#bnha ultra archive

[yourultraarchive]

hello ☺️! i was wondering if you'd done a summary or translation for pg. 162, the police section, of the ultra archive character guidebook? i've been trying to track down where the idea of tsukauchi (the older)'s quirk being lie detector came from (i.e. whether this is a purely fanon creation or mentioned once offhandedly somewhere) and some people have attributed it to the ultra archive book, but it doesn't seem to have an official translation unfortunately. would you be willing to take a look? have a great day either way!

His archive profile doesn't actually mention his quirk, just that he knows All Might's secret, is in charge of the LOV cases, wants to catch AFO, and has great analytical skills.

I thought his quirk was introduced pretty early on? It's been a while.

But if not, it was definitely in MHA: Vigilantes (or, in Japanese, BNHA: Illegals), because they introduced Naomasa's sister there, and I believe that his quirk was explained in relation to hers (ie, her quirk was different from his in this way). Again, been a while so I might be wrong about the exact wording/placing, but it's definitely not a fanon concept!

[hkartincolor]

Ultra Archive spine

[20001541]

There's a small theory that I've had for a while but recently felt more validated after seeing what Hori said on the popularity poll livestream

The thing he said being this:

Which is interesting because we all know he infamously said back in 2018 that he planned on revealing Hisashi at some point in the story. Which as we know today never happens. So, it leaves us with the question, what happened?

Because in order for him to say this he must've had something in mind at the time for what he wanted to do with Hisashi. The first time we learn his name is in the BNHA Ultra Archive book that came out in 2016. Never officially translated into English btw so this is all we got.

Anyways this means he had something in mind for Hisashi for a while then, but then he changed his mind and kept him out of the story. He feels he put everyone and he wanted to put in the story and wouldn't change anything.

My theory is that he might've planned to make DFO a thing initially but decided it would be best if the story goes a different route and kept it out.

Because why else would you say you plan to reveal who is Hisashi is at some point only for your story to end with no sight of him? Not even a tiny mention. Let us not also forget how people pointed out that Inko's birthday 07/04 spells out nana shi in Japanese which is like Nana's name. It's also canon that All Might pointed out how her hair reminds him of Nana. So I wonder if he also planned on her being Nana's daughter and had AFO target her as a result. This was also something I found to be rumored among some Japanese fan forums. Even though the translations I got weren't great the little I could understand suggested it.

And even though I lost interest in DFO and stopped believing before the story ended this one panel has always stuck out to me.

Hori is insanely detailed oriented, like during Dabi's first appearance he's in front of a hair salon which foreshadowed that the hair colour he has now isn't his real one and was used as proof in Dabi is a Todoroki theory. So the fact that Hori chose to place the "my only family" bubble over a shot where Izuku is watching everything unfold stands out to me even now. Keep in mind this chapter released in 2018 which was the same year Hori said he planned to reveal Hisashi. Maybe could be me reaching, but still something to consider.

I'm not entirely sure of all of this actually and could be wrong. But it's an interesting theory as to what could've happened behind the scenes.

Another theory that I'm less sure of but can see it being possible is that the elements of the reveal he intended for DFO ended up being used for the reveal with Tomura.

Think about. It's actually crazy how similar the Tomura reveal in 419 was similar to what a lot of DFO fans were hoping for all these years.

AFO took on a whole new identity to get close to a civilian, he helped build the home Tomura would live in, played a part in Tomura's conception, he took away his original quirk, set Tomura up as a successor, and AFO had a big reveal moment that left Tomura devastated... like I remember several posts that theorized things like this about Izuku. The reason why AFO targeted Kotaro in the first place was because he was Nana's son and I remember that Inko being targeted for being Nana's daughter was a big part of the Inko Shimura theory.

I don't know for sure if this reveal was built off of his ideas for a DFO reveal he had initially planned. Really it depends on when he first created the idea of AFO being behind all the terrible things in Tomura's life and if he even had DFO in mind in the first place at some point.

But it's fascinating either way. Either DFO fans were right in how they interpreted some aspects of the story to suggest DFO were true and correctly guessed some aspects of the story that were recycled for a different reveal later on, or they were completely off the mark and by coincidence some of their theories for DFO ended up being eerily similar to how the 419 reveal ended up being.

[stillness-in-green]

What do you think about Horikoshi ending the manga without a canon couple? Do you ship or used to ship MHA characters? Did you see romantic potential? Do you think Horikoshi might confirm a couple later?

No canon couple?  Au contraire, my dear anon!  The manga ended with the most important canonization of all!

(Everybody give a huge hand to The Only Hets Who Matter, Gentle and La Brava; they deserve it.)

As to the ships people actually care about or were expecting some word on (e.g. the stuff with the students), my reaction there is overwhelmingly “lol gj hori”.  I’m glad he ended it with no canon student couple to speak of!  While I do sympathize with the position of certain people on Twitter who contend that Ochaco’s arc about repression really needed her to actually confess to Deku, I hated what her crush on Deku did to her arc anyway, so I don’t have it in me to be too annoyed.  Anyway, I don’t think it’s possible to do the Iron Might 2.0 part of the epilogue if Deku and Ochaco[1] have been dating the entire time, so I’m perfectly happy to run with the headcanon that she did confess at one point and it didn’t work out for whatever reason, so by the time the last chapter rolls around, they’ve just been friends for years.

