there's no way Shouto does because this is what their home looked like by the time he was old enough to start forming concrete memories.

We're looking at two different sets of children, the older pair and the younger pair, who started out with very different childhoods.

[narwhalsarefalling]

wait hey. i have an idea. they split someone elses quirk in half, and gave the destroying half to tenko, right?

(we know that this is chisaki because this panal is cut directly from chapter 158)

well. i think i know where the healing half went. it went to eri.

think about it- everyone said her quirk was a sudden mutation unlike either of her parents quirks.

i think eri and a few other children like touya and chisaki were backup plans. we already know touya was one of those 'backups,' and we have evidence of chisaki being the source of the destorying/repairing quirk that was split.

eri was just a more recent backup plan in case things went south at the LOV attack at USJ. since AFO was arrested shortafter, she kind of got lost in the shuffle and was just written off to be a similar "seedbeds of ferocity and hatred" as she grew up under chisaki's care.

she even has a similar backstory to Tenko already, having killed a member of her family by accident

that could be why her quirks so weird to- it takes time for it to remember how to "fix" things since its also not "destroying" things as a blueprint. since the quirk is split, it doesnt know how to "fix" things because theres nothing"destroying" things. so it has to rely on time itself to "fix". thats how i think overhaul's quirk works anyway- something needs to be ''destroyed" before being "fixed". its even said that her quirk is similar to chisaki's.

she also suffers from the same control issues tomura had. i bet that her being placed in the care of someone suspected to be another AFO project was not a coincidence. she could have been a very fitting replacement for tenko- she killed her parents with her quirk and was raised in an environment where she was seen as nothing more then a tool for things to end. it was only her determination that she was able to escape his grasp.

just like how chisaki was saved from the same place where Touya woke up from. I wonder if Touya's breakout triggered Chisaki's escape and into the hands of the yakuza.

and of course, saving Chisaki from an even worse fate

[buttercupshands]

MHA didn't create some miracle way of helping others. It was never promised to be this way. And when it came to villains...

Spoilers for manga all the way to chapter 423.

The only way to get anything in life in MHA was to be born "normal" like everyone else and that way of thinking never left Izuku with Toga getting the same treatment she did before from everyone from her family to her "normal" classmates. It was Ochako who helped Toga even if just a little by lifting the weight of all the feelings that Toga had.

She couldn't save Toga the way one could save a civilian by saving them from harm. If it worked that way Dabi would've saved Toga even before Ochako could apologize for failing to notice Toga. She was so lazer focused on saving everyone else, that she was just another villain to stop, not a human.

Even if by the end of it Ochako helped Toga to deal with her grief, acceptance as it was wasn't something possible when a quirk makes you want to drink someone's blood from jealousy.

We got a bittersweet ending with Toga, in which she probably died from blood loss just like her double did in MVA. If it wasn't for Twice she would've died back then.

Giving away her blood for Ochako wasn't a redemption or a way to save Toga in the end, more as it was her being true to herself until the very end.

Just like Twice chose to stay with the League even if Hawks offered him a way to survive that battle. He refused and died protecting his friends who accepted him instead of choosing to betray them and accept Hawks' offer.

After Twice's death... It was a matter of time that more 'active' LoV members would join him as well. As sad as it is, we now can return to Izuku.

Who, after his time OFA-AFO quirk space, now wanted to help a "crying boy" he saw in Tenko just as before with Katsuki in chapter 1. He didn't forgive Tomura and didn't excuse the way he chose to solve his problems.

It didn't mean that Tomura would survive in their battle, even if Izuku didn't see killing others as a way to solve problems. He didn't understand Tomura, but he still wanted to try, and try he did.

The rest of this post was nothing more than a contextual prologue to understand that it's not the first time a hero failed to save a villain and in Twice's case we know that he died and his death was the reason Toga started thinking about her own possible death and Dabi finally revealed himself as Toya.

The goal of saving a "crying boy" never was an end-goal for Izuku in the Final arc, since helping Tomura deal with his feelings just left him hollow with a goal that clashed with Izuku's. As being a hero for villains meant destroying the world for them to help them live freely.

But that was before AFO resurfaced.

Sadly after that Tomura who was talking about making his own choices for a while now stopped doing that. Even if he still had a goal of helping villains and only villains, Tomura was almost gone. And his goals were now unreachable.

Izuku helped Nana who in turn kept Tomura from fading away entirely. In MHA there were countless situations where Izuku's help affected people by helping a different person to keep hope, All-Might being the first one and Nana being the last one at the moment.

Hollow after Izuku helped him to get rid of his hatred Tomura could do the only thing he did - accept the situation as it was.

Accepting AFO as his Sensei, accepting Stain's ideals and Overhaul's deal was the way he solved his problems. Just like Izuku had a problem of understanding something outside of his norm, Tomura was accepting too many things, which lead to his downfall after accepting AFO's quirk.

Just like Twice could've given up everything that he had for his friends so did Tomura.

With Izuku helping as much as he could let Tomura to finally rest as he wasn't really living ever since waking up in the hospital. With his body now affected by AFO's wishes instead of his own until the end.

In a way Izuku didn't succeed in his wish for Tomura to stop ever since PLF war arc. As he "kept fighting to destroy" no matter how hard Izuku tried to stop him.

The only thing he succeeded in was changing Tomura's mind about himself, instead of viewing himself as a monster he accepted that he was a human just like Izuku said. A "crying boy" who couldn't really destroy Izuku's hands in the end.

For a group of Villains who weren't supposed to get profiles of their own at the start of the series, League is slowly fading as the most memorable group that there was in MHA, getting backstories, their own Villain themed arc all the while being as human as anyone else.

As sad as their story is they were not "unlucky", they didn't need a happy false ending where they would need to change to be normal - they chose to live this way and they lived it to it's fullest.

[taeggukxiie]

I don't really like endhawks and it's not so much because of the age gape or the fan/idol relationship (la brava and gentle have some age gape and bakudeku are the pure description of fanatization/idolization trope and I like both of those ships), but more because endeavor literally embodies what Hawks hate the most.

Hear me out on this one, they have cute interactions but for me the fact that Hawks stayed by endeavor's side even knowing what he did to his children is kinda out of character. I mean the whole thing why keigo wanted to be a hero was to help people and make them smile because he went through abusive behavior all his life. Endeavor do save people but doesn't make them smile, not directly anyway. Hawks wanted to help the new generation, but endeavor traumatized the generation he gave birth to. Hawks wanted to be free, but endeavor stole freedom from his children (at least until he becomes number 1 and shoto comes to UA).

