#hpsc meta

[arceus-insanity]

A Moral Scapegoat for who?

All For One is a shit character, he is presented as a massive threat, but we never see him get a win, similar to the dissonance between the All Might we see and the context in universe.

And in the end, he becomes a moral scapegoat... for the heroes.

What is a moral scapegoat?

A moral scapegoat is (usually) a character used to excuse the actions of other characters or a system. Character A may have done XYZ but Character B was the one manipulating them and/ or is so much worse, so we can excuse A's actions. Or helping defeat B acts as pence for their past actions. Etc. And to a degree it makes sense, getting people to believe a character has changed and should now be considered good both by the characters and the audience is hard. So having some bigger bad to blame takes the pressure off the desired character(s).

While the term is typically only brought up negatively, like the use of Mary&Gary Sues, there are good ones. Commander Zhao in Avatar of the Last Airbender is an early moral scapegoat, used to say yeah Prince Zuko may suck, but there are a lot worse out there. My Little Pony Friendship is Magic has a moral scapegoat, right in the pilot, Nightmare Moon for Princess Luna, sure Nightmare came from Luna but it is presented as a curse, something that was cured, fixed. The Hobbit uses Dragon Sickness as a way to both corrupt and excuse King Thorin's actions when they have retaken the mountain; he is not in his right mind, and shouldn't be considered solely responsible for his actions

In certain ways, Pink Diamond (due to the audience learning her arc in reverse, when it has such an effect on the plot of Steven Universe) is a scapegoat for the remaining Diamonds, even though it makes a lot less sense for her to be the scapegoat when considering the actual sequence of events in universe. And while most people don't think Pink/Rose's actions excuse the Diamonds (especially White), she does work with Spinel. Another rocky moral scapegoat is Horad Prime from She-ra & The Princesses of Power, he is the big bad of the show and is meant to be a scapegoat primarily for Horadak who was the previous big bad, and mildly a scapegoat for Catra. The big problems with his sacrificial slaughter is that there isn't enough time to really settle in that this is the true big bad, and both Horadak and Catra's issues were both way more on screen and show up well before we ever hear of Hoard Prime, with them operating separately.

And All For One is a worst example of all of them (that I mentioned)

For starters the more we saw of him the less ultimate intimidating evil he portrayed, nor did we get a satisfying he was actually pretty pathetic. Really trying to have your cake and eat it too. Looking back he's very cartoonishly evil, but lacks the presence, he's boring. I've seen many good portrayals of him in the fandom, but canon is just boring. His background of miscellaneous evil deeds, don't really go into how they were evil, just that Yoichi (& AFO) clearly believes them to be, both come across as very childish to me, seeing the world as black & white.

He lacks the moral complexity of complex villains (like Magneto), meant to be an ambitiously evil man, whose evil for the sack of being evil. But he lacks the presence found in Classic evil Disney characters like Jafar, Clayton, and Ursala. In a way he's like King Magnifico (from Wish, the only recent hated animated Disney movie, that I agree deserves to be shat on), trying to have both but failing to capture either

In the present, he has little involvement on screen, and once he's out of the picture, Shigaraki (& the League) really bloom as villains and characters. The story could have had a slow realization (for Shigaraki, the League and the audience) that he was holding the League back, and that meant either he was nowhere near as competent as he was portrayed, or he wasn't actually helping Shigaraki, setting up for the body suit plan

But my biggest issue is who he's the sacrificial goat for.

And who is he the scapegoat for? The fucking Heroes and their shit-ass society, including the H PSC crap.

The ending reveal that he was behind everything that happened to Tenko, from him being born, his name, the kids he chose to play with, the issues with his quirk, and only having him; fails. It doesn't work! Mainly because of what that scene ignored the walk, and the complicity of the family. It ignored that the family were directly ignoring that Tenko was being abused, trying to placate him after the fact. It ignores that Kotaro Shimura chose to follow his friends advice, over his wife too. It ignores that even though AFO would have killed anyone who tried to help Tenko, no one tried. It also doesn't make sense either, normal kids are shit actors, not to mention Tenko was the one to reach out to them, not the other way around. And with the sheer amount of heroes, and cops, and regular citizens, how was it literally no one tried to help him, it's not AFO.

What else does it ignore, oh yeah, Tenko isn't truly unique in having a tragic backstory. Sure he was planning on taking advantage of the Endeavor's awful legacy plan, but we never see that AFO has done anything before kidnapping Touya. It's implied that he helped stroked Heteromorphic discrimination for his own gain, but that doesn't change that Spinner had pesticides thrown in his face, by 'innocent' civilians, that Shoji was mutilated as a child, for saving a child, by 'innocent' civilians, that the Ordinary Lady was attacked and denied shelter in the middle of an active warzone, by 'innocent' civilians. Himiko's abuse was enabled and furthered by quirk counselling, we don't even get a he was secretly to blame all along for this one. The commission has assassins, ignore. The homeless have to resort to villainy to survive, ignore. Once someone is considered out they are abused by this society until they have to lash out, ignore. The big bad was taken down, so nothing has to be done about these systemic issues, cause the heroes say so

There's a pattern, he was only able to do this, because the society he was in was already doing it.

And AFO being a moral scapegoat could of worked.

IF the Hero Public Safety Commission was similarly a scapegoat.

To begin, AFO should have been the scapegoat for the League, and the villains as a whole. The heroes would instead have the HPSC as their scapegoat.

Hawks should not have been made president of the totally different PSC, not only is he a known murderer, he doesn't regret it, he has never criticized the Commission's (or any other hero's) actions. If he's not going to see the issues, and hypocrisy right in front of him, he shouldn't have any role at all in it, and a very small one if he does recognize them. Giving this to Hawks screams nothing is actually going to be fixed, any changes are going to be for the worse.

Going into the final Deku vs Shigaraki battle, as well as the dreamscape crap, I had hope in this series. I thought that Deku would finally be forced to have the long over reality check of the Villains are right, what are you going to do about it. So instead of hyper-focusing on one tiny moment that with any and I do mean any additional context would show that it's not just this tiny shit moment. Rather than murdering Tomura for not abandoning the League (the same reason Hawks murdered Twice), have Deku convince Tomura that they can make a better society. That Deku's peaceful(ish) method is what's better for the League we have seen he loves.

From there they could have come up with a deal where either (these are simplified) everyone is held accountable for their past actions (as in the villains, Endeavor, Hawks, the Commission, everyone responsible for the sky coffin, etc). Or the clock is restarted, and everyone is hence forth held to the same standard. The villains are around to make sure the actual issues to their problems are dealt with, hint; Himiko's problem wasn't lack of access to quirk counselling. Happy satisfying ending for everyone

[class1akids]

What can we fit into 5 chapters?

I decided to reread the Todofam dinner chapters to see how many plot points are in a single chapter.

Ch 192:

P1: (Exposition)

Battle aftermath,

Endeavor's recovery (explained in 1 panel)

Mirko cameo

P2-3: (Endeavor and Hawks dynamic focus)

Endeavor & Hawks changing dynamic, including Hawks introspection and info about Hawks quirk

P 4-5: Hawks focus, spy plot

Hawks flashback to spy mission

Dynamic with HPSC

Hawks backstory tease, Endeavor plushie

Hawks character mission statement

P6 - Transition to Todo-fam plot

Aizawa cat gag

Shoto sluuurp gag

start of the family dinner

P7-8: (Natsuo - Endeavor confrontation / family history)

sluurp gag continues

Start of Natsuo - Enji confrontation

info about neglect, the "failures" narrative, the lack of interaction between the siblings

Natsuo and Shoto introspection

Toya namedrop

Natsuo tells Enji that heroing better won't fix the family

P9: (Fuyumi POV)

Natsuo leaves

Fuyumi's wish

more Shoto slrrp gag

P10-11: (Exposition of shifting public opinion in the aftermath of the battle)

Shoto's POV on Natsuo's outburst

the public opinion on the battle starting with mixed or negative povs

can't you see-kun

Shift to positive public opinion on Endeavor

Endeavor's reaction to the public opinion

P12: (Shoto's changing view of Endeavor / challenge to him)