1: Or Bakugou, for that matter, but with all due respect to the BakuDekus who haven’t been seeing Shonen Jump battle manga come and go for twenty years with nary a confirmed gay MC amongst them, that was never in the cards.

I remember posting once ages ago about a Japanese fan’s hope that Horikoshi, who the fan perceived as being at least somewhat progressive about women, could manage to end the series without a bunch of timeskip romances showing up at the last minute.  While I have some deep reservations about Hori’s progressive cred at this point in time, and am not tremendously impressed with his writing of women, either, credit where credit is due: he did end the series without any timeskip romances.

As to there being any confirmation of couples in the material we have remaining, I imagine the last train station[2] for that is going to be the final volume release in December, as, on top of the usual volume extras, Horikoshi should be considerably more free to include expansions that his schedule and exhaustion kept him from in the weekly publication.  I could even see a bonus chapter of some sort, maybe something post-epilogue so we can see the power suit in action or something silly and fourth wall-breaking to celebrate the series conclusion.  There’s also going to be one last fanbook released in January, which I have been assuming will be a data book like Ultra Archive.

2: Or harbor, I suppose, since we’re talking about ships.

Now, do I think any of that stuff will confirm ships?  Eh, that’s not really in my analytical wheelhouse.  The farthest I’d venture to guess is that I would a) not be surprised to get some clarification on Deku and Ochaco, and b) definitely peg the volume release to have material like that over squirreling it away in the fanbook.

For myself, my shipping habits are somewhat erratic—it’s not really where my primary engagement in media lies, and certainly not for this series!  But that’s not to say I don’t have ships, or that I’m not happy to talk about them, so if you’re curious about that, do feel free to hit the jump.  I’ll order them by general sphere first, then by how passionate I am about them compared to ones I just think are kinda cute or funny for whatever reason.

DISCLAIMER: While I have not explicitly stated as much here before, I am a 40-year-old asexual proshipper, proshipper here meaning I'm in favor of curating your own fandom space and not harassing people about their fictional ships under any circumstances.  When I say I ship something, that does not mean I’m idealizing the relationship, want it to be canon, think it would be cool in real life, or am mentally putting myself in the place of one the characters.  It’s solely because there’s something in the dynamic I think is fun or interesting, and “interesting” can very much include the same kind of interest one might have in watching a building get demolished. 