I understand hawks forgiving and accepting endeavor even after what he did, because hawks is so optimistic that he wants to believe eveyone can change for the better, but I don't understand him staying by endeavor's side. I mean, how traumatic would it be to discover that your idol who saved you and gave you a dream to follow did the exact same things as the person who traumatized your childhood? I see some narrative problems here. Or maybe it's just that hawks is too optimistic for his own good.

The thing is, I think Hawks so desperately needed a symbol to give him hope that he didn't even try to look more profoundly into endeavor's mistakes. Like he tried so hard to convince himself. Here we can see that hawks says he could keep up with training and abuse by the commission because someone supported him, probably implying endeavor. But it wasn't even true, hawks just chose to idealize enji because he saved him, but enji didn't know hawks before metting him as a hero, so he couldn't actually support him in his dream. I know it's only metaphoric, but it does mean that Keigo just needed something, someone to hold onto because of all the suffering he went through. And he chose endeavor, who was the only person indirectly "caring" for him.

Now maybe it's because I adore Hawks and I hate endeavor (the man and his actions, not the way he's written), but I can't imagine them in a romantic relationship. How could Hawks give his trust and love to the exact same profile as his father? How could they live together without hawks remembering the abuse? I think that even enji himself wouldn't trust his own reactions and feelings, hunted by the past. "The past never dies", and it's true for everyone in this story.

Look how similar they are. Honestly I don't really understand horikoshi on this one because if he wanted to give enji a loyal sidekick, then why give Hawks an abusive father?

Or if horikoshi wanted to give us grumpy x playful duo, then do it with dabihawks? They had so much potential to be our favorite bickering duo, and their drama would've been so good if they both knew each other before touya's death, became close during hawks undercover mission and then went through a heartbreaking breakup during touya's reveal.

(look at them they could've been soo good as a grumpy x playful duo aah)

Instead, we got Hawks indirectly supporting the same abuse he went through and the destruction of dabihawks' potential with the biggest absence of interactions ever after the first war.

(Also I want to add that I respect everyone's opinion and I don't hate endhawks shippers at all! It's just my point of view on the ship, everyone is free to ship whoever they want if that stays legal 🙏)

Maybe I'm going too far into the analysis (someone stop me please I'm talking too much-), but I really think that endhawks couldn't work, for hawks as much as for enji. Now the interesting thing to ask would be : would dabihawks actually work in a romantic relationship? I guess we'll never know.

[thedartingandsprinting]

Natsuo Todoroki hasn't changed

Since he was introduced, I have always considered Natsuo troublesome for his family. He doesn't respect Rei and Fuyumi's choices to forgive Enji. He spreads the false rumours that Toya said to him as a kid. Despite Enji already atoning, Natsuo gets aggressive with him, stressing out the whole family and preventing them from healing.

As the manga reached its finale, I hoped that Natsuo would realise he was going down a dangerous path and apologise for his mistakes. However, this turned out not to be the case. Natsuo hasn't changed and is set to turn out like his father, if not worse.

When it comes to stopping Toya, the Todoroki family is inconsistent with their choices. At first, the family's civilians remained safe, and the heroes were allowed to do their jobs. Otherwise, they could get into legal trouble for vigilantism. It doesn't matter how personal the stakes are. Additionally, Shoto could focus on his fight with Dabi and not worry about his loved ones.

Natsuo fulfils his promise at first, remaining in the shelter and keeping his sister safe.

It was reckless enough when Rei got involved in Toya's fight. Then, Natsuo and Fuyumi had to disobey their mother. Three civilians had stuck their noses in hero work. Luckily, it all ended well in the end.

Who knows, this plan change could be better in the long term. They are in the middle of a war, and sometimes, you can't wait for legal permission. The ice users have no hero training but could negotiate as the criminal's family. Natsuo claims he is the closest to Toya, so he must step up the most here.

For a brief moment, Natsuo seems he is on the right track. He remembers the night when Toya called the women "useless", and he refused to refute it. He enabled Toya for too long and now Natsuo must take responsibility.

Instead, he unhelpfully insults Toya. Where is Natsuo admitting his own guilt? Where is his meaningful speech? He hardly tries for the brother he claimed to be close to and enabled.

This is why non-professionals getting involved was a bad idea. He could have angered Toya further and made everything more dangerous.

After this brief line to Toya, Natsuo gives up on negotiating. Instead, he focuses on using his untrained quirk and trying to overpower Toya. This could have been disastrous.

When Shoto finally defeats Toya, Natsuo makes his loyalties known. He doesn't rush to check on Toya, who is likely dead. Instead, he keeps his distance. Natsuo is simply flunking his duties.

Natsuo doesn't even acknowledge or thank Shoto for saving everyone. It is Fuyumi who speaks up.

Despite having his thoughts, Natsuo doesn't say any of them aloud. He completely ignores his villainous brother dying on the ground and the complicated history that led to this point.

Enji's apologies revealed the bitter truth about Natsuo. He had it the easiest out of the entire Todoroki family. Enji and Shoto have put their lives countless times on the line to save them. Rei has spent ten years in a mental hospital. Fuyumi had to do the housework and keep the family together from a young age.

Meanwhile, Natsuo can fulfil his dreams at college, get a girlfriend and barely phone home. It is time for him to do his fair share and do some emotional labour. He can ease the load of his loved ones. However, he selfishly makes them do all the heavy lifting.

Even after his 16-year-old brother faints, Natsuo doesn't move to check on him. Toya is one thing, but Shoto is the most innocent one of all.

Even at the lowest possible point, Natsuo can't help but insult Enji: "Mom and Fuyumi had enough heat for one day." He indirectly throws shade on Shoto as well, just because he has a fire quirk.

Worst of all, Natsuo demands that Enji continue fighting despite losing his arm and having third-degree burns. Ignoring the family aspect momentarily, Natsuo is incredibly ungrateful as a civilian towards a serving hero.

After the war, the Todoroki family visit Toya in the hospital. Despite his brother dying and everyone being scarred, Natsuo just coldly stares. Rei and Fuyumi pipe up, but the thirdborn thinks he can ignore the past.

Worst of all, Natsuo decides to make it all about him and suddenly announces he is disowning Enji. Is he going to abandon his mother to look after his wheelchair-bound father? Will he ignore all the effort that Enji has put into atoning?

A child unnecessarily disowning their parent will leave an emotional scar on their very soul.

Has Natsuo reflected on everyone's part in the family's dysfunctionality? Does he not understand how sociopathic Toya was as a child and responsible for his parents' poor mental health? He remembers that Toya called the women "useless", but he doesn't acknowledge all the other horrible things Toya did.

Will Natsuo be a hypocrite and not disown the relatives who sold off his mother?

