#bnha semi-critical

[stillness-in-green]

Chapter Thoughts — Chapter 390: Todoroki Shouto Rising

O  I wonder if the busted pipes mean Iida’s going to have to go back out to the woods to pull them out so he can grow in a new set?  Yowch.

O  It's really odd to credit this moment to All Might’s chops as a teacher?  Like, I’m hardly the world’s foremost expert on the 1-A kids, but the absolute most I remember All Might doing for Shouto is being an encouraging presence, and for Iida, rather less than that.  Iida’s faster pipes are a result of his family’s knowledge; Shouto’s Phosphor is, as best I recall, largely his own invention.  At most, we might say he went to Endeavor for help getting his fire on par with his ice, maybe as preparation for this very move.  But All Might?  All Might’s Deku’s teacher; in fact, he’s so little focused on the rest of the kids that he wholeheartedly pulls in three of them to teach their moves to Deku with no thought at all given to Deku or himself teaching them anything in return.

All Might’s big advancement in teaching circa the one-hundred-chapter mark was not giving Deku easy answers, but rather giving him a hint*; it took remembering one of Gran Torino’s lines and a visit to the Support Course lab for Deku to figure out that answer.  And maybe I’m just forgetting something, but I don’t remember All Might doing much after that on the teaching front?  Certainly not that actually got extended to Shouto and Iida!

And sure, maybe this is just Tsukauchi being ignorant, but like, credit where credit is due, and while All Might is the one that had the confidence in Shouto and Iida to do what they just did, he damn sure isn’t the one who taught it to them.  Hell, given that he specifically instructed them to go after Dabi, it’s not even in keeping with his aforementioned teaching breakthrough: giving a student a problem and then stepping back and letting them solve it themselves.  Partial credit at best.

O  Sorry, gang, but I just have virtually nothing to say about the big centerpiece.  I appreciate that Dabi’s got at least a semblance of his mind back.  I like Natsuo’s open acknowledgement that the way ahead is choked with thorns.  I have a thin ghost of emotion for Dabi’s hopeless whispers of hatred and Endeavor encouraging him to keep going, because certainly the silence and refusal to grapple with their problems head-on was a huge part of the family’s damage.

All of this, however, is hobbled by the lack of agency in the family choosing this outcome, as opposed to being pushed to it at every turn by outside forces.  Dabi only gets to have a whisper of coherence at the very end, instead of in the middle of the fight when it would have made him more of a challenge to deal with.  Natsuo nods to what should be a fascinating story of the family having to pull together to save Touya (and with him the family's precarious path to recovery) from the future in store for him, but we’re already in the endgame, so I already know we’re not going to get to see more than a hint or two about that fascinating story.

And, of course, the family continued refusing to actively grapple with their problems until the last possible second, only getting here thanks to the plot handing them a load of conveniences, contrivances and work from outside actors that their own actions up to now failed to earn.

I want to care about this, but god, It all just feels like Too Little Too Late.

O  I do very much like that closing image of the Todoroki family alone at the center of the ice, only them and their family issues together in that field of desolate white, but at least all together at last. It's super evocative and visually powerful.

I would also very much like it if they would stay there for a while.

O  GOOD LUCK, TOGA.  So far you’re the only one League member who’s been in control of yourself mentally for this whole fight, and I would really, really like it if you could hang onto that.

--------

* Note that he immediately walks over to Kirishima and gives him very concrete advice about just breaking through like a bulldozer, not any kind of “hint” at all.  All Might’s gotta save his ‘A’ material for his protégé, I guess.

[nightlilly0110]

This is literally a villain death tally for BNHA. Spoilers, obviously. I…hate this. I absolutely hate this. I knew some of them would die and I know that character deaths don’t necessarily have to have meaning, they could just be casualties, but the way this played out, it just seems to fit into a neat little box of “the bad guys are not allowed to have a happy ending.” Which. Goes against the entirety of the premise of Deku’s reasoning to become a hero of “I want to save people.” The only named character I can think of that he saved was Eri (not counting rescuing Bakugou from the League, Iida from Stain because they’re not civilians, feel free to tell me any others I missed) and she fits the stereotypical Perfect Victim trope. She’s just a child. Anything bad she did (rewinding people out of existence) it was done by accident, because she didn’t know any better. She has the chance to be rehabilitated into society without any of the bitterness that the League carry with them.

I really don’t like that there’s a subsection of this fandom that’s like “well they got what they asked for.” And yeah. Don’t use whatever issues you have going on as an excuse for your shitty behaviour (read: don’t be like “well the villains are abused so they have a right to kill people”) but also maybe think before saying “I think it’s good that the guy who got abused and manipulated as a child and groomed into being a mass murderer died. I think killing the murderer instead of addressing the societal problems that made him that way will fixeverything.” Your “they got what they asked for” also falls a little tone deaf with “what they asked for” boils down to “don’t be treated like shit” and the narrative of the manga has always been “we should save people.”

I also think these deaths are in bad faith when you have the hero side critically injured every five seconds and coming back from that (with the exception of Midnight, don’t get me started with that I hate that she was the only named casualty of that arc other than the racist guy) with Bakugou literally having his heart stop especially, and then with the villains it’s like “well can’t do anything about that, bye loser.”

So yeah, here’s what we know about the villains with the last three-ish chapters pending and a bit as to why I’m more than pissed about how this turned out, keeping the above sentiments in mind.

TLDR They died in vain. They accomplished nothing, no one bothered to listen to their message, and they died.

Magne - died protecting her friends from Overhaul. Body not recovered because it was cut in half (top half exploded) and only her legs remained. Might be reading into this a bit too much but a little weird that the trans woman was the first death we had in the series. Also weird that her motivations to join the League was presumably her horrible treatment for being trans but we don’t get that context until the circumstances surrounding her death. We know very little about her backstory.

Twice - Literally stabbed in the back while trying to flee. Body left in an active war zone, assumably recovered by the Hero Commission/whoever is responsible for cleanup. Mild closure in the fact that he did find out that he was the real copy of himself but not really because we still have people, years after this death, saying that it was “justified” and “a necessity” because Twice was resisting arrest trying to flee while being a non-combatant. I cannot stress enough that he was unarmed while he was running, ran past Hawks and did not attack him, and the “help” Hawks was offering him was throwing him in jail and never letting him see the light of day again. I don’t want to talk about this anymore.

Toga - Sacrificed herself to save Uraraka (semi-implied she might have been in love with Uraraka). Only Uraraka knows of her sacrifice. Has to endure in death people saying that she was nothing more than a villain, same as in life. Nothing changes for her - she’s still considered creepy, a freak, a villain. Body assumably left in an active war zone recovered by Hero Commission.

Mr. Compress - Arrested and in prison. We still don’t know why he joined the League. (Thank you @themattress for correcting me in this, glad he’s not dead but damn.)

Kurogiri - MIA. Assumed dead. Not mentioned in the final act and without closure as to his identity, only that he is still loyal to the League.

Spinner - Hospitalized. Says he’s going to preach about Shigaraki’s message. Honestly, it’s a good sentiment, but he’s clearly going out into a society that is a) hostile to people with mutant quirks like him b) hostile to villains c) canonically resistant to change and resistant to anything related to Shigaraki if those TV interviews were anything to go by. It’s a lost cause.

Dabi - Alive, but barely. He’s restrained and being kept alive by medics equipment but it’s clear his life will be short and in pain. I saw someone say that it’s “ironic justice” because he always wanted Endeavour to watch him and now he has no choice in that his family is going to be (in Dabi’s words) “gawking at him like a tourist attraction.” He’s miserable, he’s going to die, and he doesn’t even get the freedom that he wanted while his abuser walks off without punishment and still adored by society. This isn’t justice, it’s cruel, especially when we know it’s possible for him to be properly put back together (since that’s what happened after he “died” as a teenager).