Shoto praises Endeavor as a hero -

Tells him that he can't forgive him -

But believes that people can change -

And he wants to see what Enji does as father -

Some Endeavor introspection

P13-14: Endeavor character development

Endeavor's resolve as No 1 hero

Endeavor's resolve as father

[ Transition to Deku and OFA plot]

P 15-17:

Deku's OFA dream

Clearer introduction of vestiges

Start of the AFO vs Yoichi flashback

Summary:

in a 17-page chapter we got:

1 page aftermath

4 pages Hawks POV including his backstory, HPSC, quirk info, introspection, etc

6 pages of Todofam conversation covering POV of all characters present + major shifts and realizations in dynamics + Toya namedrop

2 pages of public opinion reflecting shift in society

4 pages OFA plot

Various gags and iconic panels

[fan-dweeb]

(large spoiler) Ever think that quirkless Keigo is just gonna keep going with his model career?? Like he's not a pro hero anymore, so he just keeps the modeling gig?? I wanna know your thoughts on this lmao

Hii!! Small disclaimer, I’m actually not caught up with the anime, let alone the manga, at all, so most of what I say is based on snippets I get from fanfics and meta lmao

Hmmm this is really interesting. Short answer: I think with the way that Keigo has finally been set free (symbolically with losing his quirk, and literally from the HPSC (I think)), he’ll probably stop everything else related to Hawk’s job as well.

Slightly longer answer:

From Horikoshi’s perspective, Keigo has already served his original purpose as a character so it wouldn’t really make a difference either way canonically. If he does intend to have those ‘5 years from now’ snapshot, I feel like Keigo will be overseas travelling or something rather than modelling though, if just to be consistent with his theme of being set free. If not as a personal choice, ‘do it for the plot’ lmao. I do mean this quite literally though, because now he’s got so much potential for the ‘self-discovery slice-of-life’.

,,,, but I personally think this is a bit of a cop out choice for Keigo’s future.

I’m not gonna be the analyst who says ‘he never had a chance to make his own choices’ because technically he did. This doesn’t mean he made a good one, but if you step away from popularised fanon, he did agree to going with the HPSC because he wants to be a Hero and not because of his mum. This isn’t so much that I haven’t ‘read between the lines’, but that he never once looked at his mum or made reference to what would happen to his mum if he followed the HPSC. Unless ‘reading between the lines’ include fabricating entire dialogues under an assumption that Hawks was suppressing his memories, I think it’s safer to assume he just couldn’t care less loll. But that’s the thing; his whole life revolved around Heroes, whether as Keigo or as Hawks. Now that it’s been brutally and suddenly ripped out of his hands and NOT in the form of death like he was probably expecting? He has to find something else to do, whether it be modelling or travelling or being a librarian or whatever,,,,, that is, if we make an assumption that he can’t keep being a Hero.

Look, we know he wants to help people. Some might even say he’s kind (that might’ve been drilled out of it by HPSC’s cold blooded training, but hey, maybe it’s just buried really, really deep inside). If we look at this not from a story writing perspective but purely from the character Keigo’s perspective (a bit counter intuitive, I know but bear with me), I honestly think at some point in the far future he might try to pursue a career in Heroism/ the police dpt / the fire dpt (hAH irony)/ some kind of physically-inclined job that traditionally seeks to help people. I think most people tend to stick to things that feel familiar with them even if it’s an unconscious decision.

So how does this link to whether he continues modelling? (because I’ve totally been building up to a point and not just going off on a tangent lmfao)

I think a lot of the fandom sees modelling as Evil, whether this be because of the horror stories of modelling in real life, because of an understanding of mutant quirk discrimination, wing kinks, and thinking Hawks definitely didn’t like being seen in that light, or because of some mixture of other reasons. And I think that’s true in the sense that it probably wasn’t what Keigo had in mind when he first signed up to being a Hero.

With that said, I’ve seen a particularly well written fanfic (I forgot which tbh) where Hawks is explaining the importance of modelling in promoting a sense of safety in civilians, especially for Heroes with anthromorphic quirks, outside of just gaining popularity. Which I think is a really fresh and extremely valid argument. As such, modelling could be a very nice supplement to him regaining popularity or at least, regain familiarity with both the general public but also his roots of inspiring confidence and safety if he decides to pursue any of the jobs I’ve mentioned above.

There is a counter argument, especially for Keigo being a Hero, that the quirkist ideas are so ingrained him (subconsciously or otherwise by the HPSC) that being a Hero again, or just doing any job at all without a quirk probably never crossed his mind. And if he wanted to keep up with helping people, there are a multitude of other jobs he could do. (Which modelling still doesn’t quite fit but ehh maybe as encouragement to/ empowerment of quirkless people?). But, I think this is a rather naive and simplistic analysis of Hawk’s and Keigo’s character of a person too deep into fanon.

If there’s one thing Hawks fans can agree on, please let it be that he’s really freaking complex.

He’s seen the worst and the best of society. He’d just about experienced every facet of society possible as a person in the bnha universe besides being an Average Joe. And now, he’s about to head into the small undiscovered area of quirklessness. (We as readers get a bit of this from Izuku’s POV, but for Keigo this is about as novel as it gets). Speaking as a writer, whether modelling is part of that experience remains entirely on what you want to explore with Keigo as a character.

Lmk what you guys think as well!! (in comments/ tags/ dm/ asks, all are ok :D )

(note: apologies for the barely organised word vomit and non-answer at the end, this was typed impulsively from my phone lmao)

[detectkikeh]

Sigh, I wonder, why there’s so many people that very superficially parallel some characters with Hawks? And most times, on those parallel they add things that don’t exist or even actively disputed by canon on Hawks’s characteristic?

 They are both also extremely fanatically loyal to that organization and do everything possible to ensure that organizations survival, in part because they feel they have to repay being taken in.

“Extremely fanatically loyal” Hawks to HPSC :

^^ actively spying on them and has no remorse for that.

^^disregard their blatant order and harming his chance on the mission.

“Do everything possible to ensure that organizations survival” Hawks to HPSC :

^^ expressed his relief upon HPSC’s downfall, calling them as chains that shackle them down. The minute they were ineffective, he dipped out for good and never spent a single moment thinking about them. Compared to Chisaki who still think about the Boss even in jail, Hawks laughably has no loyalty bone toward HPSC at all.

- Hawks doesn’t actively abuse children so he has that over overhaul, but he does drag them onto battlefields that are basically an active warzone where the villains are fighting to kill. Which means that much like Overhaul, he tends to treat children the way he was treated: Ie, weaponizing them.

Ha, if only Hawks has slightest bit desire to weaponize children, Tokoyami will not be ghosted as badly as he was. Let alone dragging them to battlefield, Hawks is one of the heroes who really, REALLY didn’t want to accept the kids’ help, kicking and screaming (metaphorically). Hawks expressed blatant doubt and reluctance about the kids’ role in the battle.

That’s because Hawks prefers to take it all by himself, and promised to solve all problems as fast as possibly, albeit that goal is overly ambitious and impossible.

Only when Tokoyami came to his life and he saw how the kids are stronger and more resilient than he thought he changed his mind and start thinking the kids as participant in the whole heroism things.

Then he was utterly sold after Uraraka’s speech, saw how Class 1-A connected with each other and use that connection to connect with civilian and reassure them, something that Hawks can’t do because of his background and his underlying perception of connection as burden (based on his thought about Tomie). 

But still, he didn’t want the kids to be deployed on massive danger that his less feathered ass himself dipped into, that is AFO.

Like hell, Tokoyami had to yell at him to let the kid participate at all.

And as he finally accepted the kids’ help, he thought himself as pathetic for that. It’s obvious that he didn’t like it at all and would not be willing if the circumstances didn’t force him.

Still, he always put himself on the first line of danger to protect the young ones, does his all for the sake of the kids.

Willingly becomes meat-shield and pushes his body to defend the kids, as broken and battered as he has.