Despite Natsuo's stinging words at Enji, he gives him emotional whiplash by praising him. Deep down, Natsuo knows Enji deserves better, and he wants a connection with his father. However, he is overtaken by childish stubbornness and pettyness. Natsuo is the only person preventing Fuyumi's dream of their family being complete and he is denying her that. He is holding everyone back. He is a coward and ungrateful.

I'm seriously convinced that Natsuo will continue the cycle of abuse. He is already making the same mistake of marrying at the young age of twenty.

I'm wondering what Natsuo's girlfriend feels about this. Why did she agree to never meet her father-in-law? Why did she agree to a non-ceremonial wedding? Did she agree that her future children would never know their grandfather? She looks like she has a shy personality, and I wonder if Natsuo likes to take advantage of that. Is he controlling towards her?

What will his attitude be towards his future children? What if they become curious about their family history? What if they have fire quirks? What if they look exactly like Enji?

I fear that Natsuo will become like Kotaro Shimura, Shigaraki's father. If this happens, the ice user would be worse than Enji. Endeavour lost his father at a young age and didn't have a good example for his own parenting. Meanwhile, Natsuo has a long history to learn from. Multiple loved ones are reaching out to him and begging him to heal. Natsuo should know better, yet he chooses to fester on his grudges and potentially carry on the abusive cycle.

Natsuo already has a fierce temper and a habit of hitting things. How long before it turns from objects to real people?

[irontragedyreview]

Who was Tomura Shigaraki?

When this chapter came out my mind was still processing the shit show that Izuku/Tomura had been, and I honestly thought that anything that came after that would never improve it. In part I still think the same thing but that doesn't mean that this chapter is still something I can appreciate and sincerely wanted to write.

The chapter itself can be easily summarized in the vision of two perspectives, the first told from a documentary form about the consequences that Tomura and his LoV left on the citizens of Japan and the other Spinner's perspective.

The vision of the citizens is totally empty of empathy towards Tomura, the citizens have their perspective colored by their losses and their anger, from the loss of their home or the death.

Lack of empathy in general, considering him scary, someone who no matter how much past he had, it shouldn’t be justified or someone without convictions and only hunger for destruction.

I emphasize the dialogues because those who say them are irrelevant, since they are only citizens. The panel of the lack of convictions is the one that catches my attention the most, because we can see the ignorance of the people, for the external viewer who lived the emergence of the Lov and the war, for them are exactly monsters. Tomura has no convictions because they see the same thing as the hereos at the beginning a manchild, that's what Stain told him at the beginning that he only sought to destroy without reason, that he had no convictions, the same thing Izuku tells him in their talk at the mall, Midoriya tells him that his actions were childish and had no purpose beyond destroying as a childish enjoyment, that even without endorsing Stain's methods he still understood his motives, something that didn’t happen with Tomura. It’s after their talk that he comes out with his convictions and I think that is the point where we leave that more generic vision of manchild and his actions become something serious in the search for an objective, which solidifies in the formation of the LoV.

Likewise, what I’m trying to get at is precisely one of the perspectives that this chapter shows us, citizens don’t see beyond their own losses and feelings and above all things they judge a stranger in whom they’re not positively emotionally involved but only negatively. What this chapter shows is that it’s very easy to dehumanize what is unknown to us, "monster, terrifying, etc." It’s easy not to feel empathy for someone who has only given us negative emotions, even their past will not be justified.

What is interesting is that the documentary and the talk between Midoriya and Spinner are intertwined, we not see the perspective of the finished documentary and then Spinner, but documentary is interrupted by Spinner and it’s where we find someone that talks about Tomura with care and humanity, which the citizens’ reports lack. Also what we see in this chapter is Spinner's breakdown and Izuku's reaction to this, which is correct and helps Spinner to have closure.

For every thought from the citizens we have Spinner showing us that Tomura wasn’t destruction for meaningless childish joy, for every comment about his lack of convictions we have a Spinner who found a way thanks to Tomura's convictions, for every person who is unable to see anything outside of a terrorist, Spinner sees someone who gave him a place, a purpose and treated him as an equal when until then he seemed resigned to his destiny, he sees a friend. We can even see the smallest things that it was that Tomura loved video games.

Although it has been discussed whether the LoV stories justify their actions, the truth is that this chapter shows that even that person who seems monstrous has another identity, Tomura isn’t the symbol of fear for Spinner, but rather his first friend, someone precious, this contrast of perspectives is important because it shows us that there are no blacks and whites but a gray scale.

Having said the above, in addition to the perspectives and the confrontation between them in this chapter, I also want to focus on the emotional aspect, loss and grief. For this I think that the main panel between them is a good introduction.

The first words that come out of Spinner's mouth are to call Izuku a murderer and Midoriya's with absolute calm, says that he will not deny the fact, again despite my criticism of Horkoshi and that I think he was mediocre in the treatment of Izuku and Tomura, I’m not going to deny that these words have been haunting Izuku since their confrontation and outcome, Spinner may be the one who puts them on the table for the first time, but from the hospital we know that Izuku feels his failure. This is seen again when the only time a UA student, tells him that he’s an inspiration, his thoughts return to Spinner's gaze and he doesn't know what to respond, because he knows that the admiration he receives is due to the outcome with Tomura which is not what he wanted, to be recognized for taking a life.

However, there is also something I must say and that is that during all the final chapters Izuku prioritized the emotions of others over his own, which is why we have no reaction with Spinner. Some blogs I read said that Midoriya's reaction to this chapter had been incorrect, because more emotionality was needed and perhaps a deeper attempt at consolation. However, Midoriya consoled and listened to Spinner's pain and recognized it and above all he didn’t try to justify anything, this differs for example from his reaction to Toga's confession and with Dabi in the first war, with Spinner he takes his pain, listens to it and does not try to justify himself or make him see another perspective but simply remains stable and lets Spinner to be one who feels, the one who cries.

Izuku's consolation to Spinner is not to justify himself, to accept his pain but above all to carry the message, because there are no words that he can add that generate more comfort than those he said, there is nothing else he could say or do that would have given Spinner a minimum sense of peace than knowing that until the end the LoV was Shigaraki's driving force, that he remained firm until the end in keeping his word and that he wanted to be the hero of the villains, wanting to fulfill his promise to Spinner.

Midoriya's recognition of the league is important, because he doesn’t detract from them but rather recognizes them as a central point of Tomura, that child and then adult who was manipulated in every aspect, at the end of the day he had his own will when he formed the LoV and that is out of AFO's hands. At the end of the day they were his last thought, and this is very similar to what Ochako told Toga when she recognized that she could not replace the LoV as Toga's family, Ochako recognizes them as importance for Toga, and Izuku in turn recognizes this in Tomura and conveys this to Spinner, as Tomura said "Even if I become an empty shell and all my hatred fades away, I still want to be a hero for them".