Shigaraki - Dead, turned to dust after being possessed and used as a puppet by AFO after being his puppet and manipulated by him for years. Was not saved despite the fact that the entirety of the last arc was propped up by the sentiment that Deku was trying to reach out to him and save him, specifically Tenko, the spirit of a little boy who wanted to be a hero. I don’t believe in redemption through death. People calling this a redemption arc is an insult. It wasn’t a sacrifice - he was killed. He had no agency in his life and didn’t even get to choose his own death. Deku tells him to his face that his death is his own fault (what happened to saving him?!). He died hoping his friends would be able to carry on and something about hero society changed. His friends are dead, dying, or have lost everything, and society stayed exactly the same as it was at the start of all of this.

[bnha-takes]

I’m hoping that when the series ends, the really gross and vocal part of the fandom finally moves onto something else so that fans that aren’t the physical manifestation of minetas perverseness can start to actually talk about the series in a semi normal light again.

And I also hope that the people are overly critical about everything find a manga they actually like and just read that instead of complaining about every aspect of bnha.

I miss when the fandom felt more like bookclub and not a really toxic debate class that sometimes argues about which underage character is more breedable and which ship is better than which.

.

[echoes-lighthouse]

F/O Masterlist

Okay, I'm at the point where I'm going to have to make The Big List. So this is just a list of everyone that I conceivably might post selfship content about, so if people need to block tags or ask me in advance to tag things, you're aware of the possibility! I'll do my best to update this and let folks know when it's been updated.

This is specifically a list of my romantic or semi-romantic f/os, since those are the ones people usually care about blocking. Maybe I will make a separate list for platonic/familial selfships!

Organized alphabetically by source: let's go!

Primaries

(I Have Posted About Them Before And I Will Likely Post Again)

Tate Langdon (American Horror Story - #my ghost boy), miscellaneous sideships with other Season 1 ghosts

Grell Sutcliffe (Black Butler - #don't fear the reaper)

Toshinori Yagi (BNHA- #sunflower time)

Shigaraki Tomura (BNHA- #my gamer boy)

Himiko Toga (BNHA - #bestie hours), includes a LoV polycule with Shigaraki, Spinner, Magne, Mr. Compress, Dabi, and maybe Kurogiri

Alex (Clockwork Orange - #clockwork siblings)

Penelope Garcia (Criminal Minds - tag TBD)

Jester Lavorre (Critical Role- #my sweetling)

Monokuma (Danganronpa- #my evil lil bear)

The Joker (DC/TDK - #the lover who laughs)

Dirk Strider (Homestuck - #heart of hearts)

Vox and Valentino (Hazbin Hotel - #digital poison), includes sex work with most of the main cast

Emberlynn (Helluva Boss - tag TBD)

Stolas (Helluva Boss - #secrets of the stars)

Armand, Gabrielle, Lestat, Louis, Daniel (Interview With The Vampire - #messy vampire polycule)

Val Frizzle (Magic School Bus - #val <3)

Gertrude Robinson (The Magnus Archives - #archivist my archivist)

Jonah Magnus (The Magnus Archives - #eyes on you)

Mary Poppins (Mary Poppins - #mary and me)

Jack Skellington (Nightmare Before Christmas - #my skeleman)

Zero Rick Sanchez (Pocket Mortys - #waiting in the stars), may include other Ricks as the mood takes me

Death (Sandman - #death becomes them)

Delirium (Sandman - #eyestrain pals)

Cecil and Kevin (WTNV - #listener and watcher)

Tumblr (Miscellanious Sources - #beloved hellsite)

Non-Primaries

(content about these is rare or hasn't happened yet, but it might! None have tags assigned yet, but I'll assign them if you ask.)

Garfield the Deals Warlock (The Adventure Zone)

Iroh (ATLA)

Tsuyu Asui (BNHA)

Nezu (BNHA)

Aizawa Shota (BNHA) only in a hook-up sense but still worth mentioning

Laudna and Imogen (Critical Role), currently on hold because I only got 10 episodes into C3

Hoid (Cosmere)

Celeste, Junko, Toko (Danganronpa 1)

Eventually I'll get through the other Danganronpa games and add f/os from those as well

L (Death Note)

Queen (Deltarune)

Judge Frollo (Disney's Notre Dame)

Captain Hook (Live Action Peter Pan)

Yuri (Doki Doki Literature Club)

Oswalda Cobblepots (DC)

Thirteenth Doctor (Doctor Who)

TARDIS (Doctor Who: my partner ships with her, not me, but I might post content for them)

Fandomstuck f/os are still to be determined

Sun/Moon (FNAF:SB)

Glamrock Chica (FNAF:SB)

The Creation (Frankenstein)

Garfield (Garfield)

Miku Binder Thomas Jefferson (Hamilton adjacent?? - #insufferable pokelovers)

Minerva McGonagall (Harry Potter)

Severus Snape (Harry Potter)

Honestly the entire Homestuck cast is a possibility for me

The Devil (The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus)

Persephone (Lore Olympus)

Jonathan Sims (The Magnus Archives)

Michael (The Magnus Archives)

Minecraft Villager OC

Bert, Ernie, Gonzo (The Muppets)

Mae Borowski (Night In The Woods)

Haruhi Fujioka (OHSHC)

Calypso (Pirates of the Caribbean)

Erik (POTO)

Christine Daae(POTO)

Desire (Sandman)

Trencil (Smile For Me)

Rose Quartz (Steven Universe)

Charlie Bradbury (Supernatural)

Rorschach (Watchmen)

[achairwithapandaonit]

20 questions for writers

tagged by @aobawilliams ! (thank you!)

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

44 (that's a lot!)

2. What's your total AO3 word count? 212,262

3. What fandoms do you write for?

I've written for quite a lot of fandoms but I think currently I'm only writing for One Piece and Black Butler. I used to write quite a bit for my hero academia, but the hyperfixation passed a long time ago. And I think no matter how much time passes I'll always be up for writing for detective conan/magic kaito.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Villain? Gamer? Why not both? (4803 kudos)

Shouta's Guide to House-training Two Idiots (2178 kudos)

Two Weeks (1191 kudos)

Accidental Kidnappings and Semi-purposeful Hostage Situations (1084 kudos)

The Wake-up Call (1082 kudos)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I used to, but I don't anymore. I can take things very personally and I'd posted a fic where someone didn't agree with my characterisation of one of the characters and told me this in the comments. I didn't take it well and argued with them, and now that kind of embarrasses me (though, tbh I'd be embarrassed myself if I commented on someone's fic without being asked for feedback in a way that was critical to their approach to a character. Sometimes fanfic just isn't for you and you should leave others alone and let them do their thing).

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

it's probably The Stranger (Mob Psycho 100 fic)

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

hmmm i mean, the thing is, my fics rarely end. so i don't really know...

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I got a proper hate comment once. it was really funny. they didn't mention anything critical of my writing and just told me it was shit and that i'm too old to write like that (i doubt they knew hold old i am?? i don't put my age online anymore). i assume i made them mad on tumblr so they decided to try and make my day bad?? but i just found it funny.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

No. Sometimes I think it would be fun to write smut just to try something new but then I realise I don't enjoy writing about sex and don't have any ideas unless they're funny crack treated seriously ones.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

@aobawilliams and I have a shared bnha/detective conan crossover we were planning to write maybe a couple years agonow. we never got round to it tho cause aha writing hard :')

i did have a dream where ciel phantomhive got yeeted into the one piece world tho and that was fun. only problem is i think it'd be VERY hard to write something like that. very funny tho. he would hate every second of his forced one piece holiday

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I think I've had a couple people pop up in dms to ask to translate my fics before. I've never seen the supposed translated fics tho (not that I'd be able to read them).

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

aoba and I have several co-owned wips that likely won't ever see the light of day cause writing is hard and we are very very tired.