And this guy still belittled himself for not being able to do more.

Like hell, comparing Chisaki who badly used Eri and his underlings as disposable pawns, with Hawks who practically saw the kids as someone who should just sit on a peaceful serenity throne that he built with all he has and beyond, is just... wrong.

So, what we get here is Chisaki hates quirks, and he likely hates his own quirk possibly because of how he was treated in childhood because of it. He was definitely exploited by the same man who took him in due to that quirk, considering the fact he’s a yakuza enforcer and has probably been committing violent crime since childhood. Once again, a Hawks trait, to be born with a prodigious quirk and yet find that quirk incredibly filthy.

Too many assumption on Chisaki to push similarity with Hawks, while we all know that he is a germaphobe who sees everyone and their quirks as dirty, thus uses gloves for everything except for using his quirk. No hesitation or disgust at all for him to remove his gloves before using his quirk. Nor any indication that he saw himself and quirk as dirty, rather he showed symptom that he saw only himself as the clean one. As for Hawks, he badly saw himself as dirty, apparently resigned by that, but desperately hoped that he and his dirtiness meant something, have any purpose even just a little bit. 

That’s very different and outright 180° contradictory with Chisaki’s trait so I am not sure why that was included as similarity between them, as far as making a completely new assumption about Chisaki. Like, if Horikoshi wanna show that he saw his own quirk as dirty, in this panel Chisaki will be shown looking at his own hands, not whatever is the content of the book (probably about other people’s recorded quirk, because as a child Chisaki has no reason to have people make a book about his quirk). 

Btw still about that panel, if Chisaki was supposed to be as isolated as Hawks, Shigaraki, and Shoto, there should not be multiple box of toys besides him, or even just a lock in the door. If you wanna portray isolated kids with no access to fun things like other kids, you can portray a kid doing something not kid-like with only imposing adults and no other kids on sight,

Or a kid restrained from doing kid-like activities by adults.

As for Chisaki, we’ve only shown his kid self reading a book in a room with many toys in sight and unlocked door, while Chisaki touch or even see none of that. So Chisaki’s upbringing is never implied to be similar with Hawks and other isolated kids in MHA. 

Villainous trait, villainous trait, you say but Hawks does the same thing basically maneuvering everyone on the battlefield in the first and second wars the way Chisaki does, he just does it for an entirely different goal. He’s even willing to personally betray and mutilate someone who trusted him in order to achieve that goal.

Ah, now I see the problem. You equate how Hawks treated Twice with how Hawks treated everyone. To be fair, almost all Hawks’ interaction with other people (Tokoyami, Endeavor, Best Jeanist, Deku) started with him using them on one way or another. But, heck, Hawks never treats people like Chisaki treated Eri and his underlings. As superficial as his initial purpose, Hawks is shown eventually cared and invented on those he came close and their well-being. Even Twice, on some degree. Problem is, Twice and Hawks’ relationship has massive bridge and wall, that is they’re on opposite side of the conflict, which is the reason that relationship existed at all and also the reason that relationship ended. As sweet as Hawks/Twice friendship portrayed (which is shown for like one and half chapter compared to massive panels of Hawks’ inner monologue about preventing massive destruction that PLF about to unleashed so it’s clear as a day which one Hawks will prioritize), that friendship was doomed from the start because it was based on lie that is Hawks’ role as a spy to betray and manipulate opposite side. Yes, that’s what being a spy is. Like, I am not gonna talk about good vs bad morality with that act because people obviously have different opinion about that (I’ve seen enough), but it’s an unambiguous fact that all spies have betrayal and manipulation on their forte. Granted, there is the passive kind of spy who pretend to be janitor or underling on lowest level so they have no relationship with opposite side, no betrayal and/or manipulation shenanigans, and just report what they see, but that was the role that the widely knowns No.2 Hawks can never get. 

In short, the similarity between Hawks and Chisaki is the bird theme, I’ll give you that. 

You've written about Overhaul in the past. Any tips on writing him accurately?

Overhaul's actually one of the most complex villains in the story that's not a part of the league of villains, however since he's pretty unlikable and has mostly negative and unsavory character traits he's not discussed as often. However when it comes to writing him, there's a lot of rich material to mine here.

So my starting point whenever trying to write a character and make them as in-character as possible, is to figure out what the author intended for them in story. What role are they supposed to play? What function do they serve? In my opinion, Chisaki was an attempt by Horikoshi to twist a lot of traditional "good guy" traits into a villainous character that the audience would despise.

One of my biggest ways of doing this is to compare them to other characters, especially haracters who aren't given as much screentime because there are lots of cogs in a story and often the purpose of one character is to highlight a personality trait in another character because they share it.

Now I'm going to explain Chisaki's characterization by comparing them to another character, but here's the curveball here: I'm not going to use Shigaraki. Because I can explain it real quick with Shigaraki, the purpose of Chisaki is to show how Shigaraki's leadership differs from Chisaki because Shigaraki sees his allies as more than just pawns to be utilized. However, to come to understand why Chisaki wholeheartedly believes that everyone exists to be used thoroughly to further his own ends, we're going to look at a different character.

Hawks and Chisaki are both bird-themed. They are both orphans who were taken in by an organization at a young age, Chisaki by the Yakuza and Hawks by the hero commission. They are both also extremely fanatically loyal to that organization and do everything possible to ensure that organizations survival, in part because they feel they have to repay being taken in.

They are both characters who were introduced to the league of villains, trusted by Twice, only to turn around and kill a member of the league. For Hawks it was literally Twice himself he killed. They were also initially presented as cooperating with the league, but when they reveal their true colors it shows how they view people in stark contrast to how the league views and treats it's own members. Which like, Hawks does not come out looking pretty in the comparison.

Hawks doesn't actively abuse children so he has that over overhaul, but he does drag them onto battlefields that are basically an active warzone where the villains are fighting to kill. Which means that much like Overhaul, he tends to treat children the way he was treated: Ie, weaponizing them.

If you are familiar with Hawks mindset, "I am a pawn, so therefore everyone else is a pawn that I can maneuver around to obtain my objective" then it's easy to extrapolate the same onto Chisaki. Hawks talks about dirtying his hands, Chisaki is literally a germaphobe who has panic attacks if he gets blood on his hands (I'm exaggerating only slightly).

Chisaki is introduced with a deep psychological need to stay clean and avoid everything he considers filth, dirty, or diseased a rampant paranoia of his which spreads to his hatred of quirks. We never get the reason why Chisaki hates quirks, besides the fact that the advent of heroes threatened his home in the Yakuza, but if we're going to extrapolate here it's probably due to the grotesque nature of his own quirk. He literally targets Eri because their quirks are similiar and he finds hers to be incredibly disgusting, and justifies his abuse of her with that logic.

My pet theory is that he was either abandoned by his parents because of hsi quirk, or that he was taken in by AFO at some point and deliberately targeted by his quirk like Toya was (people have pointed out that the wallpaper here and the children playing int he background resemble the house that Toya was taken to).

So, what we get here is Chisaki hates quirks, and he likely hates his own quirk possibly because of how he was treated in childhood because of it. He was definitely exploited by the same man who took him in due to that quirk, considering the fact he's a yakuza enforcer and has probably been committing violent crime since childhood. Once again, a Hawks trait, to be born with a prodigious quirk and yet find that quirk incredibly filthy.

Hawks and Chisaki are a study in how characters can be painted to have "good guy" and "bad guy" traits, when really they're only being painted that way because of circumstances or surroudnings. Hawks in a lot of ways acts the same as Chisaki, he just happens to be manipulating people for the heroes, not to restore the Yakuza. Chisaki values no one, everyone including his childhood friend, the people he takes in off the streets, are pawns to be utilized by the best of their aiblity. He even tries to teach Shigaraki to play Shogi (Shigaraki not knowing how to play probably signifying how much he views people differently).

So, Chisaki's willing to utilize everyone around him in service of a goal, the worth they have is to how he can use them to benefit his larger goal in mind and he's got no qualms about it.

