#hori what the fuck

[justatalkingface]

Where Hori went wrong with Bakugou

So, a day or two ago I saw an old reddit post quoting Hori explaining why he started to change Bakugou's character.

(I did't save it, because, 1, I don't really do that, and 2, even if I did... I don't actually attach things to my rants? I'm far too lazy to put the work in to try and do that. So.... My source is that I made it the F@#& up, I guess?)

The gist of it was that when Bakugou lost, he cried, right? That was... apparently a moment Hori realized he could have more depth? And basically, because of that realization, he decided he could give Bakugou more any development, and presumably from that point on decided to make him a more important character.

Alright, I... *sigh*

*deep breath*

Alright. Let's start with this:

Bakugou cried because he lost... and this was Hori's great sympathetic, 'I can fix him' moment? I just... I just... what? Why???

*recalls All Might going out of his way to comfort Bakugou and cheer him up, despite the murder attempt he had done a few minutes ago*

...Was he self-inserting in All Might at that moment then?

....

*deeper breath*

Alright.

So there's that. And beyond that... this is connected to something I mentioned before... I'm not sure Hori really knows how to make bad guys with sympathetic traits?

Like, he can make bad guys. And he can give characters sympathetic traits. But when he tries to do them both at the same time, it's like he can't balance the elements right, because he keeps ignoring a point:

Sympathetic character traits do not make a sympathetic character. But Hori seems to assume they do? So he always ends up making a bad guy, who does bad things, and acts in bad ways, but will have random moments where they act radically different for no apparent reason, and are often treated by people around them like they're not acting in horrifying ways all the time.

Because, like, if I spent my life, like... going out murdering people, but when I got home at the end of the day I was... really nice to my pet hamster Fluffles, or something, that's a sympathetic trait. But that doesn't make me a sympathetic person, because... you know, I'm still a serial killer, Fluffles or not.

The problem isn't that he tried to develop Bakugou, or that he wanted to give him traits against his current characterization, because, well, people are complicated. Everyone is complicated, everyone has depths to them.

The problem is he saw 1 (One) sympathetic trait (or, rather, 'sympathetic', because that moment was literally him just throwing a fit over losing, but OK, Hori, you do you), and instead of either, A, using that trait as a launching point to meaningfully change Bakugou's behavior, or B, keep Bakugou as the same character despite this extra information we received, with other characters acting the same way in response to him since they didn't have that information....

He made a radical third option: where Bakugou wouldn't change his behavior, and yet everyone changed how they treated him as if he had changed, and this is the point where things started to go to shit.

Because there were already concerning things with how Bakugou was being treated before this point, true, but it was.... contained. Manageable. His presence in the story made sense, if was over hyped, and how people treated him was somewhat in line with his actual behavior.

After this point? That started to change, and by the time we hit the Sports Festival, Bakugou was a 'new man' who somehow acted almost exactly the same as he did before, which was a theme that would continue to repeat for the rest of the series.

[tapiocakisses]

if you have Twitter and like bkdk and/or izch, just don't open the app. dudebros are gonna ruin everything. like usual.

[chaewberry]

twitter in shambles, bakudeku found shot behind a parking lot, ochako STILL a closeted lesbian with a dead ass girlfriend, bakugou rejected, deku straightmaxxing, todoroki listened to the devil and cut his hair, hawks looking like the plucked chicken i have in my fridge, mirio's no.1 but his wig's a FLOP, touya dead for NOTHING, shigaraki's fine ass dead for NOTHING,

[bakudekublogblog]

a twitter user pointed out that everyone is helping izuku forward but the only one he looked backward for was kacchan and the director was like “hehe you noticed” and I’m UN FUCKING WELL

edit: clarification this is actually him just talking about kacchan pushing him forward but it’s still so cute 🥺🥺

[chlorophyll-tints]

free my boy from the clutches of horikoshi

[kelin-is-writing]

I am: Heartbroken…

[ayeliiss]

#mha429

*EDIT*: don't take this seriously pls this is just a vent lol 'half-joke' is more about me being pissed off at that line than anything else!! I am not saying this moment was romantic, I know it wasn't! <3

Izuku to Ochaco in this chap: "you're my hero!"