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

I don't really have a favourite. I just have ones I think are funny or interesting to explore.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

ughhh too many. idek.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I've been told my character dialogue is quite good?

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Actually having to write ):

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I don't really like it cause I have no idea what's being said and am too lazy to look up a translation, but to each their own.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

I have this very old very embarrassing memory of writing tsubasa chronicle/tokyo babylon crossover fanfic for my english class homework as an 11 or 12 year old. i think they got ice cream.

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

I'm not sure. Maybe The Ceiling of the World (black butler) just cause I've wanted to write black butler fanfic for years and never finished any other wip. Otherwise it'd probably be one of the bnha wips I never finished (there was this time travel one that made me go insane. now that I'm thinking about it I REALLY need to finish it) and uploaded or Permanent Membership Guaranteed (bnha)

not tagging anyone but if u want you can take this as a go ahead to do it.

[knox-enden-main]

I wish there was a thing where it'll cancel a video when you fall asleep. That way you won't miss anything when you wake up. It'll also save it and then close the app as to save battery. That'll be pretty neat I think.

[stillness-in-green]

Deku arrived, with calvary, the same one that supported Stars and Stripes. I don't know... Will Deku use the same approach as she did? Weren't we shown that it does not work neither for save nor for win? They need to have a heart to heart, except Shigaraki is in no place to really hear Deku or understand him. A person that had some meaningful parallels with Shigi and could've been set up to reach him is romping through spirit world with All Might, probably talking about Deku. I just don't know.

Now that the next chapter’s out from this ask, and leaks for the one beyond, I’ll say I’m damned if I can see how Deku’s Beat The Absolute Piss Out Of Shigaraki play is any different from the approach people have been using on him since all the way back at USJ, much less as recently as Star & Stripe.  Like, I know that Fighting To Understand Each Other is a time-honored method of emotional catharsis and relationship advancement for a Shounen Jump comic, but I feel like the hero needs to be taking some more damage for that kind of thing to work, you know?  It shows they’re dedicated to understanding their opponent, even if it’s going to take some hurt.

But this?  It’s just beating on Shigaraki from a place of comfortably higher power, while Shigaraki is, just like he was during the war, constrained from acting with the full level of force available to him.  And I feel like I’ve seen that kind of thing before, where the heroes have a, “We can’t let the villain attain/unleash his full power, or we’re all doomed,” line, but the thing with that kind of set-up is that of course the villain eventually will!  It’s not as dramatically satisfying if you put that Chekov’s gun on the mantle and then never fire it!  But that’s where HeroAca is right now—where it's always been, and why the hero/villain dynamic is so damned strange for the way it confuses who the real underdogs are in this story.

Agreed that Deku needs to be able to actually talk to Shigaraki, but it's difficult to say what a dialogue would actually accomplish.  Deku's connection with Shigaraki is unearned, and none of the people who have actually earned a connection with Shigaraki—principally the League and Bakugou (Bakugou more than Deku, anyway)—are actually on-hand to weigh in and give Deku some perspective.  Instead, we have this foreordained connection because of AFOFA, and even that's not being done in a very interesting way, because Deku has not had a chance to have a sustained dialogue with Shigaraki in—to the exact digit of the most recent release—300 chapters.

Further, while their origin stories have a lot of ironic similarities, there's basically zero common ground between the people they are now—not least because Deku's experience with fighting the power inside him hasn't been a real issue since Joint Training, and even then, the sentience of OFA was never opposed to him the way VFO is inimical to Shigaraki's free will.

I don't know.  I still have some small hopes that Spinner will spring Kurogiri and press the shuffle button on this conflict, but as it is, I just am not buying some turn where Deku will spend however many chapters relentlessly destroying Shigaraki only for him to turn around and offer him a hand at the end, and we'll all be expected to cheer and be really emotionally affected by how incredibly generous and noble and forgiving Deku is.

I didn't buy it with Nagant and Overhaul, and like hell will I buy it here. Thanks for the ask!

[dinosaurtsukki]

housemates with shiratorizawa

helloo!! new headcanon series here hehe. i hope you like this very long set of headcanons!

how you ended up in a house with these guys:

they're such a tight-knit bunch considering the fact that they've been living in a dormitory throughout high school

it was probs semi or kawanishi who suggested getting an extra roommate to help with the rent (tendou and goshiki are accident prone they need someone to help pay for repairs)

so ushijima made and put up an ad for an extra housemate. although he didn't disclose the fact that you'd be rooming with 7 other dudes

you were kind of desperate for some housing at this point so you just went with it

the person who greets you at the door is shirabu. but its more like he saw you, your bag, and went back inside the house leaving the door open

you stood there for a whole ten minutes before kawanishi came up to invite you inside

you're instantly greeted by goshiki and semi cleaning the house like crazy. semi was punching a couch cushion so that it looked an extra soft pillow

tbh the only normal you see are ushijima and reon. they're probs the ones who interviewed you to see if you were a good fit as their housemate

despite how weird your first impressions of some of your housemates were, you were still keen to move in

and then that's when tendou decided to come home from the pet shop with an iguana

living there:

you're roommate ends up being shirabu because no one else wanted to room with him (jk they all drew straws and he was lucky)

he's a pretty good roommate: clean, keeps to himself, doesn't play music too loudly

except the fact that he ALWAYS HOGS THE UPSTAIRS BATHROOM

the bathroom might as well just be his because it's FULL of beauty products. also shirabu takes a million years to get ready that at this point, everyone uses the downstairs bathroom

lmao y'all get your revenge tho by using some of shirabu's products when he's gone

its particularly you, semi, tendo, and kawanishi who like to do that

kawanishi: *walks past shirabu*

shirabu: bitch, did you use my fucking Splash of Pomegranate with Exfoliating Sesame Seeds: Rainforest of the Sun Bath and Body Works shower gel?

kawanishi:...no?

semi and reon are both roommates and are probably the most normal people in the house which is saying something

also idk why i feel like they both have a thing for scented candles but they're too shy to tell anyone

like,,, they have a closet full of scented candles and everything

reon: hey, want me to light up Spring Lake or Summer's Kiss?

semi: Summer's Kiss all the way

that's why they always keep their door locked and whenever someone knocks, they quickly snuff out the candle and fan the smoke out of the windows

you: whoa, why does it smell so nice here?

semi: ...air freshener

is kawanishi the only sane, normal person in the house? yeah, probably

he's the one who remembers to get groceries and buy toilet paper and shit and he's so happy he has you to help him out

the thing is though, he's a NOTORIOUS prankster. like, nobody suspects him because they assume its tendou who put packets of ketchup under the toilet seat but no, it was kawanishi

but his favorite person to mess with is his roommate: goshiki

okay goshiki is a Heavy Sleeper and one night you and kawanishi decided to draw criss-cross stocking marks on his legs with permanent marker

goshiki is an alright housemate. he's polite, does his assigned chores, rarely gets into your privacy

but oh my god every morning at 5 am he wakes up the entire house BY BLENDING PROTEIN SHAKES

you and shirabu considered soundproofing your room or chaining goshiki to his bed

ONE OF THE HOUSE'S GREATEST MYSTERIES: how does goshiki cut his hair?

tendou knows you've been dying to know why so one day he's all 'do you really wanna know?' and you're like 'HECC YEAH' and he takes your arm and brings you to goshiki's room

in there you find him with a bowl on his head and cutting along the rim with his scissors

shirabu is also with him but he has a ruler for his bangs

its the only time they ever get along

tendou and ushijima has hands-down the most chaotic room set-up

for one, half of it, ushijima's half, looks like a traditional japanese house

you know that scene in BNHA where todoroki was showing off his room? yes that one

y'all are like 'how was he able to bring tatami mats in his room?'