Villainous trait, villainous trait, you say but Hawks does the same thing basically maneuvering everyone on the battlefield in the first and second wars the way Chisaki does, he just does it for an entirely different goal. He's even willing to personally betray and mutilate someone who trusted him in order to achieve that goal. Chisaki's point of no return is him completely massacring Nemoto in order to fuse with him when the tables started to turn against him in his fight against the hero. Hawks stabs Twice in the back in order to prevent him from using his quirk to stop the raid. In both cases it's a personal betrayal of someone who was good to them and trusted them.

You could say Hawks did it for the greater good, but for CHisaki who only knows his Yakzua way of life he's doing it for the survival of the only life he knows. Which is why I say they're so similiar, Hawks isn't really protecting innocent people, he's protecting his role in the hero commission. He takes what he was raised to do to the extreme.

Which is another central character trait they share, Chisaki's biggest defect is that he never, ever gives up on anything ever. A traditionally heroic trait especially in the shonen manga where the character never gives up ever, but his determination is twisted into something hideous because he has no qualms about making sacrifices to get what he wants.

Since childhood Chisaki has done absolutely everything to protect the family's dignity, to the point where it was disturbing. He never changes his mind, never backs down, even when the man he's trying to repay goes against him, but it comes from the same source as Hawks.

He believes he owes the person who took him in, and does everything he does in service of that debt.

So the last part is Chisaki's germophobia himself. Now Chisaki is a man completely divorced from his own sense of guilt who doesn't really hesitate before making heinous actions, but I wouldn't say he feels nothing,the man's clearly not mentally well. If anything I'd say his own germophobia is a metaphor for the guilt and self-loathing he feels and chooses to ignore.

He usually has breakdowns shortly after using his quirk as well. He'll absolutely brutalize people and then have a breakdown about the blood that they've gotten on him. Which suggests he you know, probably does not enjoy bloodshed in any real way. You could even compare it to Shigaraki's statement that he always feels like there's a constant sickness no matter what he destroys, which is likely his repressed guilt that AFO played off as some kind of urge to destroy, or the way Shigarki carries his hands of his family on him so he'll never forget his own self-disgust at murdering them.

Chisaki is living completely divorced from his own sense of guilt, until he's not. Once you remove him from his position of power, when he's away from the mission and forced to sit in his prison cell in tartarus he's reduced to a shambling mess that just constantly apologizes over and over to his boss and begs for the chance to see him again.

Which means that Chisaki represses all of his emotions to perform a task, and when he si not performing a task or functioning in a role he falls to pieces, because he doesn't have any sort of life except for serving in the yakuza. He's even referred to as a "gangster without a heart" because he literally has nothing else and no identity.

Chisaki's gotta be a gangster and he'll even throw a coup and put his boss in a coma for fear of losing that place in the world, because what else is there for him?

He even hates being called by his real name, much like Hawks, so his central issue is really a lack of identity because he was raised in a fishbowl with no other place to belong in the real world. Except we saw Chisaki when he was taken out of his fishbowl, and all he did was flop around like a magikarp.

As for general guidelines on his voice:

The germaphobia is a constant thing with him. Don't put your shoes in my table. Don't breathe in my direction. Hey stop bleeding on me your blood is filthy.

He talks down to people in general. He's extremely condescending with Shigaraki right off the bat, and states to his face that the only worth that Shigaraki and the League will ever have is pawns to be used as a part of his plan.

He flips between being detached, and extreme anger. Basically he's able to act cold and detached when things are going his way, and when people resist his plans or manipulations he then switches to browbeating, bullying or just otherwise lashing out in anger. If the square peg won't fit in the round hole, then just hit it harder until it does. He's cold and calculating until his calculations fail then he just brute forces it.

He's generally pretty good at negging people, he's got Eri convinced that her quirk is disgusting and she's the source of the misfortune around her. He's also got a bunch of street rats incredibly loyal to him by convincing them they can literally do no better in life than being used as a part of his plan.

He also has a softer and more polite side that only comes out in front of the boss. This is his childish side too. When he's fighting Deku and has basically lost, he flashes back to his boss patting him on the head and thanking him for protecting the family's honor. He literally just craves validation from the closest thing he has to a father figure. He'll go to any lengths to get it.

In general Chisaki should be disturbingly inhuman too, not just in his actions, but in his rationale and how far he can go and how little he considers other people in the equation. Even his own childhood friend and fellow yakuza finds him to be offputting. His boss asks him point blank, "What are humans to you?"

Basically, he's creepy, weird, anti-social, uses everyone around him, and is also completely divorced from his own feelings and sense of guilt which lets him run roughshod over other people's feelings.

So, y'know. Hawks.

Except Hawks puts on a charming and likable personality, whereas Chisaki's personality is having no personality.

[codenamesazanka]

AFO+Shigaraki Tomura/Shimura Tenko Role Reversal AU

*

Terrorist Shimura Tenko, age 26, has been sentenced to death for his heinous crimes. Morning before he goes though, he's carted over to Central Hospital.

Little AFO, age 12, is brought before Shimura to give him five quirks - this will surely overload Shimura’s brain, but since he's about to be executed anyways, it doesn't really matter.

But right before the procedure starts, Central Hospital is attacked. It's the League of Villains, here to rescue their boss. As he marbles Shimura, Mr. Compress also ends up marbling AFO and taking him along.

Hours later, in a secret hideout, the League congrats themselves on a successful rescue mission, but wonders what to do about this weird kid they've kidnapped. They’ll have to act quick - Heroes and HPSC will come for them soon. The HPSC have to come for the kidnapped kid, because, the moment the League realized who the kid is, they know AFO as the central piece of HPSC's new direction for society.

*

Four years ago, the government made a paradigm changing announcement - they've gained the ability to take away quirks and will start doing so as part of criminal justice.

This is a great thing, as it solves the century-old question about what to do with Villains. Really Bad Villains will have their quirks taken away, and put into regular security prison. Mild Villains can exchange their quirks for a shorter sentence. Dangerous quirks can now be eliminated. Human rights will be improved. Society will be safer.

—At least, it will be, once the chaos the announcement created settles down. Because the remnants of the Meta Liberation Army straight up revolted, along with other groups and other people.

The League of Villains did not start with this upheaval - they were already active two years before the announcement, led by Shimura Tenko, as just particularly notorious Villains doing whatever they wanted, whether it was heists or killing heroes or feuding with other villain groups - but they have become embroiled into the fight through a loose alliance with the MLA, and due to the HPSC holding members of the League up as the reason why the new law was enacted in the first place.

The HPSC have kept very, very top secret the exact method they’re using to take away quirks. No one knows for sure whether it was a drug or surgery or implant. There was a rumor that it was a quirk that was doing this, but it was just a rumor—until now.

Though, the League didn’t expect that it would be a kid. So what will they do with him now?

*

For all nearly all twelve years of his life, AFO (and his younger twin brother) has been in care of the HPSC. This is the first time he's ever been kidnapped, is in real danger, but he knows exactly what to do:

Nothing.

In all honesty, AFO would rather destroy this 'League of Villains' - just a bunch of insignificant insects running around causes messes and ruining everything (like his day!) - and just go home using his own power. He doesn’t like being away from Yoichi; he still has schoolwork to finish; the new chapter of Captain Hero: New Ultra is out Monday; he’s got his life to get back to.

But AFO has been relentlessly counseled and drilled by the HPSC for this exact scenario: He is NOT allowed to use his quirk. No matter what happens, he is only to wait for rescue.

Not that using his quirks might help much. AFO has never been taught to fight, and besides his own ‘Give-and-Take’ quirk, he’s got only five other low-tier quirks he had only taken this morning that he’s never used. The HPSC won’t risk letting him keep the quirks, see, so the system they’ve come up with is this: the quirks taken from criminals are transferred immediately to a Villain scheduled for execution. (Given the explosion in criminal activity and revolt over the past four years, death row has just the right and regular numbers to supply.) They’ve even got a machine just for him, just for tracking his quirk(s), invented by the famous American scientists David Shield and Toshinori Yagi, so they know exactly what he takes in and lets out.