Izuku to Katsuki +200 chaps prior: "All Might was my hero but you were the one actually in my life!"

I don't want to see anyone complaining about "OOC" stuff anymore in takes/fics/arts when Horikoshi himself is mischaracterizing his own characters!!!! (/half-joke tho)

[mettywiththenotes]

Realizing that the fist bump wasn't just a shounen-classic of symbolic acknowledgement between two enemies but also an alternative to holding hands because they tried that, couldn't do it and Izuku's arms decayed

If you look back at the pages in 423, the vestiges are clearly already coming at AFO with their fists closed, ready to punch, while Tomura comes straight out of the gate with an open-handed attack to kill AFO

At the point of contact, we don't know whether his hand is closed or open, but in the next moment, we see it is closed and pressed against Izuku's, meaning that they met in the middle once AFO disappeared

Which could mean 1) Tomura switched to a fist as he hit AFO so he could just fall back on the fistbump or 2) he switched from an open-handed attack to a loose fist within seconds of killing AFO so he didn't decay Izuku again

Either way, I believe this means that no matter what the action was, Tomura did not want to decay Izuku again. Actually, there is a great chance that he chose a fist because it was one of the only ways in that moment where they could make a physical connection and he wouldn't have to bring Izuku down with them

I need you to understand how amazing it is that Tomura actively CHOSE to bring AFO down with him as soon as he could and, at the same time, within seconds, prevent Izuku from dying while still reaching out in his own way so he could make that physical connection again for the last time

From this (Izuku to Tenko)

To this (Tomura to Izuku)

And this along with his last words? Smiling at Izuku and telling him to do his best? Believing he himself had no future but pretty much leaving the future to Izuku?? "It depends on what you do from now on"??? Literally what the hell Horikoshi

[ilovereadingandstuff]

I FUCKING LOVE that Blackwhip is literally Izuku's heart. Like...these black strings are almost the only thing we get to know about Izuku's emotions and feelings... because he doesn't voice them out...

And about this last point...I feel like the 'lost of Izuku's pov' arc hasn't come to an actual end to be honest...but that we're getting closer...way more closer than before...i feel it.

[doomedkts]

hori could've done anything, he could've make dkbk canon, make them kiss and everything. what did he do? HE MADE FUCKING IZ///////CH CANON MAN FUCK THIS SHIT

when i saw the panel i thought it was a fanart and went "yav he he" (which has no translation but kind of means "in your dreams" in turkish??) and scrolled, only to see it again. AND IT WAS HORI'S DRAWING???? MAN FUCK YOU AND FUCK THAT

himiko pushed ochako further... yeah, SHE PUSHED HIM TOWARDS IZUKU???? IZUKU???? THEY BOY SHE NO LONGER HAS INTEREST IN??? THE BOY SHE LIKED IN THE *FIRST YEAR OF UA*???? what the fuck.

talk about queerbaiting. like for real

[justatalkingface]

Let's talk about the Nomu and the Remnants

So, among all the other fuck fuck games Hori played with late-game MHA, I don't think anyone has really... picked up on just what implications he's made when it comes to Remnants.

You see, once upon a time, Remnants only existed because OFA let them, kept them, empowered them. Even when it wasn't really expanded on at the time, the fact that Izuku had them was a sign of his Heroic Mandate (TM) and Destiny(TM), it was something unique to him, something that even All Might didn't have. But... you know, now AFO is just filled with a screaming chorus of those he has damned or something.

Let's... let's ignore the general clusterfuck of AFO for this, and just... all the late game stuff. Let's just talk about one thing: the fact that he has Remnants, and the fact they've been trying to talk to (murder) him.