That is to say, there are a handful of Too Problematic For Tumblr ships in here—one age gap but otherwise wholesome, one age gap and tacitly abusive, and one that really hits the Tumblr Trifecta by being age gap, abusive and incestuous. I've put all three at the very bottom in their own section in descending order of Most BadWrong, but if you’re one of those people deep into The Discourse about how ships need to be Morally Correct otherwise the shippers are terrible people who should kys, this is not the post for you.  The block button’s there if you need it—and be advised that it’s there if I need it, too, and I’m not afraid to use it. (I grew up in dark fantasy shoujo fandoms; I am not litigating my ships with anybody.)

~~~Stillness’s Dubious and Delightful BNHA Ship Opinions~~~

Villain-o-rama-rama:

Spinarakiya, ShigaRD, Spinaraki: Alas for my short-lived OT3!  I was really, really pumped for this in the stretch between MVA and the early stages of the first war, what with there being such interesting possible angles between all three parties, only for Re-Destro to get arrested and never seen in person again, Spinner to get snatched up by Gigantomachia and never look back, and Shigaraki to get lost to the possession plot for, at least as far as scenes with his allies were concerned, basically the rest of the series.

Not exactly great material for my shipping heart, though I’ll refrain from the rant comparing how long the PLF members were living in close contact with each other compared to the League of Villains and why that should have meant they developed stronger relationships than what we got.

But canon being what it is, I do still ship the hell out of these three in a canon divergence situation, or any number of potential AUs.  I love the connective tissue there, with Re-Destro + Shigaraki having some startlingly strong background parallels and lasting injuries courtesy of each other, Shigaraki + Spinner having the gaming and the emptiness themes, and Spinner + Re-Destro having their Big Gay Feelings About Shigaraki as well as an appreciation for patterned fabrics some shared early frustrations about Shigaraki’s seeming lack of plans or direction.

It's a good dynamic, and I think they could all do a lot for each other, though certainly not in ways that are good for the continued survival of Hero Society.  But fuck Hero Society anyway.

As to the component parts, I don’t ship Re-Destro and Spinner without Shigaraki being at least an invisible part of the dynamic (though I would read the fic where he wasn’t with considerable interest!), but I’m also very much on board with ShigRD and Spinaraki individually.  My constant refrain about Shigaraki and RD is that they have a lot of common ground but very little common language, and I’m fascinated by how much of that they could recognize in each other and how much of it they could then recognize back in themselves, versus how much you’d get one of those cases of, “This guy is a freak and I’m so normal.”

It's so, so, so important to me that Re-Destro is the first ally Shigaraki won entirely on his own merits.  He's got no borrowed reputation from Stain, no monsters on loan from Sensei, and no help from people on Sensei’s payroll, yet still, as a result of his efforts (both in his own fights and in making the League his own, even if it didn’t start that way) he wins himself an army and a follower who never saw a light that wasn’t his.

I weep for the Shigaraki/Re-Destro relationship we could have had if Horikoshi didn’t decide that Shigaraki in the endgame was to be nothing but a pawn, and therefore couldn’t be allowed to keep any of his markers of independence and growth.

As to Spinaraki, man, what is there even to say?  The relationship so clear and obvious that it had even the mhatwt bros out there saying, “Spinaraki but at what cost?” in the last chapter!  I will admit that I liked them better when their romance had that apocalyptic tinge than when it suddenly started getting painted as primarily about them being Gamer Bros, but at least that melancholic “beauty at the end of the world” shading came back when Shigaraki talked about destroying Mount Fuji for Spinner (be still my heart!).    

They will meet and be close in every world and I will hear nothing else.

RiKoku: I don’t think I truly understood the appeal of ex-lover ships until these two.  They snuck up on me in a big way, pretty much entirely a result of my realization when I was halfway through the (first and only, sadly) MLA Week event that Trumpet was pretty free-roaming and independent from Re-Destro all the way through Deika only to be glued to his side from there on out.  Together with the Spinner parallels (the subordinates who fought each other and then came together to the crater to see their worlds remade) and my jokes about wanting to see the MLA heads during their stressed-out, over-achiever college years, all the pieces fell into place for a Rikiya and Koku who had dated for a few years and then broken up when Rikiya realized that his authority as Re-Destro—and Koku’s strong subordination to that authority—meant that he could not responsibly stay in the relationship.  (This also presents several good explanations for why a man in Rikiya’s situation isn’t married with at least one child already.)

Anyway, to me, they never really fell out of love with each other; Re-Destro just couldn’t justify overlooking the power dynamic problems once he realized how extreme they were.  (This does make for a fun alternate angle on RD’s personal life post-Deika, wherein Trumpet watches RD pass the mantle of leadership to Shigaraki Tomura and then more or less immediately pounces on him because now he doesn’t have the power dynamic excuse anymore.  Look up the great Whatever Is Spared by @leftofrevolution on AO3 for more on this.)

Overhonest: I just like Nemoto much more than I like Chrono, and thus my Overhaul ship of choice follows suit.  I like the idea that their feelings are wildly unbalanced but not totally one-sided—Overhaul has more baggage than a freshly loaded airport carousel, but he does like the Shie Hassaikai, as proven by them being mentioned in the Likes section of his character page. Nemoto in particular is someone whose presence we know Overhaul finds reassuring and we know it because he told Nemoto so directly when Nemoto asked, which means it can’t be anything other than the plain truth.  He relies on Nemoto enough to make demands of him, he expects (and gets!) effectiveness, and he even bothers to take the time to justify out loud why it would be okay for him to merge himself with Nemoto physically (because Nemoto would say yes if asked, right? of course he would) rather than just doing it with no thought to Nemoto’s feelings about it because why should he care about that.