In the same way he also consoles him in his final words by encouraging the book and says he will never forget Tomura, by recognizing these two things he is telling him that he should tell his vision knowing that he would not be in a good light from his perspective and above all when he assures that he will not forget him, he does not say it because of what he did to him or his friends, but as a response to tell Spinner that Tomura's life had value and that he will not be just one more on a list of villains, because those are Spinner's words, that for heroes like Midoriya he will only become one more name on a list but Izuku says that Tomura will accompany him always, that is why also after those words Spinner loses his defensive posture and allows himself a few words about Shoji.

All of this is about Midoriya, but we still need to touch on what Spinner said from his own perspective. The way he slowly begins to lose control of his emotions and tells himself that he must stop thinking because otherwise the pain would return. The way he talks about Tomura as his hope and his friend, someone who gave him acceptance and who little by little breaks a little more especially because he is not only angry with Izuku but with himself, because he blames himself and his inability to reach his friend when there was still time.

Spinner acknowledges that he let everything take its course, that if he had been a little more involved, that even if he had objected to Tomura's plans to merge with AFO, then he could have changed the outcome, Spinner was a bystander, who could have taken action. but he didn't, he feels like he failed his friend because there was a moment where he could have taken a step forward even if it meant confronting Tomura's own plans and then everything seemed impossible to stop to the point that the only thing left to do was move forward and take a quirk from AFO to continue with the plans. Spinner's feelings about both his loss and his own inaction become a central focus and the book becomes his way of ensuring that even a memory of Tomura and the LoV is not forgotten, because perhaps he failed to be there for Tomura. but he will make sure that people know the real Tomura Shigaraki, the one they call without convictions or simply as a monster, he will be in charge of telling who Tomura was, the person who gave him a place of belonging, who played with him and accepted him when he had already given up and couldn't find a place to fit. Maybe that won't change the perspective of citizens in general, but it's better than hundreds of strangers talking about someone they don't know. Ultimately it's the only thing Spinner can do for his friend, that at the end of the day people know that his convictions stood even to the bitter end. I didn't think I was going to write something so long, but honestly this chapter is one of the few things that I liked and I felt that all its aspects deserved an analysis or at least an attempt at analysis. I clarify that I didn’t use the official translation because Manga Plus in my region does not allow me to read a certain number of chapters, but I remember that the original translation does not differ grossly from the chapter to alter the interpretation.

[ultimateempath]

Alright, I've been seeing an unnecessary amount of negativity towards the direction Horikoshi & MHA took, particularly about the main league members deaths, so I'm gonna put my two cents in here: I'm not bothered by their deaths, I don't think it could've gone any other way. My reasoning is below the cut.

First and foremost, Horikoshi doesn't like happy endings. A bittersweet conclusion was the best we were gonna get from the beginning, we've known this for a while.

Even if they had survived, the league would never be able to live the kinds of lives they wanted. Like it or not, they committed many acts of murder and terrorism. Their life after the war more likely would've consisted of prison and/or possible execution. Even if they were rehabilitated and let out of prison, they'd still be exposed to public scrutiny and ridicule. Eri wouldn't be able to rewind them to children ro anything either, she wouldn't be able to do that much at her current skill level even if she still had her horn.

Dabi refused to listen to reason and his physical & mental states were rapidly deteriorating as he was entirely consumed by vengeful rage and despair, so it was unfortunately only a matter of time for him.

Toga willingly chose to risk her life doing something good for the woman she loved. She wanted to live the way she wanted and die the way she wanted, she wouldn't have been able to do either if she survived.

Kurogiri was already dead to begin with, he deserves to finally rest in peace after being stuck in such a torturous existence for so long. Mic & Aizawa have to grieve all over again and that sucks, but it was for the best.

Tomura loved the league more than anything and wasn't just going to walk away from them. Passing ofa to him was the only way to reach Tenko, even if it meant his body would crumble. You also have to remember that they were fighting afo again too! He wasn't keen on letting Tomura go, that finishing multi-punch was their only remaining option. The crying boy was saved and Tomura was finally at peace in the end, thats what matters.

Lastly, to the people who are upset about Izukus reaction and him not being very upset about being quirkless again and not saving Shigaraki: izuku is bottling up his emotions and claiming that he's fine, putting everyone else before himself. That's his whole thing, there was a whole arc addressing this exact issue. Plus after afo took over again, Izuku straight up said that he just wanted all the hurt to be over already.

[shehsart]

I think the basic contrast between Toga and Dabi is their optimism and pessimism respectively. Toga wants to live, she wants to laugh and have as much fun as she can. Love as hard as she can. Even though her idea of affection is considered socially unacceptable by societal standards. All she wants is to be a normal girl. She doesn't consider herself any lesser.

Dabi/Touya meanwhile is the complete opposite. He's completely given up on living and thinks he only exists for vengeance. He keeps acting like he doesn't care, saying he doesn't have feelings but we all see how psychotic he acts in front of his family. His anger has completely consumed him. He's suicidal. You even see the contrast at the league's first meeting. Toga is happy and talkative while Touya is resigned and rude.

It's sad to see the rage consume Toga as well now. Neither of them deserved to live such horrific lives.

[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.

[roshambo05]

Spoilers for MHA Season 6

Okay I just. I need to talk about this for a sec.

So as someone who dyes their hair frequently, that shit does not come out in a single wash. That shit stays in. And depending on the color, even after most of it is out, it stains. So I am gonna call BULLSHIT on this motherfucker.

That is NOT HOW HAIR DYE WORKS AND YOU KNOW IT, MY GOOD SIR. A single water bottle isn't gonna do shit. Which means this dramatic bitch went and bleached his hair, dyed it white again, and put in tEMPORARY WATER-SOLUBLE BLACK DYE just for the purpose of this reveal. This motherfucker.

AND. And. Let's not forget that the PLF didn't know the heroes would be attacking. So this MOTHERFUCKING DRAMATIC ASS PIECE OF SHIT has had a daily routine of putting in temporary black dye and shoving a water bottle in his pocket every morning presumably since he got that DNA test for the SOUL PURPOSE of being a dramatic little FUCK and having this big reveal once he found the right moment.

Dabi. Touya. Mr. McNugget. YOU FUCKING DRAMA QUEEN.

"Ugh I'm thirsty."

"Dabi you've had a water bottle in your pocket this whole time."

"Um, excuse you, but that is for the ✨performance✨."

