#don't get me wrong. shouji would still be a weak character. but at least he would be a character.

[robotlesbianjavert]

Bare minimum, and I mean bare fuckin minimum for how the Shouji backstory & characterization could have panned out in a way that I still think would suck, especially if it ends up with the same conclusions that Shouji is pushing, but at least gives his character just a bit, a CRUMB of set up.

Establish through giantess heteromorph lady (and ideally similar incidents) that in the wake of Gigantomachia / prison break / PLF to the wind, the common citizenry have resorted to using heteromorphs as scapegoats and punching bags, suggesting that acceptance and progress are conditional on supposed “stability” and “peace” (ie, that the stability and peace everyone has been living with has always been fragile and false), and now they risk being kicked out of shelters and attacked in the streets. Things are looking reminiscent of the chaos following the advent of quirks, where the nature of humanity was called into question.

These are the circumstances that allow the PLF to gather an army. Heteromorphs who have been regularly subjected to abuse have nothing to lose, and those who maybe faced microaggressions but otherwise thought things were cool feel largely abandoned by the heroes, and thrown under the bus and scorned by the non-heteromorph population.

In comes the PLF, with Spinner as their symbol, explaining “Hey. you know that this was always simmering under the status quo. You’ll always be the first victims, because they don’t see you as human, and as soon as shit gets tough they’ll show their ass. These aren’t conditions you can live in. So let’s make sure that status quo can’t be reinstated.”

Also, maybe the PLF are making up for what the heroes and society are lacking, providing shelter and protection to the scared heteromorph civilians! I know my friend the ant guy would do this.

Because following Deku for the entirety of the PLF raid aftermath was pointless, let’s follow the students who are trying to do hero work and deal with trauma or whatever. They try to help some citizens who just spit vitriol at the heteromorph kids, mainly accusing them of being idk. Villain sympathizers or potential villains themselves. Subhuman.

City kids like Tokoyami and Kouda are startled by this particular level of hatred and how it’s exhibited. There’s Shouji’s opportunity, as the country kid who has dealt with his before, to come in with his backstory.

A more-or-less natural segue instead of being stuffed into a context-less flashback, something that suits the idea of the kids having to cope with and understand the conditions of their world in the aftermath of a society-changing event. It better sets up the stakes involving this narrative thread going into the final battle, gives a bit more space to developing the positions the heteromorphic people are in, why they’ve taken on this fight, and the thoughts of the students, wouldn’t interrupt the later conflict with awkward flashbacks. There could have been a flow!

But it involves honest introspection from the heroes, sympathy towards the people who have suffered under the status quo that the heroes are trying to restore, indicates that the PLF/villains might be better equipped to respond to the needs of the marginalized thus introducing that dreaded nuance this last act has lost, weakens Shouji’s already bullshit arguments about how to react to all of this, and takes away attention from Deku’s whatever the fuck he was up to.

And maybe I could have seen more of Spinner’s cute lil propaganda merch.

But god forbid any of that happen.