When AFO has just his own original quirk, it’s as good as no quirk.

The HPSC has to do this, because AFO is a born villain. They know it; he knows it, everyone who’s ever met him knows it. It’s just hard to describe otherwise a child who came into this world stealing everything within reach: his mother’s life, his twin brother’s health, and every person’s quirk he ever had come into physical contact with even as an infant - the homeless woman who rescued the twins from a decaying corpse, the police who later found them while investigating a dead body that was registered in the system with a quirk but autopsy had revealed zero quirk factors left, the doctors that examined the twin babies.

AFO has heard this story many times. He’s got a too-strong quirk that’s made him clinically diagnosed kleptomaniac with a Cluster B personality disorder. Quirk counseling, behavioral counseling, regular counseling, art therapy... He’s been handled extremely delicately and thoroughly his entire life.

And that’s…fine. That’s how the world works. That’s the price of power. It’s better than being dead in the grave with the mom he killed, or out there in the chaos, if the HSPC had never found them. AFO’s on the side that’s calling the shots and set to dictate the final reality of a post-Advent world - he wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. One day, he’ll grow up and he’ll become part of the HPSC and he’ll get his rightful piece of the cake - really, they’ve let him have some of it already, when he first started taking quirks away for them five years ago (first year was trial year, before they went public).

His itch to use his quirk is scratched regularly. He got to keep Yoichi, who had once almost been adopted away. Being on his best behavior means he gets most of what he asks for. The worst AFO can say is that he’s bored - which is expected, his brain is wired differently after all.

All he has to do is stay calm, play nice with the League, and wait for Heroes to arrive. Someone will come save him soon enough.

Everything is in order.

*

But of course, this encounter with Shimura and the League will be the catalyst that will destroy that very order.

(In one universe, AFO tells Tenko he'll teach him how to take his rage and give it purpose.

In this universe, Shimura tells little AFO he'll teach him how to find his rage.)

[stillness-in-green]

Finding Fascism in My Hero Academia (2/4)

Part 2 is now live! You can read excerpts below the cut, or hit up my Patreon for the whole thing. As before, this part is available for everyone to view, with or without membership, while paid members can read ahead to the next part. (Part 1 can be read by all here.)

This time, I cover how or to what extent my three different groups (the MLA, Team Hero, and the meta-narrative) handle disagreement, fearmonger about their chosen enemies, and reflect the class-based anxiety of the societies in which they were formed.

Point 4: Disagreement is treason.

Distinction, disagreement and criticism all endanger the cultural syncretism and are signs of intellectual, scientific thought, and therefore associated with the modernism fascism rejects.  Also indicates diversity of opinion, and diversity is an enemy as per the next point.

Team Hero: Heroes themselves frequently disagree on-panel: witness instances like the conference Nighteye holds about the situation with the Shie Hassaikai, the kids arguing about rescuing Bakugou, Endeavor’s early hostility to All Might and Hawks, etc.  However, looking at the HPSC complicates this considerably, most significantly when Lady Nagant explains the nature of her role being to covertly assassinate anyone who threatens the Hero System, be they guilty or innocent.  Indeed, the moment she herself started asking too many questions, the President of her time verbally threatened her and made a move like he was going to pull a gun on her; she then got thrown in Tartarus and had her crime falsified.  At least some details of this are likely known to the HPSC’s own governing authority, the National Police Agency, given both the successful falsification of Nagant’s crime and the fact that a high-ranking officer of the NPA is the one that comes to Hawks and the HPSC President with the mission to infiltrate the League of Villains.

Further, while the Heroes can do a fair amount of professional disagreement, and the students navigate disagreements with relative aplomb, that tolerance dries up swiftly when it comes to questioning and critique from Villains. 

—(…)—

Point 6: Appeal to a frustrated middle class.

Fascism often stems from a fearful or stressed middle class, perceiving political humiliation or economic crisis.  This negativity can be pointed both upwards at societal elites (targeting the wealthy or educated) or downwards at lower social groups who are seen to present an economic threat.

MLA: A relatively straightforward yes.  The MLA’s leadership may be wealthy and influential, but their rank and file are considerably less so.  They show a general disdain for “Villains,” among whose number they certainly don’t count themselves, despite the fact that acting in accordance with their free quirk use mantra would absolutely land them in legal-definition-of-Villain territory.  Villains are, of course, very frequently disenfranchised, pushed to that extreme due to a lack of options, so being dismissive of Villains is also being dismissive of the circumstances that lead to them.  Likewise, they’re also resentful towards Heroes, who are their society’s celebrity elite.  When we get Hawks’s impression of them, we see solidly blue collar, “everyday people” nursing a resentment towards a status quo they feel is holding them back.  It’s not quite the standard, “They’re taking our jobs and undermining our way of life,” tack, but it’s still a definite picture of people stuck in the middle who are aiming their anger both up and down.

That said, the median wealth level of the MLA is also quite immaterial.  They’d get a point anyway because everything I’m about to say about Team Hero’s existence appealing to a frustrated middle class also applies to the MLA.

—(…)—

Point 7: Obsession with a plot.

Followers must feel besieged.  To this end are used fevered imaginings of a massive threat targeting the group—this can be from outside enemies or inside infiltrators, favoring the second but more strongly favoring both simultaneously.  Eco frames this primarily as the root of—and a function for—nationalism, but it’s applicable to any group touting conspiracy to solidify the in-group identity at the expense of out-groups.

Meta-Narrative: I definitely think it starts getting there when the war arcs roll around.  For all that I said above about the threat being portrayed as real in-universe, from a meta perspective, there’s a lot more reason than not to be skeptical of how genuine that threat is.  The Villains are consistently talked up—they’re so strong, they’re so wicked, they’re so numerous, they’re so embedded in society, etc.—but when push comes to shove, practically none of that actually means anything because the Heroes consistently have more strength, more numbers, a better social foothold, more support, more resources, more information, and on and on and on.  The story is constantly screaming about how besieged the Heroes are when the observable facts quite simply do not back that up.

(...)

The most damning sign of this, I think, is how the meta-narrative’s obsession with how scary and dangerous the Villains are reflects Eco’s point about solidifying the in-group identity at the expense of the out-group.  To wit, one of the most egregious parts of the ending is how it ultimately answers Toga’s question—“Do Villains count as people?”—in the negative by declining to include Villains in its ideal of the Perfect Victory.

If Perfect Victory is defined as both winning and saving all, with “saving” meaning, at a minimum, that the people saved must be smiling in the end, then scads of Villains were not saved!  Indeed, tens of thousands between the first and second wars were arrested or killed with not even an attempt being made to save them in any sense!  Yet the story seems to want us to accept that the Heroes got their Perfect Victory anyway because e.g. the nameless American jet pilots survived and Edgeshot is recovering from his self-wormification.  The only way that works is if the story conspicuously doesn’t think that Villains—at least Villains without designated Tragic Backstories—are part of the “all” in the “save all” portion of Perfect Victory’s equation.

Thus does the meta-narrative demarcate the boundaries of who’s in the in-group and who isn’t: by leaning hard on the supposed cruelty, zealotry, and implacable danger represented by the Villains who threaten Our Heroes.

—

Read the rest here!

[setokaibapetty]

Fic Friday 5 + 1 Roundup: Fake Relationships (ft. Dabihawks)

I was in the mood for some fake dating fics and lo and behold does the Dabi/Hawks 'ship call for lying even when Hawks isn't a spy that Dabi is debating the value of.

When the wolf is at your door (invite him to dinner) (AO3) - "When Fuyumi accidentally crashes a tense negotiation between Touya (aka: Pro Hero Dabi) and a handsome stranger (aka: Villain Hawks), she gets a mightily wrong impression about just what is going on between the two."