[arvandus]

Hello hello, I know you're not really talking about him recently but truthfully i feel like you understand Dabi's personality the most. So i wanted to ask what MBTI you think he relates to the most?

So, as per usual, the weekend was a bit busy with IRL stuff. But now I'm finally able to answer this!

First off, thank you SO MUCH, it really means a lot to me that you feel I understand him the most. That's very high praise because there are some truly amazing writers and meta-analyzers on here that also have amazing takes on Dabi and his personality.

Also, PLEASE talk to me about Dabi! I still love him so so much, I'll never get tired of answering asks about him, truly. I know I haven't written for him recently, but I don't love him any less.

Okay, back to your question...

So I've looked at this a few different ways... First, I went through and took the personality test as "Dabi"; i.e., I answered the questions the way that I think HE would answer them (this is different from how others may perceive him, btw). I used the test on www.16personalities.com, and the result that I ("Dabi") got was INTP, i.e., the Logician. I also looked at what was listed for him under the personality database website, which was ISFP, the Adventurer. Finally, I simply read up on what each of the categories were on Wikipedia, and thought about it. From what I understand and through my observations of him, I would label him as INFP, the Mediator.

Below the cut I'll show the personality test results, and discuss them by comparing them to the other results. Beware though, both anime and manga spoilers will be present because I use some specific examples to explain the results.

So, from the 16personalities test, here is what Dabi got:

Here's the rest of the descriptors for INTP-T:

I think for the most part this is accurate for him, at least for how he perceives himself. But I think there are going to be some key differences between how he sees himself and how we, as observers, see him.

Let's start...

Introversion:

We definitely can't deny that he's introverted, and that's clear across all three personality types that were assigned to him. He's never meshed well with others, especially on first meetings, thanks to his abrasive personality and very thick walls. This introvertedness may not seem as obvious when one thinks about how badly he wants the attention of his family, and his willingness to go public with his past, etc. But think of those moments... of him recording himself, of him dancing in front of Enji as he revealed himself... think of those things as a performance. Think introverted theater kid. And even then, it wasn't exactly for the purpose of the public's attention, but for his father's attention. His broadcast? Pre-recorded, not live. His face-off with his dad? He didn't give a shit that others were there and watching; his focus narrowed like a singularity; it was only him and his father in that moment.

Another helpful thing to keep in mind is that Introversion doesn't mean you don't want to be around others; it just means that you recharge best when you are by yourself. Dabi still definitely wants to be seen by his loved ones, but I think he is naturally an introverted person in that isolation is something he enjoys as a way to rest and rejuvenate himself. I see him finding most people exhausting to be around.

Intuitive:

This was the one of the portions that differed from his MBTI on the personality database, and I actually agree with the test result more. I see Sensing/Observation as "the scientist" and Intuition as "the philosopher," and I definitely feel that Dabi is more Philosopher than Scientist. Whereas Sensing/Observation is more literal, in the now, and taking things at face value, Intuition is not. That's not to say that Dabi doesn't observe; he absolutely does. But he does so through the lens of his ideals and how all of these individual pieces fit together into his belief system.

Wikipedia describes Intuitive as "imagining the possibilities of how things could be; notice the big picture, see how everything connects; enjoy ideas and concepts for their own sake, and likes to describe things in a figurative, poetic way." While I don't necessarily see him as figurative or poetic, I do think he's a bit of an idealist. He's someone who looks at the bigger picture, who's able to extrapolate a lot of information through observation, more so than what's immediately in front of him. He's a bit of a creative genius in that way, and it's shown by how quickly he was able to develop his quirk through watching his father's battles, and later with his brother, with practically zero practice. Additionally, he's a dreamer, always wanting more for himself, even when he was young, which was why his inability to meet his father's standards was such a huge blow to him. He could see the big picture of heroism and what it meant to society, his family, and to his father (and by proxy to himself) and to not be able to see himself as a part of that picture was incredibly damaging for him. Now, this intuition isn't necessarily something he's utilized for positive gains, at least not positive for others; his focus is very selfish/self-centered in this regard. But he's still able to idealize, imagine, and extrapolate. I also think he'd enjoy deep conversations about morals and hypotheticals, and enjoy playing devil's advocate quite often. He never takes things at face-value, always looking at what's underneath.

Thinking:

This was an interesting one, and the one that I think I wouldn't exactly agree with as an observer of his character. BUT, I think Dabi would believe that he's more thinking than feeling. We know that he's incredibly ruled by his emotions in his decision-making; and I think he embraces those emotions a bit more openly once his big reveal finally happens and he's able to fully pursue his conflict with his father (and by proxy his brother). But, I think Dabi fancies himself as someone who thinks 'logically,' who is smart and isn't swayed by the hearts of others. We see this in how he keeps others at arm's length; at how he keeps a level head during the summer training camp arc, etc. But, at the same time, later on, we see more of his vulnerable side. His strangely kind gesture and words towards Toga was spurred by his care for her. His reaction to Twice's death heavily impacted how he battled Hawks. And of course, we see how emotional he really is with regards to his family.

Now granted, he would most definitely put a 'logical' decision that will get him the result he wants over someone else's feelings, in most cases. When it gets down to it, his feelings will take priority over others' feelings, 9 times out of 10. But that doesn't mean he's a Thinking type; that just means he's selfish, and that if anyone's feelings are going to be listened to, it'll be his own. This doesn't surprise me considering his history of being emotionally neglected, let alone all of the other things that happened to him. Typically, a Feeling type would have a strong sense of altruism for others because they can easier empathize with them... and I think a part of him does empathize with his league comrades, which was why he behaved the way he did with Twice and Toga. But I think overall for Dabi, his Feeling is turned more inward, as he's empathizing with himself. It's a form of self-preservation, a way for him to protect his damaged ego. It clouds his judgment in the sense that he thinks he's not emotional because he's not easily moved by others; and yet, he's very emotionally moved by himself and his own pain.

Perceiving/Prospecting:

This, along with introversion, was consistent across the board of all three methods I used to analyze Dabi. The definition alone from the test describes Dabi to a T; good at improvising and adapting; flexible noncomformist, valuing novelty over stability. Need I say more? Also, Wikipedia describes it as: prefer to leave your options open; see rules and deadlines as flexible; like to improvise; spontaneous...

By contrast, Judging is much more rigid/structured, which doesn't really fit Dabi at all. Judging is all about planning, organizing, staying on task and meeting deadlines... I think Dabi is far too ADHD for that (Shh, I'm not projecting, I swear!).