And Nemoto, for his part, is of course an obsessive weirdo who’s totally smitten with the first person he’s ever found who legitimately wants him around, so smitten that he’ll happily overlook the fact that Overhaul primarily wants him around because he’s useful.

Moving away from what’s on-the-page canon, I enjoy (and write) the take that Overhaul is sex-repulsed, not because he’s fully asexual, but as an extension of his mysophobia.  This makes his sex life extremely fraught, but not non-existent.  When I dabble with writing them (and they’re by far the ship I’ve written the most explicit material for in this fandom), I write him as basically a sex-repulsed demi (not that he would know or use that terminology!) who is attracted to Nemoto but has been largely left aggravated and sexually frustrated by their periodic experiments in non-traditional ways of getting him off.  (Nemoto, for his part, is more than willing to keep trying!  No kink is too weird for this guy if it means finding something Overhaul would actually like.)

(To get real here for a second, if Spinarakiya is meaningful to me as a person who’s comfortably poly, Overhonest is meaningful to me as an asexual person who's only ever had allosexual partners.)

AFOUji: Truly the Evil Husbands of all time.  I wish the shift from Final Boss Shigaraki to Final Boss AFO hadn’t left Ujiko with a few truly inexplicable characterization beats,[3] because I truly do love these two as just the worst pair of mutually enabling monsters making the world worse and more dangerous for everyone while being 100% supportive of each other’s passions the entire time.  Here’s to 70 years of Dark Lord/Mad Scientist domestic bliss.

3: For the record, I consider these to be his, “I've only been living for the boy's sake,” line in Chapter 269 and his clear reticence and dissastisfaction with Shigaraki getting the surgery in Chapter 240.

DabiSkep: Skeptic is the only man Dabi has ever thanked for his contributions.  Dabi goes out of his way to kidnap him.  I’m 90% convinced that they’d been working on the video together prior to the Villa raid.  The combination of Skeptic’s deep and abiding neuroticism with Dabi’s swings between lazy malice and manic pushiness is extremely funny.  What can I say; it’s just about the only Dabi ship that really clicks for me.  I enjoy leftof’s take that Skeptic had a goth phase he never completely exited and so Dabi appeals to his inner Hot Topic teen, which he is 100% aware of and 150% embarrassed by.

   

School Environs:

Mirio/Tamaki: Tamaki literally regains consciousness at the exact moment Mirio loses his quirk.  Other than cases where there’s some actual explanation for that—a magical connection, psychic powers, etc.—I have never seen that kind of beat happen outside of a shoujo manga.  The bit where one romantic lead just mysteriously has a Bad Feeling in the same instant that something Bad happens to their love interest is so shoujo-coded.  Jesus Christ, Tamaki is so moe.  And Mirio so clearly thinks the world of him, too, as evinced by what an over-the-top sobriquet he dubbed Tamaki with.  They’re great, end of story.

Monoma/Shinsou: I’ll admit I liked this somewhat better when I thought there was any chance at all Shinsou might end up in Class B—I kind of loathe that he wound up in Class A for the self-evidently terrible reason that it’s The Main Character Class, when it seems so obviously a conflict of interest for Aizawa to be teaching him.  But eh, it’s okay; it just means Monoma will have to nobly learn to look past it after a lot of time spent being completely obnoxious about it.

My annoyance with Shinsou’s class placement aside, Monoma is one of my favorite students, and I like that he immediately latches onto Shinsou as a kindred spirit.  And, like, if that were 100% one-directional, I would probably shrug it off, but Shinsou, despite trying to play at being aloof, does actually get invested enough that he gets pretty bothered by the idea of Monoma needing help, even in something as inconsequential as a class exercise.  It’s just a much, much more interesting dynamic than Shinsou has with Deku or especially Kaminari.

Also, as someone with a bit of a Thing for mind fuckery, the way Copy and Brainwash can play off each other is Good.

MomoJirou: The fanart is cute and I like Momo better than Kaminari.  And the culture clash thing is fun.

Shouto/Inasa: The fanart is cute and I like Inasa better than Deku or Bakugou.

   

Professional Sphere:

Hawksdeavor:The age gap adds flavor.  The fact that Endeavor is still married but deeply unhappily so makes it even spicier.  The difference in what they represent (or could potentially represent) to each other is the best part, with Hawks, for Endeavor, being someone who represents a totally clean page, while Endeavor, for Hawks, represents a lifelong adoration.  Finding each other’s reality in all of that would be an interesting relationship arc and could be extremely fulfilling and strengthening for both of them.

The spoiler is (or at least should have been, if I’d been writing the series) their divided feelings on Dabi.  Honestly, I really wanted to see them clash over the matter of Touya and how to deal with him, with Endeavor wanting to save him but not knowing how and Hawks just wanting him gone but not knowing how to get away with it.  A certain pair of facts is glaring to me: first, that Hawks was a chief architect of the second war’s battle plans, whereas we never saw Endeavor involved with them at all, and second, that, when the big day came, Endeavor was slated to fight All For One with Hawks at his side despite at least some guilty protests from Enji that he really ought to be facing Dabi.

It smacks strongly of Hawks making some profoundly selfish decisions under the guise of clear-headed strategy and I really wanted it to blow up in his face when Dabi found his way to their battlefield anyway.  Pushing Endeavor into a place where he had to choose between them and ultimately chose his son (say, by protecting him from an attack coming from Hawks) would have been validating for Touya, done a lot to lever Endeavor’s arc out of the reactiveness and passivity that drag it down so badly in the canon, and also handed Hawks a real consequence for how dismissively he treats the lives of Villains and how much he’s tried to avoid reckoning with both Endeavor’s abuse and Enji’s own attempts to do said reckoning!

