#i realized later this msg was a copy/paste from the reddit ch thread...but i still had many thoughts!

[the-nysh]

I love what amai did this chapter it kind of shows Amai Mask abandoning his idea of a pillar of justice and instead kind of adopting Saitama's view of heroes, where everyone who tries to be a hero is valid and trying to inspire new ones. It's such a great development of his character.

Something quite moving/miraculous/extraordinary happened here, for sure. :') Cause here's the same character, now doing a very humble, Saitama-like heroic gesture for a kid in his own unique, heartfelt, pay-it-forward kind of way:

The last time we saw him, Sweet Mask believed himself to be 'too late' (monsterized) past the point of no return before, that he requested Saitama to kill him right there in front of the crowd as the perfect opportunity to take up that 'ideal hero' mantle in his place...only for Saitama to save him (from getting stoned), appeal to his humanity (by telling him he's a 'really cool guy' for the lengths he went thru to genuinely save everyone), and assure him things are only getting started for him instead, cause despite everything, nothing's 'over.' Saitama helps him escape and encourages him that he can still go on to become that ideal hero he seeks, himself.

That was Saitama's last line to him before Sweet Mask's whereabouts were mysteriously left on a cliffhanger. But now?

It seems Sweet Mask really took Saitama's words to heart. :') Cause instead of embracing his fate (to die as a monster), permanently going into hiding, or ceasing his hero activities (what he wants to be! and always has been at his core) altogether, the very first thing we see of him is going out of his way to save a kid and his grandma by embodying that kid's personal ideal image of a hero (becoming his toy come to life) and inspiring him in turn to become the real deal someday too. Like. :')) From then to now!!!!!

The group of neos watching the scene claimed he was only mimicking to trick the kid, but no, SM's actions - choosing to anonymously help people during a literal crisis with no other personal gain to fame, read entirely genuine to me.

The same way he made the fateful decision to sacrifice his entire established identity to save the ungrateful crowd (who could only stone him back in return), because...if he personally sees himself a hero, as human at all (the way Saitama encouraged), then leaving everyone to die just to save his own skin/reputation back then would've been completely unacceptable. Despite everything, despite his monstrous true form and the disastrous personal risks to reveal it, he still chose the selfless path of a hero. Cause at his core, that was something he could not abandon. :'))

And now, after Saitama's help, it's hard to say (without further ch followup) how much his core - his ongoing struggle with monsterization/bloodlust, has safely stabilized, but it's clear in the interim he's found an ingenious way he can still use his powers to continue and actively become more of that 'ideal hero' of his dreams... As someone who chooses to help empower the weak (kids/elderly) with validation and encouragement, inspiring them with hope and reassurance, etc? Cause before, Sweet Mask was motivated by a sense of terminal urgency in his need to find/produce someone else to become that heroic pillar in his place, as his fastest solution to the problem, but without that looming threat (to his own mind and waning humanity alleviated) perhaps this - the services we see of him in the current ch, is more of what he's honestly always wanted to be all along...? (Again, it's hard to say for sure how much comes from his own reformed ideas or a mix inspired/adopted from Saitama's influence without more followup. Cause we never saw how they parted or what else Saitama may have said to help him get back on his feet, which even Genos notes.) But we've seen from ONE how it doesn't matter what's on the outside, or how others perceive/label/judge you, because if you genuinely want to be something (at the core, with your heart in the right place), and choose to take those necessary steps to become it, then you simply are that - a hero. (which Garou's story showed in a similar way.) And in this case, we see how Sweet Mask, a monsterized human struggling thru his own personal demons, can still fully be a hero at heart too. :')

Anyway tl;dr: Sweet Mask, aka Beauto, is one of the wc's best characters.