Just think of it this way: if Dabi had the perfect upbringing and never became a villain, what kind of job would you picture him having? Would he have a desk job, pushing papers and sitting through meetings, doing the 8-5 grind? Or would he have something a little more spontaneous, more flexible, something that would mentally (and likely physically) engage him?

I rest my case.

So, I'd say that there are two answers to your question. If you're really looking at what would Dabi identify himself as, I would say the test would be the most accurate: INTP. (he'd also really like the title of the Logician; it would totally stroke his ego!).

BUT, if you're looking for more what his "true" personality would be, I would say INFP.

Now, the irony of this is that I'm an INFP. Actually, I used to be an INFJ, and that's what I thought I was while writing most of this up. I retook the test earlier today because I was curious if my results had changed at all over the past few years, and apparently they did, and it just so happens to align with what I was assigning Dabi. This could either mean that me assigning INFP to Dabi is due to implicit bias, as I see a lot of myself in him and vice versa, and it's possible that the two have gotten muddled a bit. Alternatively, it could also mean that I'm able to write him so clearly because I understand his character and his personality in a very, well... personal way.

Anyway, I hope that helps! Let me know what you think and which MBTI type you think fits him best! 💕

[todorokistheories]

Endeavor Is One Of My Favorite Characters

I don't agree with his redemption from a viewer standpoint but heres the thing no one seems to realize.

It's really realistic.

tw: discussion of abuse, toxic masculinity, it's the todorokis what do you expect

I can't count how many middle aged men I've seen realize that what they were told about being a man their entire life was false. They never learned to mature, sit with their feelings, and all they were left with was this anger they never learned how to control.

Now let me make this clear. I am IN NO WAY defending his actions.

Think of those older men you know who are still misogynistic, prideful, greedy. They all think they're better than everyone else because if they don't, they have nothing.

Fathers, uncles, grandfathers, even brothers who were just too proud to sit with the fact that all they've done is hurt have a breaking point. Sometimes that point comes when they're on their deathbed.

Or, like Bakugou he was taught by the ppl around him that he was what everyone wanted to be.

Difference is... he grew up. Endeavor didn't.

He had the great success of his 20s, a loving wife who was bought specially for him, the public's awe, and his first ever prodigy who was going to be even more special than him. He was in the best position he'd ever be in his whole life.

That's why All Might's success messed with him so much.

He was at the highest point of his life and career and he STILL wasn't good enough to become number one.

For a man who only has his pride, that's a huge ego crusher. Unlike bakugou he never sat with this. He became obsessed, deciding that if he couldn't be the best then he'd train his kids so that they were. That way he was still worth something. Because all of his worth was tied to his success.

It didn't matter what stood in his way, because he had two choices: succeed, or admit to himself that he was a failure.

For men who bought into toxic masculinity, yeah that wasn't an option.

And then his worst failure happened. Touya burned.

He died and suddenly those voices that told Enji that he was a failure grew loud enough for him to lash out at everyone who might even hint that they agree. Unfortunately, Rei was in the forefront of that. Every comment about their children turned into a criticism that his ego couldn't handle. It was a personal attack.

And then his second failure happened. Shouto burned.

Suddenly, the shame was too much to handle. So, he sent away the person who would constantly remind him of his inadequacies: Rei. Sent her away to never see the light of day again because he couldn't face it.

He locked everything away and threw away the key, shutting down Shouto verbally and physically just so that he didn't have to think about what he's done. Because he's special, remember? He's better than everyone. He is worth something because he's special.

Then Touya, who he shoved all of this generational trauma onto, turned out to be alive. Not only is he alive, he's the antithesis of what Enji fought his whole life to be.

Suddenly, he couldn't hide anymore. The whole world knew he was a fraud. He's forced to face the jealousy, the embarrassment, the shame, and the feeling of worthlessness that he ruined his life to run away from in the first place.

His career, gone. Image, gone. Youth, gone. His life is over and all he is left with is the shards of a family he broke years ago.

So he embraces it. He accepts the blame for the first time in his life.

And it changes for the better. He can't undo it. He can't fix what he hurt. And he can't truly repair anything. But he can try and that's worth something even if he's not.

This is a scenario that happens daily. This is something that happens in real life. And no one is expected to forgive these people for the harm they've caused. But understanding it is the first step to not repeating it. So yeah, I fucking hate Endeavor but goddamn he's well written.

Horikoshi wrote something very accurate to the experiences thousands of people have and I appreciate that. It's needed in media. There's many things he's done with the Todoroki family that I do not agree with, but the premise of Endeavor's redemption is one that rings true.

[buttercupshands]

Chapter 419 Analysis or "How to make allies not pawns" a helpful guide from League of Villains (part 2)

This is now a second part of Tomura character analysis.

With chapter 419 being probably our last time seeing Tomura for a while, since we need to learn what happened with Aizawa now is time to remember that not only bad things exist it Tomura's life.

Warning of spoilers to the whole manga to the point of chapter 419! All of the warnings from My Villain Academy side of manga are applicable

So like... mentions of death, killing other people, manipulation, emotional abuse and many more!

This is Part 2 - See here for Part 1 of this depressing mess

With AFO being so sure that he knows better and actually controlled every single part of Tenko's life creating a Symbol of Fear without any redeeming qualities or even hope for saving after he destroys him. There's one thing that AFO still doesn't understand about Tomura and never did - and that's his allies, or the League of Villains that he created.

Even Kurogiri, being a Nomu who's views do not stray from what AFO thought was important didn't exactly understand what did Tomura think about his allies quick to assume that he thought of them as pawns all the was back in the Training Camp arc. With Tomura making game examples to explain the situation, he still didn't think of LoV as just pawns on a desk, like AFO does.

At the time of USJ arc there weren't many people Tomura called this, which could make you wonder how much it was just AFO's plan rather than Tomura's with him never worrying about those other villains yet getting so worked up over losing Nomu not only because he was strong enough to defend him from All-Might, but treating his defeat as something that must be avenged.

And that was long before Stain even entered the picture, the first of three people who greatly affected Tomura's view of his own motives alongside AFO's manipulation of literally everything else.

Tomura was terrified of fighting All-Might seconds before this and yet as this goes on it's becoming more noticeable - Tomura doesn't care for his own fear or worries as long as he's fighting for someone else's good. Not so different from how Izuku is ready to disregard himself for the sake of others, resulting in many injuries and being so close to dying so many times.

It never was a secret that Tomura is highly dependent on others to keep himself from losing confidence, or even will to fight, getting either too anxious to continue without anyone's reassurance.

And while AFO's "help" was mostly given only with some kind of lesson as we saw in "Tomura Shigaraki: Origin", with AFO literally sitting there, saying how Tenko is weak for not killing but showing some restrain instead suffering himself, never actually helping or comforting him. Only offering what he deemed nessesary for his own plan of making Tenko kill those thugs not caring that he's feeling sick from those hands.