In summary, Hawks and Endeavor could be very good for each other, and the incredible amount of baggage they’d have work through first would be key to either making that good ending feel earned or lead to them dramatically and deliciously imploding.  Either one works for me, and either one, even without the romantic angle, would have been more interesting than the pablum we got.

NightMight: Speaking of could-have-been-good relationships that dramatically imploded!  I love Sir Nighteye as the most visible cost of All Might’s lifestyle, the one he lost because he couldn’t step away from the path his ideals had set out, and how that ideal inevitably took him full circle so that he found himself standing, for Deku, in the same place Nighteye once stood for him.  And of course by then it was too late and Deku wouldn’t listen to him anymore than he himself listened to Nighteye back then.

But Nighteye didn’t give up on caring about him, even if he had no avenue left to express it but throwing himself into finding a successor All Might would accept, which led to Nighteye's own (wonderful) relationship with Mirio.

Just great, difficult, adult stuff about irreconcilable differences that never stopped them from caring about each other even as those differences forced them to their parting of ways.

Mount Lady/Kamui Woods: They’re cute and I like the idea that they both have trouble, for opposite reasons, with cameramen.  I like that he calls her just Lady when he thinks she’s in trouble.  And not to put too fine a point on it, but I like that they’re kinda the most explicit Pro Hero couple and yet she’s the more prominent and important character with the more visible arc, which is a nice contrast to most of the other hetero relationships in this benighted manga.

   

Other/Cross-faction:

Togachaco: The yuri ship that could.  My god, the canon divergence I want to give these two.  You know why I want Deku and Ochaco to not be together in the end?  Because I want Ochaco to realize that she did everything in her power to save her Villain while Deku—after all that talk on the cliff!—just killed his, and triggered Toga just before he left to do it, meaning Ochaco had a harder time with Toga than she might have otherwise.

But, I’m not here to talk about No. 2 Green; let’s talk instead about the canon divergence where Toga survives (shove that absurd death-via-blood-transfusion right into the incinerator) and then Ochaco has to come face to face with a system that does not want to let her be anywhere near as kind as she wants to be.  The canon divergence where Ochaco realizes that her forgiveness is immaterial to justice, where she watches the system she fought to defend gear up to try Toga as an adult because Japan needs a scapegoat for the destruction of the war and all of the people who are actually most responsible are already dead or dying.  Where Ochaco realizes that she has to do something drastic if she doesn’t want to live the rest of her life haunted by the knowledge that her compassion got a 17-year-old victim of emotional and psychiatric abuse executed by the state.  The one where she decides to take a fucking stand, and it forces the rest of her class to confront that need as well.

“The cutest girl in the whole world,” my god.

Kotarou and Nao: I’m not as big on it by the time we’re seeing them in the Tenko flashback, though I certainly wasn’t pulling for some mean-spirited, allegedly feel-good “Nao slaps Kotarou and the whole family walks out of him” thing like you see in fanfic sometimes.  No, what I really like with Kotarou and Nao is thinking about them when they’re both still young, in the stretch of years where they really think they'll be happy together.  That her being with him can make all his problems go away, that him being able to bury his past and be better than all the people who hurt him (and there were so many people who hurt him) will be enough, that love is the answer to everything. Sure, the cracks are there, but they’re thin, and they can be hidden beneath all the days when things are good, when the two of them hold each other and feel safe and loved and sure.

The cracks are still there, and love isn’t enough when love becomes a band-aid and a blind eye.  But the love is still there too, and it’s so fierce and so desperate, and it still won’t save them.

Sorry, everyone; they make me emotional.  They are beautiful in the way of sparks dancing above flames, or early flowers blooming right before a vicious cold snap.  Ah, me.

StainMight: GOD, All Might really needed to grapple more with Stain’s side of his legacy.  Like, StainMight is really a victim of the way the story looked like it was setting up to criticize All Might’s methodology as well-intended but not sustainable long-term, but then, like every other aspect of the series that was about systemic critique, that criticism just evaporated and Stain became an All Might cheerleader with nothing to say about the system All Might supported for thirty years.  Maddening!  But for real, All Might should have been badly hurt in that car attack and then rescued by Stain, both to give Deku some stress about how All Might could be in danger after they parted on bad terms, and also to really make All Might have to sit with this opinionated zealot all-too-prepared to talk about how no one else is really living up to his example.

And there should be UST the whole time.

Yoichi and Kudou: I am almost entirely negative towards the OFA Collective these days, especially Kudou’s role in the endgame, but I still have some fondness for what he and Yoichi could have been.  My god, the first One For All transfer really should have been because they kissed.  More beautiful, more tragic, more profound, and preserves the Yoichi that had some actual fucking agency in the life he lived instead of just constantly being AFO’s or Kudou’s trophy princess there to talk about how respectively terrible and awesome they are.

TogaTsuyu: I just think it would be interesting if Tsuyu were actually allowed to be more present in the Toga plotline, rather than only arriving as a spoiler to avert major shifts every time.  Toga says she likes Tsuyu, too, after all, and Tsuyu is so different from both Ochaco and Deku, so much more thoughtful and considered.  I dunno, I just wonder how things might have gone if, for example, it had been Tsuyu that Toga managed to draw away in the Jakku fight.  Given that side story with her snakey friend Habuko, evidence suggests that Tsuyu is a good deal more observant and intuitive than Ochaco, and I wonder if she might have been able to suss out what Toga was actually asking there better than Ochaco did, and how that might have changed things.

   

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THE TUMBLR PROBLEMATIC ZONE:

Gentle Criminal and La Brava: I was willing to follow the canon’s initial vagary about these two, but I also like them quite a bit together, so if canon wants to put them in wedding rings at the end of the series, that’s fine by me!  Yes, I’m aware that there’s a pretty significant age gap there, which would have been at its most apparent when she first sought him out, but I don’t for one single instant believe that he’d be anything less than a total gentleman to her.  Indeed, it’d be entirely plausible to mount an argument based on his behavior that they were not at all romantically involved circa the Culture Festival arc,[4] and only become so after Gentle’s imprisonment and subsequent release.  But in general, what I’m more concerned with is the dynamic—I regard a power differential in a relationship as a reason for both parties to be cautious and mindful of that differential, but not as an immediate game-ender.

4: Most obvious is that when she says, “I love you,” he only says things like, “Thank you,” in return.

In that sense, Gentle and La Brava are great—they click together perfectly and obviously make each other tremendously happy after a lifetime of rejection.  La Brava, in Gentle’s theatrical attention-seeking, finds someone who accepts her overflowing way of showing love; Gentle, in living up to La Brava’s feelings, finds a reason for his skewed heroism beyond satisfying his pride.  To whatever extent their life together was heading anywhere bad (and there’s no evidence of this at all save that Heroes were always likely to catch up to them eventually, making La Brava’svery extreme response to Gentle’s defeat likewise inevitable), Deku’s intervention got them off of that path and back onto one that let them be accepted by the world, which they seem to have capitalized on marvelously.

They’re the only Villains I can think of whose turn to Team Hero in the endgame works for me without any significant quibbles.  Good for them!  I hope they are so, so happy together, because they deserve it.

AFO and Kotarou: MEANWHILE, IN MY OTHER KOTAROU SHIP.  I love AFO knowing Everything about what he’s doing here while Kotarou knows absolutely Nothing about what AFO is doing here.  I love an AFO who is self-amused in being friendly and reassuring and distractingly attractive to Kotarou, an AFO who knows that his toying with Kotarou would make Shimura Nana sick with terror and rage, and even if she isn’t alive to be so anymore, the fantasy of it is satisfying enough, especially since Kotarou is himself a very handsome young man, one whose hurt and resentment AFO finds beguiling to sometimes prod at, as if unable to leave a bruise alone except the bruise isn’t on his own skin.

I have an AU I’m never likely to write where Kotarou winds up successfully knocking out Tenko on the night of the accident before going on the run with him, only for them to get picked up by AFO a few weeks later, and let me tell you guys, that’s where all my guilty pleasure AFO/Kotarou really lives.

That said, I liked this one much better before we got the opening for it in canon, and not just because AFO’s disguise persona was doofy-looking instead of devastatingly handsome.  It was always one of those ships that tickled my inner hedonistic wickedness fancier but that I never wanted to be canon because my affection for the ship's vibe was not more important to me than the integrity of Shigaraki’s arc, and Shigaraki’s arc was far better served by his early childhood being as free from AFO as possible.  Alas, the reveal is very AFOtarou but at what cost.

Dabideavor: Sorry not sorry everyone, but all the people screaming about how this is SICK FILTH seem to have missed the point that it is indeed, absolutely and completely, sick filth and that’s part of the appeal.  Personally, I like it for two main reasons.

Firstly, I want Endeavor to have as hard a time as possible, and times don't get harder than this. I enjoy it when he's frozen and helpless in the face of the son whose life he destroyed because I have a long history of enjoying stoic male characters being made vulnerable through suffering.

Secondly, and more importantly, I like it because I like the version of Dabi you see in it, particularly compared to the Fanon Dabi who made so much League of Villains fan content un-fucking-readable for years.

I'm going to try to keep the hot fandom tea to a minimum here, limited to the upcoming footnote, but I hated Fanon Dabi.[5] He was an incoherent mash of a character designed to be a vehicle for the unabashed revenge fantasy of bloody murder against Bad Dads while also presenting no danger whatsoever of splash damage, a Woobie Big Brother who was completely harmless except to the father whose organs he was planning to paint the walls with. Every excuse that could be made, would be made, for Dabi's more questionable or even outright nasty moments, even if it meant minimizing or outright erasing the harm we saw Dabi do, right there on the page in literal manga monochrome.

5: There's a particular type of flanderization that goes into Fanon Dabi, the same kind of flanderization I saw attached to Steven Universe's Lapis Lazuli, and which informed the absolute umbrage certain people took with Rebecca Sugar for describing Spinel, the SU movie's villain, as toxic. There is a portion of fandom that loves abuse victims who get angry and lash out, but which will go absolutely ballistic at the slightest suggestion that abuse victims are themselves also capable of harm, that lashing out has the potential to hurt innocent people. In a perfectly executed DARVO, it becomes "victim blaming" to confront an abuse victim about the very real abuse they're inflicting on others. I only specified fictional characters here, but it's a dynamic you see in real life, too. Some people hunger for nothing so much as an acceptable target and abuse victims are not exempt from that statement.

The Dabi I thought was fun was the high-energy maniac who doesn't give a shit about anyone else getting caught in the crossfire of his revenge. Both that version of Dabi and the Endeavor who's paralyzed with guilt and despair are facilitated by Dabi’s father-obsession having a taboo sexual dimension to it that Dabi is all too ready to shove in the face of absolutely everyone who would think worse of Endeavor for it.  That means Endeavor himself, of course, but also all the good little civilians who Endeavor keeps telling to watch him.  Watch this, says Dabi, as he makes lewd hand gestures on force-streamed national television.