and then tendou's half looks like a weird-ass storage room complete with an iguana tank (yes he kept it)

tendou probs has those color-changing lights too

and the funny part about it is that both ushijima and tendou are completely okay with the set-up

also tendou has the most irregular schedule ever. like,,, circadian rhythms just wasn't installed in the being that is Tendou Satori

like,, he'll be making mac and cheese at 3 am and just enter your room asking if you want anything

you: WHY WOULD I WANT MAC AND CHEESE AT 3 AM???

shirabu, who's still awake because he's a med student: i'll have some

ushijima on the other hand has such a set schedule and daily routine. he's the definition of 'working like clockwork'

you guys even use him as your clock because why not?

you: guys what time is it?

reon: ushijima just left for his morning run so probably 7am

the only thing is that ushijima,,, generally doesn't cook??

and by that he likes to eat raw vegetables. no seasoning, no nothing

and he always offers to make people snacks and he does it so sincerely that you can't help but accept his snacks

*insert scene of you eating raw carrots at 11 pm while studying*

house incident: everyone being a closeted fan of Naruto

everyone in shiratorizawa is a closeted naruto fan (except for a few but we’ll be discussing) and no i don’t accept criticism on this

goshiki MAY have rock lee’s signature bowl cut and sometimes walks around the house in leg weights but he doesn’t say who he copies them from outright

but EVERYONE ELSE 

you started having your suspicions when you walked into semi and reon’s room looking for a pencil and found semi sitting in bed with a pile of tissues around him and his laptop on his lap

you guys stare at each other for a while and semi just quickly yells “I WAS WATCHING PORN”

you: I DON’T NEED TO KNOW WHAT YOU’RE WATCHING

my boy semi was actually crying to that part in naruto when zabuza and haku died

his roommate reon on the other hand has a secret tattoo

it’s a sharingan tattoo and its on his back, just between his shoulder blades, which is why he doesn’t go around shirtless (his favorite character is itachi don’t @ me)

reon probably owns an akatsuki cloak too

kawanishi has an ENTIRE playlist of the naruto opening and ending tracks that he got from youtube and converted into mp3 format on youtube mp3 converter which he then downloaded and organized into a playlist with the album art when he was thirteen

sometimes you’ll hear him whistling Ikimono Gakari and everyone in the house is all 👂👂👂

tendou is the only one not lowkey about it but he’s not lowkey about anything he likes

and then one day you and tendou are in the kitchen and ushijima decides to watch tv while eating breakfast

while flipping through the channels he comes across the rock lee vs. gaara fight and he just decides to watch while eating

tendou’s like ‘wakatoshi? do you,,, like naruto?’

ushijima: is this naruto? it looks pretty cool

AND THEN YOU AND TENDOU JUST AMBUSH HIM AND GO INTO A TED TALK ABOUT HOW AWESOME NARUTO IS 

while you’re busy ranting about it, semi, goshiki, and reon, who recognize the unmistakable Sounds of Naruto, creep downstairs

semi: oh, cool. it’s naruto

reon: yeah, used to watch it when i was a kid

goshiki: hmm, seems like an alright show

and then USHIJIMA LOOKS AT GOSHIKI AND THEN AT ROCK LEE AND JUST GOES

‘hey, you remind me of that guy’

AND GOSHIKI ALMOST CRIES 

reon and semi end up sitting on the couch, trying to hold in their middle-school selves while watching 

and then kawanishi comes in and he’s just like OH MY GOD NARUTO!!

now almost everyone in the house is watching. at that part when rock lee drops his weights reon and semi jump off the couch and cheer

they can’t hold themselves back anymore

last but not the least, shirabu, who came back from class, walks into the living room to find all of his housemates cheering and crying in front of the TV that’s playing naruto

shirabu: omg u guys are lame

goshiki, sobbing: WE’RE NOT LAME IF WE FOLLOW OUR NINJA WAY

shirabu: welL, OBVIOUSLY THE BEST FIGHT SCENE IS WHEN NARUTO AND ROCK LEE GO AGAINST KIMIMARO YOU UNCULTURED FUCKS

and then he runs up to his room before coming down with THE FULL BLU-RAY DISC SET OF NARUTO ALL THE WAY UNTIL SHIPPUDEN

basically you guys end up watching naruto all day and semi finally admitted that he wasn’t watching porn the day you came into his room

taglist (still open to anyone who wants in!): @montys-chaos​ @miyumtwins​ @strawberriimilkshake​ @pocubo​ @sugawara-sweetheart@akaashisbabydoll @laure-chan@therainroguefanfiction@atetiffdoesart@stephdaninja@oikaw-ugh@charliefredb@dramaqueenweeb1469@tremblinghearts@applepienation@doodleniella

[sickficsforthesoul]

Hello, whump and sickfic fans. I'm a new writer in the sickfic community. I've written whumpy stuff before, but I've never written sickfics for the sake of writing sickfics.

I've created this blog with the goal of getting new prompts and ideas from other sickfic lovers. I like writing sickfics, but I've never feel like my scenarios were as great as they could be. Therefore, I'm turning to my fellow whump fans for help in exchange for writing fics for the prompts I receive.

Now for some general guidelines:

1. My main fandom is Haikyuu, but I might be willing to write for some other fandoms [like BNHA, Persona 5, and Pokemon Adventures/Special (the main Pokemon manga series)], so please send in any prompts you think I might like!

2. I don't write any forms of NSFW. Just thought I'd throw that out there, though I don't think I'll have too many problems with this in the whump community.

3. I don't write a ton of gore. Broken bones, cuts, and concussions, absolutely! But my primary focus is on illnesses and health conditions (asthma, anemia, arrhythmia, etc), so I can't promise I'll write prompts containing extreme gore and violence.

4. My primary whump characters are Semi, Kageyama, Suga, basically all other Haikyuu setters, Atsumu, Osamu, and Kita. I will write for other characters, but I'm not as confident in my ability to write them as main characters. I'll still give it my best shot, though, so don't be afraid to send in prompts with other characters. After all, there are no bad bois in Haikyuu, only best bois.

5. Please leave feedback on my fics, even if you don't love them. I'm still a growing sickfic writer, and I know my writing still has areas that need improvement, so don't be afraid to leave a comment explaining your opinion on a fic. Please keep negative criticism constructive, though, because I can't improve my writing if you only tell me that it sucks but don't explain why.

6. I may not post constantly, but that doesn't mean I'm not working on fics for this blog. I'm currently a student, so I can't write constantly due to homework, projects, tests, etc. Thanks for understanding, and I'll update my bio to reflect any changes in accepting prompts and scenarios.

7. Please send me prompts. I'm a sad little whump writer who wants to write sickfic prompts. Please help feed my empty soul with prompts!

That's all from me, so I hope you'll interact with little old me. Thanks, and goodbye for now!

[deyanira18]

Curly/Wavy hair BNHA Headcannons

Completely my ✨opinion✨ , you can disagree

I myself have like curly hair, ringlets like in the front and more wavy in the back so ┐( ˘_˘)┌

Either wayyyy

Y/N is easily seen in a large crowd

Wavy hair Y/N, Mina so asks what curling iron she uses for her hair

When she says it's natural, I can imagine a shocked gasp

Momo, Jiro, and Uraraka included, more minor gasps tho

Curly Y/N aka more like ringlets and semi ringlets thingys, everyone wants to touch her hair

Bish no, she isn't like harsh she just says don't touch please

We allll know the struggle to not get it frizzy and touching it doesn't help

Possible hair touching when they're more comfortable or late at night cuz you gonna wash it after either way

Hugs reveal that coconut curl cream smell (we all know which one)

Denki seriously freaks out like will tell out "OMG IT SMELLS SO GOOD!!!"