How to Fake-Date a Pro Hero: A Guide by Dabi and Hawks (AO3) - "Dabi's younger brother has got a new boyfriend and it pisses his father off to no end. Always ready for an opportunity to drive his father mental, Dabi decides to get a boyfriend too – someone whom Endeavour can't openly hate, but will hate him nonetheless. Hawks is under pressure to go undercover and finds shady part-time hero Dabi, who is rumoured to be working with villains. Seeing a chance to get the bigwigs off his back and cause a media stir, Hawks strikes a deal."

you're the song stuck in my head (and i don't ever want it to stop playing) (AO3) - "So I’m Takami Keigo, also known as Hawks, and—be my boyfriend.” ... "Not like for real,” Hawks hastens to add. “It’s just that—there’s a guy who won’t take no for an answer from me, and I need you to be my shield.”

it's just fanservice (not really) (AO3) - "Or Touya and Hawks go viral from an airport photo, and decide to promote their band and idol careers respectively by doing some fake fanservice with each other. But how fake is it really?"

big reputations (AO3) - "Hawks needs to come out, Dabi needs to promote his debut album, and they make an awful mess of this fake relationship thing."

Bonus: Blood Sport (AO3) - "Hawks works alone. It's what he's best at and what he prefers — other people have only ever slowed him down.

But after the media seizes on the success of an operation carried out by himself and the Cremation Hero 'Dabi', the HPSC decides to capitalise on the hype around the pair. What better way than sending their pet Pro to team up with the Number Two Hero's eldest son in order to root out the mysterious organisation known as the 'Meta-Liberation Army'?

Hawks agrees, admittedly intrigued by the prospect of learning more about the Todorokis. But nothing could have prepared him for the dark secrets lurking at the heart of that family, and the shadows it's cast over them all."

[thr0wnawayy]

I believe MHA suffers a reversal of what I call the "Mutant Fallacy".

In the world of Marvel, Mutants are (often) used as an allegory for an oppressed and discriminated group.

The problem comes in when you consider how dangerous Mutants are. Unlike actual groups, Mutants are by their very biology incredibly dangerous to your average person.

In one example: a teen boy's X-gene suddenly awakens and he becomes a literal anti-life bomb, killing everything within miles of himself. All beyond his control. Wolverine has to kill him to ensure things don't get out.

Mutans are so numerous and have the potential for so much destruction that it becomes understandable that people would want mutant powers to be regulated, because it would be insane to not do so.

MHA suffers the polar opposite of this issue. The quirkless are portrayed as weak and helpless because they lack a quirk, despite blatant evidence proving the contrary.

As you pointed out with your examples, quirks ≠ skill. A quirk is a crutch with in-universe and to Hori. Yet time and time again we see Hori's storytelling contradict itself.

One more example tp your point I would like to mention is the MLA:

Ironically, The MLA is as powerful as it is through the efforts of the Generals. Not because of their quirks but because of their careers.

The MLA has such a massive network that if they so chose to, Japan would be overrun.

Curious controls the media

Skeptic controls information

Trumpet controls political power

Genten controls Deika

Redestro controls both the MLA and carries the Support Gear industry on his back through Denerat. If he chose to close shop tomorrow then almost every hero is left suck on their own backsides.

They do have powerful quirks, but that's isn't what makes them powerful. It's who they are as people and personalities that makes them so dominant.

The MLA ideology itself is based on quirks, but that not why it's so popular. It's popular because of it's social aspect, the promise that quirks will be normalized, just another aspect of one's self.

Destro's whole crusade was to prevent the very society we see in MHA, one so driven by quirks that those on top can get away with anything because they are "strong".

To say someone without powers cannot become powerful is bullshit.

Strenght isn't power, not by itself.

Money, information and strength. These combined, are power.

You don't need powers to have power.

I think, the craziest thing to me, about how people genuinely believe you can't be a Quirkless Pro-Hero in MHA/BNHA, is that having a Quirk doesn't mean you're invulnerable?

Eraserhead's Quirk only allows him to stop other people's powers, but the fighting? Thats him. The giant jump he does over the stairs? The way he throws people around with his capture weapon?

Endeavor makes hot flames, how did that help when Hood the Nomu bit through his arm? We see that his skin cuts like everyone else's, he gets his scar right before that. Hawks stabbing him in the back to make him go faster? Embedded enough to give him speed but not enough to pierce right through him? He goes toe to toe with the Nomu in the Stain Arc, that's all normal strength!

Stain's Paralysis doesn't make him faster, how was he dodging Iida's speed? How were his reflexes so good he moved past AfO Izuku's strikes?

Mandalay's telepathy, how did that help her agility? Sir Nighteye's Foresight, did it make him strong enough to throw those weights? Did Mirio's Permeation make him stronger even when he lost it and was still beating Overhaul's face in? Rock Lock's stop-motion? Ragdoll's Search?

How did Thirteen's Quirk help when almost murdered? Shouldn't she, as someone with a very strong ability just be faster? Bakugo's Explosion did jack when his heart exploded, right? Why wasn't his body just sturdier? Or do they have normal bodies, like a Quirkless person would have?

[deusvervewrites]

Ask Game: The MLA doesn’t go ballistic over the League trending, so they start their attempt at taking over Japan only during Izuku’s second year after the League has been defeated and AfO died an embarrassing death. As for the HPSC, they survive the MLA insurrection and install a fascist regime by Izuku’s third year.

I mean, this is basically my proposed MHA rewrite I did a while back; it's somewhere in my Meta tag

[barid-bel-medar]

For Sticks and Stones, I am very curious to know the in-universe reasoning for the HPSC to choose Mt. Lady to teach at UA and for Mt. Lady to agree. I would think that the HPSC would choose a more experienced and reputable (and in their pocket) hero for the job, and that Mt. Lady would want to do fieldwork so soon after her debut to gain money and ranking. I would love to know their thought processes for these decisions.

She's got absolutely no connections to UA.

She's not a UA graduate, she doesn't closely work with UA graduates. If anything she's got a bit of a rivalry with a UA graduate (who happens to be one of Aizawa's best friends).

She's also easy to control because she needs two things; a steady income stream (like say, a teacher's paycheck) and the HPSC can offer to cover her insurance costs (which is canonically one of the reasons she's constantly in the red). Heroes pretty much work on commission and sponsorship, so a steady income stream is definitely helpful.

There's also no real sign teaching at UA really effects someones ability to do fieldwork. All of the teachers pretty clearly are still doing active fieldwork. Hell, Present Mic is juggling three jobs (active hero, English teacher, and radio host; man must not be sleeping at all and we've seen he's got bloodshot eyes under those sunglasses of his). So she'd still be able to create a reputation, and you can even spin her taking to the UA job as her 'being trusted to guide future heroes after what UA has done to them'.

Since she's not really in the HPSC's pockets, and thus potentially aware of HPSC secrets, she's also not a security risk to them, the way say, Hawks would be. If Nedzu for example goes poking around he's going to find jack all because at the end of the day all the Commission is really doing with her is covering insurance costs and earning good will from her that way. The Commission also doesn't exactly need an on-site hero agent to poke around UA. The mess with Aizawa has already given them leave to do that since it's such a spectacular fuck up.

And from a meta standpoint I just wanted her to be the homeroom teacher to do something unique.

[super-paper]

Question, since afo is dead (for good?) are also the quirks he stolen dead/unusable? Ex. Search, Bloodcurdle and wings? And also do you have ANY idea where the hell is hawks character arc going😭 your analysis and meta posts are amazing btw!

Yeah, OG AFO's quirks vanish/"die" alongside him in chapter 410:

Not sure about vestige!AFO's quirks yet, it'll likely depend on whether or not Tenko is actually [REDACTED] or if some sort of quirk transfer occurred between him and Izuku (I sincerely hope this isn't the route Horikoshi goes for obvious reasons lmao).

I've been praying for Keigo's character to be involved in the resolution to Himiko's plot for nearly a year now, bc I really can't see how his arc can end satisfactorily otherwise-- but if Tenko is really [REDACTED], then tbh, I really don't know what to expect from the story anymore. 😭 If the theory that Tenko is gonna be the one to save the LOV by unlocking reconstruction is true, then I would still like Keigo to help with villain rehabilitative efforts during the epilogue (More than anything, I still want him to help Himiko even if he just helps with her rehabilitation-- I just feel like it would be fitting to have him atone for killing Jin by helping Jin's best friend start over). I would also like to see him help restructure the HPSC into something genuinely beneficial to society, most likely with Nagant's help.