It's not about Dabi healing as an abuse victim, and it’s not about Dabi having a fulfilling arc—covering that stuff was canon's job!  It's about the fact that I, for reasons both personal and related to fandom spite, am personally entertained by Dabi being pedal-to-the-metal deranged about doing whatever it takes to seize Daddy’s attention and never let him look away again, which also means acting to ensure that no one is capable of or willing to save Endeavor from that fate. Like, if you want someone who would spend ten years plotting the most agonizing possible way to torment his abuser, then it’s sophistry to suddenly declare some agonizing torments off-limits.  Dabideavor is just committing to the bit.

[random-stuff567]

"I know my dream isn't a mistake!"

Based on my BnHA fanfic with an alternate version of Izuku similar to EMIYA/Archer from Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works.

Commissioned from Tyrnickleback

[jalactic]

ok so moonfish is like one of my favorite bnha characters and I'm genuinely so surprised someone else has brainrot for him. can u tell me some thought you have on him...... like what do you think hes like?

I've always had a theory that his quirk makes him only capable of eating humans. that he's been starved so much and for so long that he's gone insane over flesh and hunger. that fits really well with the themes of shiggys squad. what do you think is the reason for his insanity snd cannibalism?

HELLO HELLO i've been crazy busy, but every so often i open tumblr and stare gleefully at this ask. and now i can finally answer it!

From what I remember of MHA canon, Moonfish had made a pretty big name for himself in the villain world up to and beyond his first imprisonment. We can assume he possesses some degree of survival skill/intellectual capability, to the point where he's become so serious of a threat that death row is warranted. Even during Moonfish's intro at the training camp raid Bakugo and Todoroki comment on his use of terrain and how "he's clearly been in a lot of battles".

An aside: Ultra Archive initially rates Moonfish's intelligence as a 3/5 while Ultra Analysis later gives him a 1/5 :((( they revoked his braincells...

He probably CAN eat other things aside from people; they had to keep him alive in Tartarus for a while, and feeding the guy on death row Human Meat wouldn't be very ethical (not that the heroes have outstanding moral judgement anyway). From what we've seen of his body he looks to be in decent shape so they're not starving him either.

It's true that most of the LoV have quirks that influence their personalities/behavior (ex: Toga, Twice, possibly Muscular to an extent?), so Moonfish is likely in a similar situation. I'm not going to speculate on the details of his mental illness--my interpretation of him is largely based on my own experiences. Maybe the hunger is episodic, or maybe it wasn't as bad a few years ago or when he was younger and is now just spiraling. Maybe it's a stress-eating kind of thing. I think he never had access to the necessary resources/professional help/therapy/idk to help him navigate his quirk, and now it's "too late" and he's "beyond saving".

I suppose he's so loyal to the LoV simply because they respect him, more or less, as a person and a teammate. He's fixated with "doing his job" because that job lets him belong somewhere.

This is definitely outside the scope of BNHA main series but I like thinking about a little future for him, where he sort of drops off the radar and goes somewhere quiet and just, learns to live with himself.

I have loads more headcanons; if you're curious, just ask! Thank you for giving me an opportunity to wax poetic about my guy lol

[whatever-local-cryptid]

Fanfic Rec 4 of ?

In the Eye of the Needle by mystyrust on AO3 it’s almost 115k words and is a DP/BNHA crossover work.

I got intrigued by the type of crossover and the “Dadzawa” tag. I was on a spiral of DP crossovers and this one managed to rip me apart.

It’s a normal beginning plot for most DP crossovers, Danny goes through a portal and ends up somewhere else completely. But the emotions that I was put through reading this I was not prepared for.

My inner child fucking SOBBED.

There’s no pairing just Danny getting along with everyone and having a mental crisis here and there. As is the norm for a 14 year old teenager who is dead/not dead. So says the prophesy-

It’s a complete work and is apart of a series: Going Ghost, Plus Ultra. There’s 31 chapters total. And was published September 2nd, 2018 then completed on January 11, 2021.

It’s a really good work, there are some spoiler warnings for the BNHA anime but I think that season has been out long enough for it to really matter?

Anyways, here’s the link, try not to cry. Or do, I’m just suggesting it.

[bnhaobservation]

Hopefully helpful guide to potentially useful posts

Usually, for navigational purposes, I content myself with just tagging the posts in an organized way and placing a link on the sidebar but, specifically for this blog, I thought a pinned post might be more useful to track some of them so here they are.

BNHA Observations, speculations and assorted info - Places

Todoroki Mansion (Part 1: Outside view) Todoroki Mansion (Part 2: Genkan) Todoroki Mansion (Part 3: Training Hall) Todoroki Mansion (Part 4: Dining Room) Todoroki Mansion (Part 5: Bedrooms) Todoroki Mansion (Part 6: TV room) Todoroki Mansion (Part 7: Kitchen) Todoroki Mansion (Part 8: Butsuma room)

Hospitals (Part 1: Fujitani Hospital)

U.A. High School (Part 1: Infirmary)

Aldera Middle School

BNHA Observations, speculations and assorted info - How they're called

How the Todorokis call each other (Part 1) How the Todorokis call each other (Part 2) How the Todorokis call each other (Part 3) How the Todorokis call each other (Part 4)

The Todorokis, how they are called and how they call others - Part 1 (Chap. 1-21 & Ep. 1-13)

BNHA Observations, speculations and assorted info - Scenes and character histories

Dabi’s way to fight in the manga from the start to chap 363

The first day Tōya burned himself

Pre-marriage Todoroki Enji (Part 1) Pre-marriage Todoroki Enji (Part 2)

The burned photo in the 4th ending

Height references for the Todoroki family

The Todoroki Family: Questions and Anwers

Quirk counseling: canon, the cultural references and what we can guess from this all

My Hero Academia Ultra Archive (May 2, 2016)

Prototypes for Todoroki Shōto and Todoroki Enji Main events of the 1st semester

Timelines

The facts taking place during the year that ends with Rei's hospitalization and Tōya's assumed death

The facts taking place during BNHA first year