Bakugou will never hug you, (it's a sad fact) but walking by him he'll for sure smell it low-key loves it too

The girls ask what you use, they wanna try it out

Gotta warn them if they don't have curly or 2avy hair it won't give them that kinda hair

They all low-key deflate, it's okay guys it's too much work either way

Coily kinky hair Y/N, will fight you if you try touch their hair

Will scare the living crap outta Deku when she harshly says "hell no don't touch"

We allll know Bakugou will give respect points to her for that

Wash days (imma make it every Sunday once a week idk if that's too long soz if it's inaccurate)

Every girl finds out they can't use the bathroom on Sundays cuz wash days are ALLL DAYYY

they will complain, Y/N sorry my hair is ✨high maintenance ✨ perfection is effort

Lol but low-key they feel pretty bad but the girls respect them for taking care of their beautiful hair

The boys don't know this will wonder where tf Y/N is, learn the 3rd week when they FINALLY ask where she is

The amount of products:

Wavy Y/N, I wanna say it's not tooo much but at least 2 to 3 different products is a must

It seems acceptable to the girls they just low the smell

The boys are confuzzled, but understand you have very nice hair

Curly hair Y/N, at least 3 products maybe 4 or 5 if you wanna get really fancy

It's the price tag for me, the girls are mind blown by how much it is for them all, the amount not so surprising they have a good understanding on the effort required for it

Coily Y/N, minds blown on both sides like oh god, the price and the amounttt, at the very least 4 products at most maybe 8? Again not sure

Low key she laughs in ✨pain✨ her wallet is crying but she knows it worth it when she gets like 5 compliments a day

10/10 BAKUGOU COMPLIMENTS THEIR HAIR AT LEAST ONCE MAYBE TWICE

For me, I can wake up and just leave my house with my hair how it is, but I also wash it everyday and it dries nice over night

But if anyone else is like this, the girls are very jealous are not low-key about it

MINA will definitely complain the most

The boys when they find out a little surprised but ten bucks Bakugou will be like "MY HAIR KS THE SAME WAY, YOU'RE NOT SPECIAL"

Um thanks???

Either way I wanna say Iida will tell Y/N she needs to brush her hair because you have to look professional

Bitch, give him a comb tell him, brush it out

Y/N will force him to brush out her DRY hair and see what happens NOT COILY Y/N THO

Iida will very much apologise and never being it up again

But like I am now a softie for Iida he's very underrated so honestly Y/N low-key probably brushes it all out and plays around and makes jokes on how poofy and soft it is

Only time everyone can freely touch it, come'on even Bakugou has to touch it

Mineta Is NOT ALLOWED, NOPE, NO TOUCH

Aoyama will definitely say to put glitter in her hair, but like low-key all for it

Glitter hair photo shoot, like yuss all the girls definitely plus aoyama

Denki, Sero, and Kirishima will join willingy

Everyone else is forced or persuaded

Bakugou's nickname for her is so either Noodles for wavy or curly or Pom Pom for curly or coily hair

I don't take criticism for this one, lol jk tho

Denki is the one to feel the wrath of Y/N if he touches her hair without consent

Like if she is spanish ooo u can't run the chancla follows u

If she's black man u gonna hear her and you know u can't run she mad most of the day

Denki has learned his lesson and NEVER AGAIN

I have run out of ideas if I have more I will do a part 2 cuz why not ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I'd love to hear more ideas tho

[inkykeiji]

heyo i wanna request a match up (haikyuu or bnha idc) ummmm im an istp 8w7. im introverted until i get comfortable around you and then i cant seem to stfu. i have a really short fuse and get annoyed easily. im a ravenclaw. 5'2, shoulder lenght brown hair (kinda curly/frizzy), brown eyes, i legit only wear oversized hoodies. my favorite halloween movies are coraline and beetlejuice. i like horror but i get scared really easily. (sorry ik this is hella long but idk what to write so heh)

hellooo!! <33 omg no it’s not long at all!!

i match you with ⇢ semi eita! you both value autonomy and control over yourselves and your actions. he too gets annoyed easily, but this actually works in your favour, because you just to happen to be triggered by the same things. this means y’all get to be annoyed together ehehe n can complain to each other about whatever it is that’s irritated you without any fear of judgement or criticism, because you know the other will understand! and while he has a bit of a temper as well, i truly cannot see him getting angry at you; there’s really nothing about you that would trigger his anger (it seems to mostly be attached to his competitive nature) and tbh i think he’d feel rly awful if he got mad at you :( he freaking loves your penchant for oversized hoodies and will routinely give you his, because he just thinks u look so darn cute in his clothes <33

what you carve into your pumpkin ⇢  the other mother from coraline. you pay special attention to her button eyes, and it turns out great!! many of the trick or treaters compliment you on it <3

which halloween candy you eat the most of ⇢  whoppers + snickers!

couples costume ⇢ omg omg omg okay EITHER adam + barbara (regular version or the scary version when they stretch their faces out n stuff) OR coraline + wybie’s cat <33

how you celebrate halloween ⇢ by going to the autumn carnival! you go visit the cute lil goats n sheep at the petting zoo, check out the demolition derby, get popcorn n cotton candy, and ofc go on a bunch of rides! he’s totally gonna be mega cheesy n kiss u at the top of the ferris wheel <3 you decide to go just the two of you and spend the night living in the moment and simply enjoying each other’s company <3

clari’s 1k halloween matchups! 👻 requests are CLOSED <3

[a--knightinsourarmor]

PLEASE, READ THOSE RULES BEFORE DECIDING IF YOU WANT US TO INTERACT

MAIN HUB BLOG/SIDEBLOGS: My main roleplay hub blog is knightinsourarmor and I follow, send asks, and like from there. I currently have seven sideblogs, one for each of my muses. Todoroki Shoto (repressedkindness), Pro-Hero Todoroki Toya (hopelesslypersisting), Amajiki Tamaki (sunlitsoul), Novak Castiel (BNHA verse for SPN canon) (shatteredoptimist), Kambe Daisuke (unwaveringdetermination), Levi Ackerman (dreamsofregret), and Castiel (defectivesoldier). If somebody follows me on any of these sideblogs, I’ll assume they wish to interact with them. You don’t need to follow my main blog, but I suggest you do so. On my main blog I post ooc posts, muse updates, activity updates, memes, starter calls while any testing muses will be portrayed there. If I find you only follow my main blog… You either haven’t read my rules and my muses page or you only care for my ooc shit? 

REPLIES: I want to study as a med student and have to work at the same time. That means that I can be really slow when it comes to replies. I wish you understand and don’t feel offended or lose your interest if I take some time to answer our thread. I believe in quality over quantity. Some days I might reply to specific people. That has nothing to do with you or your writing. I just might need to roleplay a specific matter or thread or enjoy someone’s writing too much and need to focus on that for some time. Not replying may also mean the exact opposite. That I can’t come up with a good enough reply compared to yours and need some more time.

MUTUALS/NON-MUTUALS/FOLLOWING: When I follow someone, I have read their rules, about and verses pages, and some of their threads. If someone follows me and I haven’t followed back in a week or two, that means I’ve checked their blog but I can’t find myself writing with them. Non-mutuals can send me asks, like my starter calls, and reply to my open starters. If after some interactions I find myself interested in their writing, I will follow them back. When I become mutuals with someone and if I am not on a hiatus or semi-hiatus, I’ll write a small starter to break the ice. Nobody is forced to reply to it.

AGE: I am over the age of eighteen. I won’t write with anyone younger than the age of sixteen. I am open to roleplay almost anything and this will be a free NSFW blog. I won’t roleplay anything which will be considered R-rated with minors, meaning anything that includes sexual themes, intense graphic violence, drug abuse, etc. but I am open to write most things if both muns are of age.

TRIGGERS: I tag the triggers my mutuals have on their rules/about page. A doc with all the triggers tagged will be added soon. If you need me to tag a specific trigger, feel free to send me an ask or a message. I tag triggers like: ’#tw: yourtriggergoeshere’ without the quotation marks. My own triggers are ridiculous ones, but I’d be grateful if you tagged them. It’s aliens and cockroaches. That’s the reason I won’t be writing with any roleplay blogs having alien muses (those having a disgusting non-human form).