But in USJ it's not AFO who's there with Tomura, it's Kurogiri, who was shown to still have some care that Shirakumo had that even Aizawa and Mic couldn't argue that it's similar to how Shirakumo couldn't just leave a kitten in the rain. No matter the responsibility that it would bring with taking a little one in.

A helpless little kitten that didn't get the help it needs from anyone else. Sounds way too familiar.

This never was a direct order from AFO other than he needs to "tend and protect" for Tomura, which can mean anything from just looking out when Tomura's sick, or protect him from any tread like someone trying to kill him.

Not helping him getting over his anxiety to fight or helping him and guiding him to do better as a leader of the League calming him if it got out of control. Which is somewhat opposite to the way AFO deals with Decay and Tomura's temper - letting him destroy anything even the hands that he gave him, just offering new ones when he succeedes and never really caring for his pawns, he can always get new ones.

And surely not asking if Tomura's well the first thing while talking to Heroes.

Which then leads us back to how Tomura never viewed anyone that he chose as pawns calling them his allies, with the word '仲間' which can even be translated as friends in needed context, but usually used as comrade or ally when Tomura says it. And the same thing is usually translated as "friend" when used by Twice.

In any case Tomura never once doubted his allies since he saw them as reliable, even if his first meeting with Toga and Dabi went so wrong that Kurogiri had to stop them from killing each other.

Up to the point of Training Camp AFO describes as him teaching Tomura to be independent which was at that point too far from the truth than he thought. If Tomura begging for AFO to leave with them is any indicator he actually was even less independent after All-Might almost caught them, making him doubt his own worth as a leader. Even if AFO's defeat finally let him think and wonder about himself and his past.

AFO believed that Tomura just knowing how to recruit people would suddenly make him great at using those new "pawns" which was proven wrong by Overhaul no so long after that. Showing how Tomura believed the same thing AFO did as well, fully trusting his judgement of anything including himself, all the while parroting what AFO says without fully understanding what it means.

Only after losing both Magne and Mr. Compress arm does Tomura slowly start making progress in becoming someone more than AFO tells him to do. Even if as we see in part 1 it used Decay as the ground to make it stable since he believed it was his quirk. And yet.

Even if Tomura didn't simply instruct his allies how to choose who to recruit, he never blamed them for it. On the opposite, when Twice was hard on himself after bringing Overhaul to them Tomura just looked at them for the first time without a hand on his face, or even on himself at all, showing how he trusts them as much as he would trust himself and believes that they can do it.

Taking off hands of his family would mean not relying on the conflicting feelings that they bring into the picture, something AFO would very much dissaprove, since he was now like an equal to everyone in LoV instead of being above them. He

And with this instead of making them blindly trust his decisions and following him from fear or adoration like people had been following AFO or Overhaul, he instead was an equal to them both in failure and victory that wasn't even all that guaranteed yet.

Each one of them had their own somewhat selfish goal that just seemed like they were just using each other without any worry being each other's pawns. Or maybe that's just how AFO would see them.

Yet it doesn't explain why did Toga care for Twice's trauma response of not having his mask on, since he already did his part and all that they both needed to do was done. But LoV was never about following orders or giving them, expecting for the pawns to follow without question. It was about a leader of the group that would stand up for his allies while allowing them full freedom, except when they needed to also accept that something is needed to be done for their own sake.

Like following Overhaul for a while all for cutting off his hands leaving him with nothing. Did that sound like something reasonable to do? No! They literally lost their chance at having sushi instead of just living at some abadoned building all the while occasionally searching for money or food, stealing and killing just to survive all while Tomura was just... waiting.

Nothing was really stable at the start of what we call My Villain Academia and yet no one from the LoV left while their state was... bad at the very least. No matter how AFO was teaching Tomura he was still left mostly waiting for something to happen rather than doing something to change the situation himself.

Sure, Tomura now was a famous leader of League of Villains that suddenly needed to be stopped rather that underestimated like before. But that was in the future, now LoV was laying low on funds and slowly Tomura showing his face became the norm, with him usually never wearing hands around LoV.

And with Tomura becoming more and more comfortable around LoV, the LoV itself was becoming more like a place that had one core value that accepted anything else added without anyone wondering about the past of others, like Compress said. Just some selfish people, who still followed their own needs first.

And yet somehow Toga, who joined just because she loved Stain and disliked how life was too hard found her place in the LoV alongside Twice who just needed to be trusted and trust in return. If Tomura only followed what AFO deemed to be the best way to lead no one would actually feel like they're accepted in the LoV as much as they were.

Goal or no goal Tomura succeeded even without having the whole world at the palm of his hands by just never pressing anyone to actually follow him - if they wanted to they could've just left here and there, but since they chose to follow he did what he thought was the obvious best - let his allies do what they wanted.

Which was okay for someone like Toga or Dabi who were either already comfortable by just being allowed to be themselves or being free to plan their own things for their own goals.

But not exactly that for Spinner. Who was instead literally searching for someone to show him what to do, not so different from Tomura, who still only followed whatever 'his Sensei' deemed worthy for him to look into, like letting Kurogiri go find unknown "power" that AFO left along with contact with Doctor.

And while Spinner was not fine with still being hollow even while following Tomura pretending that it's the same thing as following Stain... all it took for him to look differently at how exactly was Tomura thinking was the last real "barrier" that there was - Tomura basically spilling his whole backstory and motivations mostly for LoV to listen to, since Doctor was just testing Tomura's will all according to AFO's plan.

And after that it didn't took too long for Spinner to now follow Tomura, even if it was still not the time to really see the 'warped horizon that was waiting for them'. And yet in times where Tomura still showed some doubt over his decisions - that one old trait of his showing up like it was always at the back of his head not so different from USJ, only thing changing that Tomura got better and better at not letting his emotions control him so easily.

Since the price of that would literally be lifes of his allies.

And neither that or using their emotions to his own benefit was ever in his plans, contrast to AFO manipulating Tomura to do just that. Letting his emotions consume him completely just for his own goal and for his own sake. But as a person who was so familiar with this Tomura still was adamant at NOT allowing something like this to happen to his friends allies.

Effectively creating a bond between all six of them, including Toya that in the end kept them together until the very final arc, with Spinner keeping what Tomura would've thought and with him waking up and calling Machia to get LoV first and foremost Spinner did understand their's leader wishes, as well as Twice's who literally died for his friends.