Like, these specific panels + Keigo reflecting on "seeing everyone united as one" have gotta mean SOMETHING, right? ...Right???? (😭)

[class1akids]

Looking back at the manga now that MHA has ended, I wonder if it was HK’s intent all along to go with the ending he did.

Mangaka’s have to plan in advance right? Unless it works differently in Japan, don’t they have to provide a story board and such, along with the idea of what the end will be. Because looking at MhA as a whole, it makes it seem like there is hope in tragedy, the only issue is the execution because the pay off seemed underwhelming, even if the villains were killed. Idk how otherwise HK could have wrapped this manga off with the pay off people wanted.

As an example, looking at the Todoroki plot which is one of the more in depth aspects of the story. Looking back it does seem like Dabi was meant to die in the end, how he “stepped” in to the light with Hawks as I remember seeing metas on that symbolizing hope or such (and now I wonder if it just means Dabi literally stepped into the light.) Aside from that, HK didn’t really give us any signs in MvA, he just kept hammering in how “evil” the villains were, making it seem like they were too far gone, and in the end, it did come off that way where they had to die in order to find peace.

The point is, wouldn’t a mangaka have to have a defined goal in order to publish? Or is it solely based on the decision of an artist chapter by chapter. Apologies if what I said above comes off weird, I’m just frustrated with how it ended, and I just question if HK did intend for this ending all along. After all, why publish it if it wasn’t his intention? Killing the villains is so far on the other side of the bar compared to saving them, I wonder if he thought he was too far gone unthinking they could live in his planning unless Shonen didn’t allow it? But yet again looking at it, it would NOT have been hard to change it up at the end for them to live. He just chose not to. But like I said, maybe he intended for them to die all along with all this set up he was doing for the kids to save the villains hearts. It was never about keeping them alive and maybe people misinterpreted that? Because when exactly did people start talking about the villains being capable of being saved? Or was it just a bias that came up for villains stans.

I wish I could talk to HK and know what it was like. Because it seems like he’s happy with how his manga ended, so maybe it was his plan all along?

I think he needs to have a general plan, but it's not like the story was pre-written. Mangaka have to be ready to end it on short notice if their manga is not successful. Horikoshi at that point already had 2 of his previous manga axed and from interviews, we know he was very insecure and worried and kept changing things in accordance with reader feedback.

As for him changing his mind, we know of two examples that he talked about:

He wanted to have the Forest arc longer with more fights, and to reveal the traitor soon after, but did not do it, as readers' feedback was negative on the villains. So he cut that arc short.

He wanted Endeavor to die in the PLF war and decided to keep him alive - this is obviously one of those big swings between life or death that had impact on the entire story. And looking at Act 3, it's clear that he did not think through properly all of the impact it would have.

We also know that often he did things last minute - for example, Nagant's design and her backstory came from him watching the movie Wanted like 2 weeks before he published the chapter. So obviously that means he changed stuff about the HPSC plot as well compared to what he had originally planned.

As for WSJ meddling: I'm not sure how much influence the editors had. We know that even though he wanted originally Deku to be a quirkless tech-based character, and an adult, the editors at the time forced him to put it into the high school setting and give Deku a power.

But towards the end, he always said that his editors were basically inexperienced yes-men who just cheered him on with whatever he wanted to do. So I'm not sure that WSJ "forced" him to kill the villains, or told him to end with a hetero romance.

But the editors pre-screen the fan mail - so knowing how much Horikoshi was influenced by reader feedback, obviously an editor would be able to manipulate him depending which feedback is given to him.

And in the end, I think he was just burnt out and wanted to end it. I feel like with how abruptly the fight ended after AFO came back in 419, it's not necessarily the big epic scene he had planned, but had no energy to execute whatever he had originally in mind and just finished it. That's the only way I can read why he'd give his MC such a whimper-like ending for his big fight.

[rayshippouuchiha]

I just had a dark BNHA fic idea that I will probably not do anything with. So I want to share with you and anyone who might want to adopt this plunny.

So Inko's Quirk is Small Object Attraction. It would be so easy to kill people with this. By either "natural causes" or "accidents".

She can pull on the blood vessels or arteries. She can pull on nerves, the brain stem, and she might be able to target portions of organs or the brain. She would be able to kill or cause severe medical problems easily.

I like to think that Inko learned how to control how her pulled objects come near her, so she should be able to pull things in a spiral. So she can unscrew things, like important support structures, car parts, parts of pulley systems. Maybe even trash that just so happens to make someone fall off a building or into traffic.

I can see this happening primarily in 2 time frames. Pre-Canon as an anti-hero or Post-Quirk Diagnosis when Inko is out of fucks to give. Maybe both.

Anti-hero Inko killing off or crippling assholes that get around the law, like... I was going to give a couple of examples, but Endeavor kept coming to mind. Child abuse, spousal abuse, probably marital rape, excessive injuries to villains and bystanders, excessive property damage. Whether it's because she sees that whoever is too scared or unable to leave, she can make it so the abuser can't physically do anything. Regardless of whether they are heroes, villains or everyday assholes who never get caught. I like to think she has a few political cases, too. Like if someone kept trying to implement horrible and disgusting laws or remove protections. Maybe she starts off small and makes it so they can't attend rallies or votes. If they work around it, I think she'd lose her tolerance for them and they may get their life privileges revoked.

And one of these brings her, or her deeds, to AfO's attention. If you like DfO, this could be what makes him think She's the One.

P.S. this actually came from a fic who's name I can't remember. Basically, Izu and AM are on the run from HPSC who thinks Izu is controlling AM. They have a mental connection that's kinda 1 brain 2 bodies with ghosts and classmates stuck in Izu's head for a while. Inko is visiting that Quirk Dr that said Izu was Quirkless since he's an acquaintance of her husband's for something important when this happens. The doc then learns that AfO's wife is terrifying and obeys her orders when Inko learns what's happening with Izu. Shigaraki is duly impressed.

If it's Post-Diagnosis, then maybe she starts off just giving the assholes bullying her baby bad luck then escalating for the adults who don't learn better.

Just thought of a BNHA KHR idea, too. Inko's Quirk can be agreed that gravity is involved, yes? I see tons of Sky Flame Izuku, but what about Earth Flames?

Earth Flames = Gravity Control. Enma and Tsuna looked so badass using Earth Flames. (It still makes me scream that Tsuna was able to use Enma's ring. Either for shipping purposes or for meta implications.) (Btw, Earth Flames and the Shimon Famiglia are from the manga.) Because if he got his "Quirk" when the Sludge villain attacked him, it could feasibly come in then. Since Flames require someone to defy death to accomplish a goal, this could work. Maybe Inko is aware of Flames and she and Izu can bond. Maybe she isn't but can still pass on her tricks when it comes to pulling things.

Anyways, Izu increasing gravity when Bakugo tries to attack him. Decreasing his own weight to move faster. Doing Moon jumps to get to places. Making things weigh less to free trapped people. Crushing things into diamonds. Making BLACK HOLES (This is Canon in KHR).

Izu and Ochako bonding over their powers. Izu and 13 bonding.

I'm running out of ideas at this point. Anyways, I've never seen Earth Flames Izuku before!

Oh all of this is fantastic and I swear I know that fic you're talking about

[the-wild-card-hand]

//Fuck it cause I wanna use my Gundam muses more I'm making MHA AU for a majority of them.

Kira Yamato aka 'The Fox': A smart kid who was in an earlier class at UA before getting poached by the Hero Public Safety Commission after they learn his Quirk was artificially manufactured before he was born. They wanted him for clever spy work before he ultimately went off the grid and began some Vigilante work of his own

Sting, Stella and Auel: Second Gen Quirk Soldiers raised by the Meta Liberation Army. They're tasked up with spy work and subterfuge, on occasion they help to stoke up the fires to make people sympathetic to the cause. They were later folded into the PLF when the MLA was absorbed into the League of Villains.