TAGGING: I have a very specific tagging system. If someone doesn’t want to see a specific character or faceclaim (you’ll need to block the character’s name again) on their dash, I tag the character in both threads and fanart as: #|| (ch.) character name || . For most anime, their last name goes first, except Shingeki No Kyojin (Attack On Titan).

SHIPPING: I prefer male x male relationships. I am a little picky with female OCs because of bad past experiences. I do not mind age gaps as long as both muses are adults (p.e. Levi x Eren) but I will not ship a young muse with someone who is like a father figure to them (Aizawa x Shoto). I am very slow to ship, for the reason I like building a relationship through threads. If there’s chemistry, feel free to discuss shipping or like my shipping call.

SMUT: I will not write explicit sexual scenes anymore. For muses of age and muses with high sex drive, depending on the chemistry between our muses, the limit is foreplay. Most of my muses are asexual. For them, it is very rare to happen anything more than kissing and cuddling. I will fade to black. I do not feel comfortable writing detailed sexual scenes anymore, the only part that interests me is the tension and trust built between our muses and aftercare. Inappropriate language may be present for all muses.

DRAMA: I don’t care for any drama or witch hunts going around. If I see any on my dash, this will result in me soft-blocking or hard-blocking you. I don’t want to participate in any of these and I find them disturbing.

FORMATTING: I cut posts and use small text and icons. If my roleplay partner doesn’t use icons, I won’t use any myself.

MULTIPLE THREADS: I don’t mind having multiple threads with the same person especially if I enjoy their writing.

POST LENGTH: My writing style is advanced literate. That means I need more than a paragraph to roleplay with. One paragraph is fine still, but as long as there’s something interesting to reply. I don’t mind how long your replies are. Just take notice that I will probably mirror you and my reply will be the same length.

SELECTIVE: I am selective when it comes to writing. I need a paragraph or more to reply. I need to roleplay in third person and I don’t roleplay on DM. I roleplay on discord so if we are mutuals, feel free to ask for it.

MAINS: I have blogs/threads which I prioritize over others. This isn’t personal. I just feel more motivated to reply to those. I don’t have exclusives.

TRACKING/REMINDERS:  I usually track my threads with an app but it takes a lot of my time. I try to use a tagging system even if it doesn’t work as well as I want it to. Don’t be scared to remind me to reply to something I might have forgotten. I could possibly forget to add it to my tracker but constant reminders make me lose my interest in the roleplay (if there’s any). I understand and appreciate for someone to tell me I have forgotten something. Myself, I will remind someone of our thread after two months or even more.

TIME-SKIP: Well, I’m someone who can enjoy something that is slow. I am pleased with anything as long as there’s some really good and inspiring writing (how many times have I said this?). I can keep a thread for years (and I have) and not be bored of it. If you start getting bored we can time-skip but I’d want to discuss this first.

DROPPING THREADS: Unless it’s a one-liner, I don’t drop threads. If you do drop one of our threads, I’d appreciate it if you told me.

ASKS: You are free to send an ic ask to all of my blogs. My main or my sideblogs, as long as you specify, I don’t mind. You can continue an ask I have answered. I actually encourage you to do so.

STARTERS: My open starters are actually open to everyone and don’t hesitate to reply to one if someone else already has. Then I’ll reply to another post and tag you. If I offer to make a starter and you accept and you don’t reply after a month, and if I have messaged you and you haven’t responded but you are actually active, sorry but no matter how specifically we have plotted our thread, I’ll assume you are not interested anymore and turn it to an open starter. I put some time into those and I don’t want it to be to waste.

CROSSOVERS/AUS: I really love writing AUs and crossovers. I enjoy the possibility of characters from other fandoms interacting with each other. I have crossover verses for some of my muses and more will be added in the near future. For characters from fandoms I am not aware of, I’d like to write with them on a modern verse or one both muns agree on. For those characters, I’ll treat them like OCs.

OCS: I enjoy writing with OCs, as long as they have enough info and our writing mesh well. For most OCs, our first thread will be one that our muses get to know each other for the first time. I’d like for them to meet as complete strangers and let their relationship build naturally.

ENGLISH: English is not my mother language. I have learnt English completely alone and it’s something that has been hard for me. I understand telling me if I have made any mistakes or ask me if you didn’t understand something but I won’t take any criticism.

MEMES/FANART: This is something I had recently started to be annoyed with. Please, do not use me as meme or fanart source. This goes for roleplay partners or not. Please, reblog memes AND fanart from the source.

SPOILERS: This blog is not spoiler-free. I will tag spoilers: #|| spoilers || and try to keep everything under READ MORE. You have been warned.

THANK YOU FOR READING MY RUMBLING BEFORE FOLLOWING ME FIRST. PLEASE CHECK MY MUSES AND NAVIGATION PAGE AND FILL MY INTEREST CHECKER. ALSO YOU CAN CHECK MY VERSES AND OPEN STARTERS. YOU CAN MESSAGE ME AND PLOT ANY TIME. THANKS FOR YOUR TIME. JUST FYI I MIGHT NOT BE TALKATIVE. THIS IS NOT PERSONAL AND DOESN’T MEAN I AM NOT INTERESTED FOR OUR MUSES TO INTERACT..

UPDATES

DAY/MONTH/YEAR: -

16/03/2021: REWRITTEN MY RULES

[keen2meecha]

20 Questions Tag

Oh, wow - I was actually tagged by a few people to do this one! @aziz-writes, @aelenko, @rhiannonleewriting, @silas-the-reading-addict - thank you all so much for tagging me! I’m kind of flattered haha

Rules: Answer the 20 questions, then tag 20 blogs you’d like to know better!

Name: Keena!

Nickname: None? I go by Daisy on certain websites, if that counts?

Zodiac Sign: Gemini!

Height: Five’...3″? 2.5″? Somewhere in that range

Languages: English, theoretically ASL, and I took some Spanish

Nationality: American

Favorite Season: That time when winter bleeds into spring

Favorite Flowers: Morning glories for sure!

Favorite Scent: Rain and vanilla perfume

Favorite Color: Blue!!!

Favorite Animal: Mongoose

Favorite Fictional Characters: Oh geez uummm Mollymauk and Yasha from Critical Role, Denki and Shinsou from BNHA

Coffee, Tea, Chocolate: In order: tea (sweetened), chocolate (especially milk), coffee (mochas) I have a sweet tooth haha

Average Sleep Hours: I’ve actually been semi-successfully fixing my sleep schedule, so 7-8!

Dogs of Cats: Okay, I love both but definitely dogs

Number of Blankets You Sleep With: A weighted blanket + a comforter when I’m cold enough

Dream Trip: A roadtrip across America with my friends where everyone has enough money to not have to worry and enough comfort and joy to make fun. (I have a lot of anxiety, so if I traveled overseas it would be to tag along with my friends/family on their dream trip, which is great too! But this is my personal dream tbh.)

Blog Established: I think technically I made this blog in, like, October of last year? But I didn’t start posting until January of this year!

Followers: I literally hit 50 as I was making this! That’s actually kind of funny tbh

Random Fact: Oh boy uuuhhhh we’re 99% sure I have ADHD (if you couldn’t tell by my fave characters lmao) which is why I ramble so much and swing between hammering out a shit-ton of words and then writing next to nothing for weeks. Hoping for a diagnosis over the summer, although I’ll settle for just an anxiety diagnosis at this point tbh

Tagging: @alcego-writes, @magic-is-something-we-create, @dustylovelyrun, @nintendonianrose, @acaptainandhisrunaway, @magicalwriting, @ocmaker, @saiko-tsuki, @angelolytle, @brookswriting, @bisexual-in-progress, @eidolv, @mxxnwishes, @hannahs-creations, @the-violet-writer, @alanwrites, @ajbrooks-writes, @jewellsfrommaruss, @writerfae, and @writhoelogy 

(no pressure, let me know if you never want to be tagged in these games permanently or just at the moment (or if you always want to be tagged in games! that’s an option too!), sorry if you've already been tagged in this, I look forward to seeing your answers if/when you do them!)