The facts taking place during BNHA second year: April The facts taking place during BNHA second year: May & June The facts taking place during BNHA second year: July The facts taking place during BNHA second year: August The facts taking place during BNHA second year: September The facts taking place during BNHA second year: October & November The facts taking place during BNHA second year: December The facts taking place during BNHA second year: January, February & March The facts taking place during BNHA second year: April & May

Full “Boku No Hero Academia” Timeline (Last update: 2024-09-28)

Settei

Todoroki family related settei for season 3 Todoroki family related settei for season 5 Todoroki family related settei for season 6

BNHA Observation

Chap 1 [Ep 1-2]

Chap 2-4 [Ep 3-4]

Keeping up with the Todorokis or, just me observing the Todorokis in the various volumes

Volume 1 Volume 2 Volume 3 Volume 4

Keeping up with the Todorokis or, just me observing the Todorokis (Anime version)

1st series: 1 OP “THE DAY” by Porno Graffitti - Ep. 1 & 4 - Ep. 5 - Ep. 6 - Ep. 7 - Ep. 8 - Ep. 9 - Ep. 10 - Ep. 11 - Ep. 12 - Ep. 13

2nd series: 2 OP “Peace Sign” [ピースサイン PEACE SIGN] by Yonezu Kenshi - Ep. 14 - Ep. 15 - Ep. 16

General Meta

Ramblings about the Shimura family Ramblings about the Takami family Ramblings about the Himura family Ramblings about the Shigaraki family Ramblings about the Todoroki family - Part 1: Todoroki Enji’s origin and teenager years Ramblings about the Todoroki family - Part 2: The back that’s too big, the mountain that can’t be climbed Ramblings about the Todoroki family - Part 3: The girl who’s like ice, Himura Rei and how she became Todoroki Rei

Touya and Shouto’s fight or why assuming the other is you and baring fangs wasn’t meant to work

Chap 374 and Touya’s resistance

Todoroki Enji’s atonement arc (Part 1) Todoroki Enji’s atonement arc (Part 2)

Why Tōya and Himiko were saved and yet weren’t

Todoroki Enji’s father’s death and why he feels he’s not a superhuman

My two cents about chap 426

Changing society in BNHA

Did Enji atone to Touya (and his family) and stepped up on his role as a father?

Was Rei a bad mother or not?

BNHA and Japanese law, aka why Enji and Hawks can't go to jail

BNHA ENDING or how a good plan might become something not so good when written down

When Heroes need protecting who will be there to protect them?

‘Code red’ order in Aldera middle school aka teachers supporing bullying in BNHA

Fanfics

Love is a fire Chapter 1: Promises Love is a fire Chapter 2: Effort Love is a fire Chapter 3: Chances Love is a fire Chapter 4: Smile Love is a fire Chapter 5: Burn Love is a fire Chapter 6: Warmth Love is a fire Chapter 7: … Love is a fire Extra: Characters’ ages

[dynmghts]

bnha ultra archive thank u for promoting my "bakugou katsuki is a pretty boy" agenda bc every time i remember he's grouped under ikemen for his face type i gain years back on my life

(and yea izuku is put in gag characters but he doesn't fit ikemen and he is nooot sensible and/or normal. so this makes sense the only other group is girls lmao)

it also contains such a vital lil extra i want to get my hands on because miss uraraka ochako saw right through katsuki's anger (after final exams, where they passed bc izuku punched all might and carried katsuki out through the gate) and guessed it was just him being jealous of izuku's growth

[dekusheroacademia]

Deku vs Todoroki at the sport festival (The Ultra Stage, first musical)

(To describe what happens: I clipped the video mid match, Deku punches Todoroki who has a flashback of his mother's burning him, and then Deku reminds him that the fire is also his power. Todoroki has a flashback of All Might, then uses his fire, crying, and thanks Midoriya.)

Expect tears, I cried.

[strongcraving-blog]

Kirishima Eijirou profile from BNHA Ultra Archive

[yourultraarchive]

My Hero Academia Official Character Book 2: ULTRA ANALYSIS

Info and translation >> twitter

[kitanoko]

Initial Prototypes of Midoriya, Mt.Lady and All Might

-from My Hero Academia Ultra Archive Book

[20001541]

All Character Profiles of AFO

BNHA Ultra Archives 2016 (Note: this was never translated into English officially and fan translations that had translated some of the character profiles never did afo as this was in 2016 where AFO fans were practically non-existent so no English translation ☹️)

BNHA Ultra Analysis 2019

Bonus content about the Kamino incident

Hawks Villain Report 2022 (Note: Never officially translated into English either, fan translations do exist however)

Translation below

The ringleader and guide of the villains

All for One

Quirk: All for One

Profile

Real Name: N/A

Height: 225 cm

Birthday: ???

Affiliation: League of Villains

His origins and family structure are all a mystery.

Personality: The leader of the villain faction whose hobbies, thoughts, and preferences are all surrounded by mystery. He even has the notable characteristic of enjoying criminal activities as if they were a game. He will use all that can be used--before discarding them away. Truly the embodiment of evil; the Symbol of Evil. 

-----

Countermeasures against AFO: Separate him from Shigaraki

AFO is already an extremely powerful opponent alone. There is no chance of victory if he appears together with Shigaraki. Cooperation between tops of the hero industry is the bare minimum required to battle him

Yaoyorozu: It is shameful, but I was too shook with fear and ended up unable to move during Kamino... He is not an opponent one should fight alone. 

Bakugo: Some!!! Seems to call him “Pickled Plum Head”, huh. To me, he looks like nothing but a fucking “Nutsack” though!!

-----

Stats (clockwise, from top left)

Technique: A

Power: S+

Speed: S+

Intelligence: S+

Health: C

-----

Origin The ringleader: he has linked his quirk to Shigaraki

The name of his quirk--which is also his villain name--All for One, has been planted into Shigaraki as well thanks to the Doctor. It is a world-shaking, extremely dangerous quirk. One for All, its antithesis which is held by Deku that can defeat it, becomes absolutely essential.

-----

Forced Coercion of an Innocent Boy and His Family

It has been revealed that he has forcefully coerced a highschool boy and his family to use for his plans. He surely and certainly is a fiend. By the way, the likelihood of this happening has been implied in the 2021 MHA exhibition. The picture on the left was actually part of the exhibition. An evil eye that looks at a boy. It was a hint to all the guests about the threat of the great evil. 

[natsv]

BNHA Ultra Archive: Mezou Shouji

Infos + Original concept! (Click on pics for better quality!)

requested by anon!

[izukus-left-shoe]

HC that Bakugou is jealous of Todoroki's natural rbf. He has to purposefully make those gremlin faces to hide the fact that he's a pretty boy.