With all that happening in the War arc the moment AFO returned with both being in control of Tomura's body and just abadoned anything that Tomura would care for like leaving Mr. Compress and Machia behind just to punish him for not getting OFA or not even caring to show any actual respect for Tomura's wishes. Instead showing how little he actually cared for anything but his own good.

But while AFO made so many pawns that he could change like gloves at any given moment, threating them and manipulating them with his power and quirks, Tomura only had 6 allies who stayed after AFO was caught and who were willing to die just to live the life they wanted.

And AFO couldn't give them that.

Even if Decay isn't Tenko's quirk and even if he has so much guilt for killing without it being a little bit justified by it...

LoV still followed him as a person who allowed them to live as they please and so what they want, not some all-powerfull overlord but an ally and a leader who had his flaws and fallings.

[masochist-marmot]

Just finished watching MHA season 7

I am not okay. I am in shambles. A shallow husk of a human being. I have exhausted all my emotions and have nothing left to give. I'm sitting right there in the middle of charred earth and ash with tears frozen on my face. I might need a hero to sacrifice themselves to stitch my destroyed heart back together.

The level of character writing in this series is amazing. I stand by my (probably controversial) take that there are some issues with pacing and setup/payoff, though I haven't read the manga so I can't tell how much of that is an issue with the adaptation. But what the show does excel at is portraying a large cast of characters with deep and diverse motivations, and it somehow manages to build on them in a deliberate, believable manner. (Let me piss off another fandom real quick: JJK could never.)

I was spoiled on the Dabi reveal before I started watching the show. In fact, that spoiler got me interested in watching it in the first place. I picked up on the tiny hints that were sprinkled in from very early on and was interested to see how they pull the reveal off. I was a little disappointed with how one-note Dabi was for the entire time up until that point, and the reveal itself was far less effective without the intended shock value. I almost wrote it off as missed potential. However, the seeds that were sown were not in Dabi himself, but the Todoroki family dynamic. Once we get to the flashbacks and eventually the grand emotional showdown, we have already gone through a character arc with Shouto, Endeavor and the rest of the family, and we have seen how All For One grooms vulnerable youth to his cause. In the present, Dabi is only fueled by hatred and revenge. In the past, we see a sad little boy who is raised to believe that his value comes from the strength of his quirk, and who is then told he can't use it (thus stripping him of his value). He's practically abandoned as a failed project, and Endeavor's misguided attempts at discouraging him by distancing himself instead of showing him he's got value beyond his strength and usefulness drives poor Touya even further along his doomed path. And this is incredibly fertile soil for All For One's grooming. It's heartbreaking. The reason Dabi is so one-note is that there's nothing else left in him. He's too far gone to be saved. We can bring the entire Todoroki family together to finally see his cries for help and acknowledgment, but it's simply too late. Sometimes it's just not possible to bring the "black sheep" of the family back from the edge of self-destruction. God, it's too real, and devastating, and narratively satisfying.

And then we have our misguided pansexual queen Himiko Toga. I was pretty neutral on Toga for most of the series, because the yandere archetype never really appeals to me. Turns out there's a lot more to her than that. For her entire childhood, she was ostracised and derided for being different and gross. I see an interesting mix of autism-coding/queercoding in how her innate ways to approach love and affection are seen as wrong and abnormal, and how she fails to conform to social norms because nobody's explaining them to her. I do like how neither allegory is one-to-one, and how it's internally consistent with how the world and Toga as a character work. Her childhood environment stunts her emotional development and leaves her with a black-and-white thinking, where you are either good or evil, cute or gross, completely accepted or completely rejected... a hero or a villain (boy, the society desperately needs reconstruction). It leaves her desperate for deep connections, and the deepest connection she can get is from becoming the target of her affection with her quirk. It's a selfish kind of affection that literally weakens the other party. At the same time, she's sabotaging her relationships by intentionally showing her ugly side and looking for signs of rejection to enforce her expectation of not being accepted for who she is. As someone who's struggled with (and, through therapy, learned to manage) traits of borderline personality disorder, I can relate to her chaotic approach to interpersonal relationships and powerful but volatile emotions. When both Deku and Uraraka very reasonably condemn her actions as a villain, she takes that as a total and complete rejection of her as a person. This is an especially heavy blow to her after the loss of Twice has brought her entire worldview into question. Then, when Uraraka reflects on this more and tries to reach out to her again, she's in full defence mode. She can't risk being rejected again, so she lashes out to keep Uraraka at an arm's length. Yet despite all the maliciousness, despite being stabbed, Uraraka fights to get through to Toga and show her that she sees the beauty in her and is willing to accept her in spite of her flaws. And then, after being properly seen and accepted by someone she loves, she's able to commit a purely selfless act of affection by giving away her own blood to keep Uraraka alive. Blood is her love language, and for once she's able to give instead of taking. It's hauntingly beautiful, and it's heartbreaking, and it closes her character arc wonderfully. (Mind you, I think their relationship would have been toxic and codependent, but I don't care. I'll be a Togachako truther from this moment until the day I die.)

This season alone had a lot of effective (and also some less effective) character moments that I won't touch on because this post is already too long and rambling. I especially have a lot more thoughts about best boi Kacchan, but I'll leave that for another day.

[yokai-girlie]

MHA Chapter 426 Manga Spoilers Under the Cut

I’m playing a bit of compare and contrast with these images and trying to decipher what it all means. I’m really bad at putting my thoughts into words so i’m sorry if this makes no sense lol

This first one in my opinion is authentically Toya. That’s who he should’ve been is the best way I can describe it. Bright smile, fluffy hair, a family that is present and paying attention to him. They are happy to see him. They are proud of him. Why isn’t Shoto there? Because in a different reality, Shoto wasn’t necessary. Toya didn’t “fail”. This is a reality where Shoto being born was never necessary to begin with. Enji didn’t fail Toya in this reality.

But this is is the Reality of the situation.This is what has actually happened. This is what Too Late looks like. But Enji Todoroki is a stubborn man that refuses to give up. So he’s going to try anyways, even though he’s already failed. He’s going to make the most of the last moments he has left with his son.

Instead, he’s choosing to see someone that is authentically Dabi. A reality where Enji did fail, yes but he’s not too late. He’s choosing to cling to the hope of a reality where he can atone. He’s going to apologize for the rest of his life. He’s promising Toya his undivided attention because that is what Toya needed before it was too late.

Enji does this because this is all he can offer. And it will never be good enough and it will always be too late but it’s all he can do because he can’t change what he did in the past.

Where are Toya’s arms in all the pictures?

Well, that’s the source of the quirk. Enji spent his entire life focused on his children’s quirks. Now is not the time for that. Now is the time to focus on what really matters.