[dabistits]

thank you for your answer! i think my most pressing question is at what point am i trying to salvage a bigoted mess that isn't worth "promoting" by creating AUs for it. if a piece of media has potential but the author is too much of a centrist to ever fully realize it and ends up promoting a lot of things i really disagree with, is it fair for me to create different scenarios and tell other people "yeah, this piece of media is a bad take but it could have been like this instead"

I know tumblr makes a big deal out of no-platforming certain creations and creators, and this is a legitimate strategy and one that I agree should be applied at the very least, no exception, to TERFs and fascists and people who are legitimately bigoted. I think there’s a strong argument to be made for no-platforming certain exploitative creations, such as KS, and exploitative fanworks.

But.

1) for all the mess that BNHA is, I don’t think it’s equivalent to KS, and

2) what is “promotion,” even, really?

“Promotion,” when it comes to these discussions, I think usually refers to introducing a creator or creation to someone who didn’t know about them in the first place. This is actively dangerous when it comes to bigotry, and it’s part of TERF and fascist strategy to post ‘reasonable’ ideas (ex: about feminism) or innocent-sounding memes in hopes of drawing the ‘uninitiated’ back to their blogs or forums to ‘convert’ them (as an aside: I think pro-fetishizing fandom types do this as well, to be honest, and they do it by portraying their concerns as ones of free speech or misogyny so that people who aren’t aware of the root of the issue are easily led into agreeing with them). On this basis, people who have bigoted opinions should be no-platformed so their ideas can’t be spread.

I don’t think fandom participation is this insidious though. People make fanwork because they transparently enjoy a canon, not because they’re necessarily trying to insidiously “promote” it. Of course, there’s still a snowball effect where the more people are talking about a canon, the more buzz it gets, and the more people check it out, which makes buzz an important thing for small or new canons (but rarely is this contingent on one person only, and especially not if that person only has a small following). With BNHA specifically? It’s already huge. One person doing anything for it is a snowflake in a blizzard, and if anyone is checking out your fanart or fanfic, it’s incredibly likely that they’ve already heard about or are already into BNHA. Is it really fair to yourself to, uh, think about writing AU fanfic as you proselytizing to non-BNHA fans somehow, rather than you seeing better ways to do BNHA and sharing it with other fans? Rather than you writing something for the sake of your own catharsis?

As I said in my previous answer, there are still a lot of ways for you to decide how you participate. When I mentioned “AUs and dumb headcanons,” it was really just a group of my friends on a fairly insular forum and group chat, fairly self-contained. Even though we were fans of a ‘problematic’ canon, I wasn’t all that worried about “promoting” it, because it was a small group of people who I trusted could be respectful and critical, and other than that, we were just doing our own thing, having pretty much zero impact on anyone outside of us. You could say that liking this canon means we have questionable tastes (and that’s fair lol), but it’d be pretty hard to argue that we were promoting it, rather than just... adapting the canon into something we could semi-privately enjoy together.

Now, I’m running a BNHA blog with a few hundred followers. I guess that could count as "promoting” BNHA (though most of the people who found me were already BNHA fans in the first place), but I’m personally quite comfortable with that. I like to think, and I hope lol, that even though I’m giving BNHA a platform, I’m also giving platform to myself and my critiques. I’m unlikely to prevent people from reading BNHA by deleting this blog, but by continuing to run it I’m much more likely to engage people to think critically about the way the narrative treats issues like sexual assault, and abuse, and criminality. I hope I don’t reach the point where I’m hate-blogging about BNHA, but at this specific point in time, I’m happy with talking about the things I like and hope for, in addition to the places where I think it fucks up.

That’s all to say that you really do have options. If you can’t stand to think that you’re “promoting” it? Maybe just talk about it with a group of friends or a server, rather than posting about it. If you want to post about it, but don’t want to feel like you’re ‘justifying’ it? Maybe reblog more critical posts, or write your own.

While I agree with many of the posts on tumblr that say we should probably distance ourselves from some creators and creations—and the worse their issues are, the more all-consuming their issues are, the more relevant this position is—I also think there’s some leeway for people to say “this canon is bad, and I acknowledge its flaws, but there are parts of it I still really like.” Yes, while liking certain creators and creations will make you highly questionable and untrustworthy, we also have to resist the temptation to inextricably link our morals to our consumption (I mean this both about media consumption and the consumption of material goods), because “there’s no ethical consumption, etc.” and also because there’s no work without flaws. Being hypercritical toward ourselves for having imperfect tastes in an imperfect society will just make us obsessive with hypervigilance, tirelessly questioning ourselves and our motives like we’re waiting for ourselves to fuck up, and that’s not a healthy way to treat our own being.

(If you read the above and were like, “no, I’m capable of enjoying things without overinvesting in the perfection of its morals, there’s just something about BNHA that ticks me off,” then, good, it doesn’t apply to you. I thought I’d mention it in case this is a recurring issue.)

The final thing I have to reiterate is: if you’re grasping for reasons to stay, and ways to interact with BNHA that don’t impinge on your values, then this is my insight. If you’re grasping for reasons to go, then go! You don’t need my permission nor my insight to say “this canon makes me so uncomfortable that I don’t think I can interact with it happily anymore.” If you think leaving BNHA behind is for the better for yourself, if it will give you more peace of mind to do so, then you probably already know your decision.

[thekrawra]

hi friends (UPDATED)

hi friends so idk know who’s stumbling upon this but like i love fan stuff and like i love theorizing about stuff and im like semi-active but trying to be more active because boy oh boy do i love fandoms so like here’s a list of the things i like to yell about so come yell about them with me if you want idk 

- mcu (im a sucker for peter parker too, and IRONDAD AND SPIDERSON) - dick grayson (dudes anything about him, my favourite superhero) - high school musical the musical the series (i’m a hardcore ricky and gina shipper fair warning) - dungeons and dragons - critical role (both campaigns and one shots) - dimension 20 (fantasy high and unsleeping city) - httyd - rotg - bnha (manga and anime, hardcore todoroki stan) - bts (taehyung stan) - byun baekhyun - up10tion - seventeen (and specifically lee jihoon, woozi, the most talented man in the world i swear) - voltron (i mean i’ll still yell about it)

and like i’m always down for recs for things i should stan so like whoot whoot, come chat if you want :)

[stillness-in-green]

What's your opinion about eri? I mean, she's cute and pitiful, but does she seem... bland, at some points? I don't know how to put it in words but, like from writing good characters point of view, rather than the good, nice person point of view, or something?

She’s boring. Boring! My god. She’s cute and all, but with only very rare exceptions, she’s cute in the way that a stuffed animal is cute—harmless, an object to be acted upon, something to be plucked, somewhat worse for wear, out of a garage sale and taken home and cleaned up, then put on the bed to sit there and look cute and be periodically cuddled.

That’s overstating things somewhat, obviously, but I think Eri was at her most interesting when she was at her most difficult—and she was never really all that difficult.

(Hit the jump for more about the wrinkles Eri introduced in the "saving" narrative, her parallels with Shigaraki, and the impact of her powers on the story.)

So, as I said, Eri was never really all that challenging for Deku personally, but at least back in her origin arc, we had the idea that she was difficult for the heroes to reach because she couldn’t bring herself to believe that being “saved” was a possibility for her, because Overhaul had firmly established himself in her mind as just too strong to fight. She tried to run away, of course, but she never confronted him directly, because doing so was useless, so that was the mentality she had when anyone else confronted him as well.