And first off, that's a big retcon, because even if the OFA Remnants didn't want to murder their users, I'm pretty damn sure they'd want to talk to them all the same, and yet somehow only Izuku noticed, even before the clusterfuck of the extra Quirks kicked in.

But even that's not the point, that's just an appetizer. Because the thing is? The Quirks AFO is holding aren't the only Quirks he's taken, far from it.

There are the Quirks he's given to various people throughout the years, subordinates, would be supporters and probably some random people he wanted to torture.

The Nomu he's made, experimented on for decades.

Hell, all the Quirks he and Dr. Diablo Ex Machina have made (somehow) throughout this time.

That's hundreds, maybe thousand, of Quirks. Millions potentially, if we're looking at the copies and trying to get a number out of the vague 'and then we invented a whole new science just to fuck other people over' bit. And according to this late game stuff? Every single one of them is host to the mental copy of the person they were stolen from (or cloned from, presumably). And outside of a few exceptions, (vanishingly few; while there were people in the past, and in rare occasions the present, who didn't want their Quirks... the magic dream copy in the Quirk would still have their Quirk. For them, the problem hasn't gone away at all! Maybe some of the reason they hated it is gone, but even at best they're still bearing that thing they've always hated... and that's not even getting into people who just... hated them, or thought they were wrong. Or were afraid of hurting someone... only to be given to someone who doesn't share those same concerns, or even the same level of restraint they had. Even though the actual person got what they wanted, there's a copy of them that is still in hell, and knows they're never going to escape it, because they are their own nightmare.) every single Quirk was stolen by force. Every single one of the remnants in these people are just... suffering, and for all intents and purposes will remain that way, until the person bearing them dies.

And all of that? All of that doesn't get into the Nomus. The largely brain dead living corpses made smashing together likely Quirks with the same energy of a child trying to force together Legos, even before whatever process happens to condition them into being loyal. What the hell does that do to a mind? Do they stay separate? Do they... blend together? Does the body/dominant mind/most powerful Quirk just get implanted with memories and desires of complete strangers?

Every single one of those exposed brain monstrosities is a walking, talking torture device filled with damned souls of some unknown number, and who even knows about how much is in the High Ends.

Hell, what about the copied Quirks? Do they retain the full knowledge of who they were? Or does each copy... lose something, each in generation away from the original? Do they realize that they're missing some fundamental portion of themselves, that they're not real?

I'm pretty damn sure that this, like so many things, is something that just happened because Hori didn't think it through, because this is horrifying on levels it's hard to comprehend. It's a level of human suffering on the level of you'd get from the Dark Eldar in WH40K, and on both Hori and AFO's parts, it's entirely accidental. And yet, I don't think there's one part of this that isn't canon compliant, that there's nothing to disprove the idea that, somewhere in Aoyoma, there's some poor sod that was shoved in there, that inside AFO there's a copy of Eri.

Just... just something I want people to think about, because I don't want to be the only one.

[marimeeko]

This is unlikely and I don't expect it to happen, but just as a treat:

Have we thought of the idea that Katsuki would stubbornly continue to try rehab on his right arm/hand, like he told the doctor?

And what if the first thing he does to demonstrate his progress to Izuku is to take/hold his hand??

He is still shaky and he can't squeeze Izuku's hand very much, but a gentle grasp is all it takes.

I can just imagine the warm smiles and laughter between the two of them as they hold hands.

[feyres-divorce-lawyer]

this is so deeply upsetting

[bakudekublogblog]

the contrast between kacchan not caring about the irreversible damage to his body verses his entire life flashing before his eyes, his heart shattering, brokenly sobbing about the future he’d dreamed of sharing with Izuku after it’s revealed he’s quirkless is fucking STAGGERING

[kacchanrawr]

mha final volume spoilers

For the past few months I've kinda just come to accept MHA's ending to be whatever. Not the best, but not the worst I've seen it's fine whatever. But seeing the final volume extra content honestly just has me genuinely hating the ending. I'm trying to keep an open mind cuz it's not officially out yet and leaks can be kinda dubious, but I'm genuinely so upset.