Orga, Shani and Clotho: First Gen Quirk Soldiers raised by the MLA. If Sting, Stella and Auel were the spies and scalpels, these three were the hammer you send in to make a point. Ruthless in fight, but driven by fear of punishment if they fail. They come off as dysfunctional, but the reality is they practically are all they got in terms of 'family'

Shinn Asuka: A relatively normal quirkless student that met a tragic fate when his family was killed in a Villain attack, an act he witnessed. Despite the Hero Society and the abundance of Heroes with Quirks, no one was there. He managed to escape by the help of a cop and over time his feelings started to mound: anger, sadness, confusion. A villain attack like that in his neighborhood and no Heroes patrolling that zone? His anger started to manifest on both Heroes and Villains before he looked for ways to find his own power. First he volunteered for the Self Defense Forces at fourteen, then at age sixteen he volunteered for a Super Soldier Program: 'Project Jackal', funded in secret by the HPSC.

[transhawks]

Lmao, it always goes back to those Prohero Arc connections and clarity I swear. And people wonder why I’m so obsessed with that arc for this single reason. I think one of my favorite things is the character development you’ve been going through. Perhaps the real iconic narrative arc all along was Rani turning into a passionate AfoHawks spokesperson. *chefs kiss* the pOETRY 🎶

LISTEN. YOU DONT GET HOW FUCKING WEIRD THIS IS????? 2020-21 I was off roleplaying my dhampir!keigo, infiltrating AFO's coven and stupidly falling in love with his ward sacrifice Fae/Werewolf!Tomura and failing in killing him (Tomura cursed him to hell and back and Jin didn't help with his curse, fucking fae :/), but like WE NOTICED when we roleplayed Keigo FINALLY meeting AFO that like....the whole dynamic changed. There wasn't anything non-platonic (except keigo whining in the local monster support chat that the vampire lord of the area was boring af because real vampires throw massive masquerade balls that turn into orgies) but just....Hawks was at once at extremely high alert but also far more honest than he'd ever been. The pleasant and quirky local surfshop clerk/ditzy halfvamp schtick melted. This was a weapon. And not just a weapon; this was a vampire who could see the world just like All For One could, if he'd just flee the coop his human raisers had stuffed him into. Like the similarities in thinking jumped out. Of course Keigo wasn't exactly like AFO but I still remember that our tomura RPer had Tomura specifically mention (once they got all the files from Hawks's treachery/spy chats) how much Keigo sounds like sensei. It was fun! And it made it stick in my mind that surprisingly, Keigo and AFO could interact interestingly. This was bolstered by that chapter in 2021 where Keigo begins psychoanalyzing him, too. It was so interesting seeing him try to think like him. But you know, it's not like I expected canon to explore this. Even in the beginning of the war, I didn't. Something to note is that for the majority of the fight, All For One's own hubris and bias towards very flashy destructive quirks has blind-sided him to Hawks and his role in this war, by which I mean (and I can back up) is that most of the hero effort has indeed been carried on Keigo's back or orchestrated. It took until AFO got rewound to realize how much Horikoshi was setting them up. Endeavor barely mattered between them. And then...well, they started talking. Focusing on each other more. What am I supposed to do, ignore it????? It got heavier and heavier, the panels mirroring each other, converging at times, etc. Just Horikoshi doing excellently for a pair of people I never imagined would interact. And now we have Keigo laying on the ground, defeated, stripped of all that he believes he is, as All For One asks him if he's tired and then leaves with his wings, saying in the end he couldn't protect anyone. Too fast for his own good. Hubris.

LIKE??? HOW AM I NOT SUPPOSED TO BE THE SPOKESPERSON?????? i am a simple man, I like rich dynamics and cool framing and horikoshi feeds me regularly.

EDIT: was about to publish this but got a similar ask

Oh yes I absolutely loved the quietness of this. First he tells him to get out of his way and then, like, "Haven't you done your best?" It's a solemn moment, surprisingly, and I hope the anime does it justice in a year or two. And the god imagery! Ugh! i have SO MUCH to say on this but you have to wait because im doing a Big Meta again lol.

As for HPSC prez Keigo, part of me thinks that would be a Bad End. Or bittersweet at most. I remember misinterpreting one of the vol extras to mean that the HPSC was essentially grooming him to eventually replace her and there's something very fucked in that thought. I do however think he might do something with kids!

[seeyouafter]

SYA Extended Notes Ch. 15

Notes for "See You After" Chapter 15: Katsuki's Recent Messages: May 30-June 24

It's been a while since I've done one of these. Part of the reason is that even though some pretty big emotional beats happened (including the reason I gave up on keeping the fic canon compliant), I do want the story to speak for itself.

For the most recent chapter though, I wanted to give some additional insight on the text convos and the corresponding letters that they connect with.

(This was mainly for my own reference because I had so many notes in my draft document while writing to make sure the dates made sense so I figured I'd share them in case anyone else was interested.)

Also, scroll to the very end for thoughts on the content of Uraraka's texts.

Tues. May 30: Bakusquad visit mentioned in Ch. 4 (Katsuki's letter on 5/31)

I wrote the letter referencing their visit before I knew I was going to add texting into the fic but I think the main thing I wanted to do with this day's texts (other than introducing the format) was to have Jirou "officially" join the Bakusquad because I love her and I think her dynamic with Katsuki (and the rest of the group) is a lot of fun to see.

Sun. June 4: Most of Class 1-A returns to the work study assignments, referenced in Ch. 8 (Katsuki's letter on 6/8)

We already saw Katsuki's (and Shouto's) struggling with not being able to do anything in the aftermath, but I think the others would also have some complicated feelings about being back.

Thur. June 8: Conversation about the manga Sero lent Katsuki, which was referenced in the letters in Ch. 6-8

I didn't intend to have this be a recurring topic but it did present a good opportunity to bring up Shouto naturally in the conversation. Of course, the rest of the class is worried about him too, and are trying to reach out even though he's still not responding to them.

Sat. June 10: The Tribute to Fallen Heroes broadcast mentioned in the news article in Ch. 9 and again in Katsuki's letter on 6/16 after finding out about Edgeshot.

While canon could very well go the route of a "perfect win" for the heroes, I think it makes more sense that there would be a significant number of heroes lost, considering the fact that they lost Midnight and several others during the PLF war arc and this battle is supposed to be even higher stakes.

Also, Jirou pointing out that it's a miracle they all survived...is that a little too meta?

Tues. June 13: Updated Hero Rankings article This wasn't directly referenced in the letters, but the date of this article and text thread was the same day as Katsuki's letter in Ch. 11.

My thought is that Katsuki had already written his response to Shouto's previous letter but before he sent it, he saw the article, which prompted the additional letter to Endeavor.

Also, it might seem questionable that Endeavor is still Number One, but in my mind, all the HPSC did was remove the names of heroes who were no longer active and everyone remaining just moved up accordingly, the way they did after All Might's retirement.

Fri. June 16: This is the day Katsuki found out about Edgeshot and wrote the letter in Ch. 13.

The rest of the texts speak for themselves, but I wanted to comment on Uraraka's texts:

It might seem a little strange that she texted Katsuki and that he actually replied but in my mind, even though they're not that close compared with their other classmates, they've had a mutual respect for each other ever since the sports festival. Also, Ochako is canonically very empathetic and it would make sense to reach out to him because one of her main things has always been "who will save the heroes when they're hurting?"

If you look closely at the timestamps on the texts, she did talk to Izuku before his final text with Katsuki in this chapter, after Katsuki told her to tell Izuku to leave him alone. (I spent wayyyy too much time cross-referencing things in some of these sections)

Also, Toga being alive is not just a throwaway line. Whether or not she survives in canon, she is alive in this universe and although it won't be a main focus, it will be important. (it's not tochako though, sorry. I think it can be a cute ship but that's just not where this is going.)