I liked the approach that before heroes could save her, they needed to make her believe that saving her was even within their capabilities. I liked even more that, even after they got her out of there, they immediately ran into the problem that just because they got her out didn’t mean they’d addressed her trauma. There’s fantastic nuance to the idea that a hero can get someone out of immediate danger, but if the person they saved is just dumped right back into a bad situation, or into a freefall with no social safety net, the hero has done nothing but stave off an inevitable situation where that person gets themselves into trouble again—maybe a trouble they need once more to be saved from, or maybe a trouble that now involves saving others.

The big problem with Eri is that she was just so…Easy Mode. She was easy to sympathize with because she was little and cute and wounded (but in a clean way). She wasn’t angry and disillusioned like Kouta was. She was never creepy and covered in blood and smiling in a weird way like Tenko was. She was tattered and hurt-looking enough to make viewers want to take care of her, but not so much so that she became uncomfortable to look at. Possibly because Overhaul is a clean freak, she was never dirty or grubby; she had those big doe eyes and a perpetually sad or scared face, rather than being angry or—what seems more likely for her situation—completely shut down emotionally. There’s basically no one who could reasonably look at her and think, “I don’t know; I don’t know if trying to rescue that person is worth our time and effort.”

Compare this to victims like Tenko: also a child, but one who looked off-putting enough that people kept shying away from him. Or try Bakugou instead: older, less sympathetic, so he got hints dropped by a reporter that he might have gone villain already and no longer needed to be “saved.” This scales all the way on up to e.g. the Noumu, the all-out villains, the masses of the PLF, and so on.

One of the things that strikes me as most interesting about Eri from a narrative perspective is how clearly saving her serves as a prelude to saving Shigaraki. From manifesting (alleged) quirk mutations that lead to them killing their parents, to being picked up, abused and manipulated by villains, all the way from rejecting heroes’ attempts to save them despite how obviously they need it down to their very coloring, Eri was obviously a dry run for Shigaraki. She therefore serves as a highly useful comparison point for how things are liable to go with Shigaraki.

The trouble for me is that there’s no middle ground there. Eri is the version of Shigaraki who’s nice and sweet and easy to save, who doesn’t lash out, whose ignorance or warped understanding of morality and social norms goes no further than the extremely on-the-nose “doesn’t know how to smile.” Her issues all basically get resolved in the space of a school concert, with no further plot time dedicated to e.g. her long-term housing situation, her schooling, or her upbringing outside of training her quirk.(1)

That by itself makes her not as interesting as she would be if the horrific situation she was rescued from were allowed to influence her in more realistic, ongoing ways, but it’s particularly annoying because it makes her—well, not even much of a dry-run for Shigaraki, either.

I’ve seen people suggest that Eri isn’t the preview for Shigaraki, but rather the Good End of Shigaraki: the version that suggests that children like Tenko are not beyond help if they’re helped in time. I don’t think that’s Horikoshi’s intent myself,(2) as there’s far too much of the series’ overall tone riding on the matter of saving Shigaraki, but I can understand why some people who don’t care about the villains might get to that conclusion, because there’s so little bridge between them, so little that points in the direction from Eri towards Shigaraki.

Deku is thick-headed. It’s clear at this point that he doesn’t see this stuff until it’s shoved in front of him while someone yells in his ear about it, ideally while crying. I suspect that’s why we have Crying Inner Five-Year-Old Tenko, because Deku and/or the narrative has been so bad at establishing a continuous line between where Eri was when heroes saved her and where Shigaraki is now. Thus, instead of a line that points from Eri to Shigaraki, Vision!Tenko becomes a line that points backwards, as if Deku hasn’t matured in his understanding of how to save people at all.

I wish it didn’t have to be that way, and one way we might have had a Deku who didn’t need that psychic vision would have been an Eri who was a little bit farther down Shigaraki’s road to begin with.

On the other big consideration with Eri, her power and the role it will play in the narrative, I have less to say. I used to be extremely concerned that she would be used to rewind Shigaraki back to his child self (which is, to quote a webcomic, “just a complicated way of annihilating the person [he] is today”), but I don’t really think that’s on the table at this point. Her ability to rewind people is tied to her horn, a finite resource, and going by how much it shrank when all she did was rewind Mirio six months, the amount of it growth she would need to rewind Shigaraki 16+ years is just not something I think is feasible.

Also too, there’s been no indication thus far that people who get rewound lose their memories of the intervening period, and what has it actually fixed in Shigaraki’s psychology if you just put his current mindset back in the body of a five-year-old, probably against his wishes?

That just leaves the prospect of healing fatal wounds, and while that’s possibly an option, it would be so time-consuming that you’d quickly run into the same problem—if she had a good build-up she could help a number of people whose injuries were all relatively recent, or one person who’d been out of commission for some time, but until the heroes figure out what her accumulation condition is,(3) they’re stuck waiting for her horn to build up naturally. She might have one more major play in the story, but it’s going to have be either saving one person on very recently injured with the little horn she has available right now, or it’s going to be in the epilogue, and either way, I’m not expecting her to come in and handwave Shigaraki back to harmlessness.

That, of course, is setting aside the fact that keeping Eri around for no reason but that her quirk is potentially convenient for the heroes is only less dehumanizing than what Overhaul was doing to her because the heroes aren’t literally enacting medical torture on her in the meantime. Seriously, let that girl find something—anything—else to do with her life. It’d go a long way towards helping flesh her out as a character beyond the sad waif who needs to be made to smile again because no one likes it when cute girls aren’t smiling or the heal spam button whose only relevance to the plot is who she’s undoing consequences for today.(4)

Aside: ...I am, it must be said, somewhat annoyed at the idea that Mirio needed his powers back to be a hero. Jesus wept, guys, he’s a third-year high school student who fought Overhaul solo for five full minutes while protecting a helpless child, possibly still under the effects of a quirk wreaking havoc on his sense of equilibrium, and quirkless. I’m not saying it’s bad for him to want his quirk back, or bad for Eri to want to restore him, but why in god’s name was someone that good at fighting ever pulled out of the Hero course? Fuck’s sake. He could never have gotten his quirk back at all and he would still have been, exactly as Nighteye predicted, as fine a hero as any.

Thinking about it takes me right back to one of my early objections to the entire premise of Deku as a character: "Wait, why would he need a super-power to be a hero? Hasn't the author ever heard of [long list of American superheroes who fight crime with entirely mundane talents and abilities]?" I got past that question for Deku because the legacy power plotline is more interesting anyway, but I shouldn't have needed to get past that question for Mirio because Mirio would have been a goddamn amazing way to address the entire setting's belief that people are defined by the quirks, for better or for worse, and a great way to challenge Midoriya to continue deepening his understanding of what it means to be a hero.

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1: I mentioned this once before in, I want to say, one of the MVA In Memorium posts, but it’s striking that Eri is reassured by even the main character that her quirk is kind and gentle, rather than Deku reassuring her that she is herself a good person. Person and quirk are completely conflated, and while I’m sure it was a nice thing for Eri to hear in the moment, what with Chisaki having tried to pour so much poison in her ear about how cursed her quirk was (more, one suspects, to keep her easy to handle than because Overhaul himself believed such spiritualistic nonsense), it becomes a lot more problematic when you consider that Eri is staying at the school entirely on the understanding that Aizawa and the rest are helping her train her quirk. Absolutely no mention is given to the rest of her development as a human being and citizen of the world.

2: Largely because, “Every victim has an expiration date, and if they don’t get saved or somehow manage to save themselves before then, too bad; now they have to die,” is a monstrous read on the material and its genre.

3: Hmm. I wonder if there’s someone the heroes could ask about that. Someone they have in custody and who has something he very badly wants that it wouldn’t hurt anyone to grant him in exchange for his knowledge of the workings of Eri’s quirk. No? Oh, well. Guess everyone’s just going to have to suffer in the meantime.

4: RIP all lasting consequences of the Overhaul arc; you were nice while we had you.