Ig the main feeling I have is: genuinely what's the point??? I mean there's a lot of things going on in mha and depending on what you care about ig you could feel like everything's fine and resolved, but personally? Just no. My main problem a few months ago was with Toga's death, but now I'm just even more pissed.

As so many people have probably already discussed: killing the villains off after all this stuff about saving them is a fucking problem right?? With Toga's case specifically (cuz she's my fave and I care the most about her), it's her just dying after she finally found the love and acceptance she's always wanted from Ochako. Like why? Even if you can technically make sense of it with her explanation of "I want to live life as I please", it's just stupid and distasteful. It would be one thing if she said that cuz she was just running away to be free, but to kill her? Of bloodloss of all things? Idc abt people going oh thats sooo poetic, no i think it's stupid. So many other characters have lived after going through worse like for fuck's sake, Edgeshot's still around.

What's the point of that emotional resolution if you don't show the aftermath, of her being able to live happily, or at least how she'll go on with life from then on? She didn't have to die, she could've just escaped or whatever (I was hoping that was the case when there was no mention of Toga's body). But by killing her, the only message I got from mha's whole saving the villains thing is: "sooo maybe having empathy for the deviances of society is important actually, but it's kinda inconvenient to deal with them." And even if that wasn't Hori's exact intention, that's what his story seems to be saying by killing off the villains.

And then the fucking nail in the coffin is the fact that Hori used Toga's death to drive Izuocha. It was one thing when he did it with the cliff talk when Ochako was mourning Toga (I always found it distasteful okay), but it's so much worse to write Toga literally pushing Ochako to Deku. So not only did Hori kill off the queer character who finally had her resolution and romance so he won't have to deal with her, but he's really following through with the Bury the Gays trope by using her o push the girl she loves to a man? Ew.

The worst part is that even if Izuocha got together and they're canon or whatever cuz of that last part, the way Hori did it is so fucking mid. Like seriously, if you were gonna do my girl dirty like that for that het romance, at least make it good?? But noooo. I mean they don't have to be like kissing and getting married and having babies or whatever (that'd just be shit), but at least have them properly get together. What is that "implied romance" ass handshake?? There's no fucking reason to make it implied, they're not queer or forbidden or complicated or anything. Bro just didn't wanna commit to actually fleshing out their romance. And you used Toga and her death for that, for absolutely fucking nothing?? The funniest part is that everything Togachako did is infinitely more romantic than that handshake, so how am I supposed to be convinced by this "implied romance"? (anyone who says implications enough for izuocha I'd say the bar's just on the floor for you cuz they're het)

And then there's Bakugo. I mean I was fine and whatever with the original epilogue, but what the fuck? So you're telling me bro lead Project Deku Hero Suit or whatever for 8 years, only for Deku to reject him when asked to be a part of his agency? It may or may not have been explicitly stated that they'd be in a hero agency together whatever, but I feel like it was a natural conclusion that they'd end up working together/closely as a hero duo? Win to save and save to win, wonder duo defeating ShigAFO together, that hospital talk about competing together for the rest of their lives, him being the one to reach out to Deku at the epilogue chapter, hello? DEKU REJECTED THAT AND FOR WHAT. Also ok fine this may sound stupid to be upset over, but why the fuck is Bakugo rank 15. Like we do just be writing whatever I guess

I'm still holding on to some hope that the leaks were ass and inaccurate. Or maybe even completely fake cuz the chapter's been getting a lot of AI art allegations? Though it's also probable that's just the leaker who used AI to get high res pictures of the leaks. IDK MAN JUST PLEASE DON'T LET THIS BE COMPLETELY ACCURATE PLEASE LET ME STAND CORRECTED

[super-paper]

afotaro is the elephant's foot of toxic old man yaoi but that's not gonna stop me from memeing on it, y'know, as a coping mechanism.