#i think horikoshi wants me to kill myself

[that-spider-fan-over-there]

BNHA 430: This wasn’t very “My Hero Academia” of you I’ll be honest—

Okay, where do I begin? Uh. So the story reached its conclusion. Congratulations, and all the best to Horikoshi-san for telling the story he wanted to tell for ten years, loved the characters, the little world he created after the cancellation of his previous works, I will cherish it for the rest of my life.

... but in my opinion: the last seven chapters were so bad- I don't think I can see this ending as anything other than a contradiction of what we were shown. Like, I thought we'd get a twist, everyone would be fine, something would change. I'm wearing the clown shoes already.

So, I'm just gonna treat this as a normal chapter, and not a final one, because I'll be here for days if I open this can of worms, which, I will not lie, is very bad (I'll open it at some point, not now.) I'm posting this on the.. 6th? Because apparently there's an announcement in the 5th and I don't wanna spoil the fun.

So, uh, under the read more are my thoughts on the ending, be warned I'm very, very negative about it.

*sigh* Oh boi, how killing the League made this go from an "underwhelming" to a "tone-deaf" chapter- I mean. Jesus fuck, leaving things open-ended don't erase the fact they can't make a single appearence to prove me wrong. And if they were alive, the last five chapters (and eight years!) were a waste of emotions and keeping them hidden was a stupidly cruel move.

Funny, the narration is "people aren't equal but it's because of these differences that people find common ground to get along"- THE VILLAINS WERE KILLED OFF FOR BEING DIFFERENT BRO WHAT DO YOU MEAN- "if lending a hand and caring is being a hero then we all became the greatest heroes". Izuku, whatever you're drinking, I'm taking it and drinking it all by myself. You may have cared (which I can't even say for certain anymore). But Tenko died. On accident. Because you gave him OFA.

I liked the "Midoriya-Sensei" part. For 5 seconds. It's fitting, he loves learning stuff, he's good with kids... until you say "it's only because his embers are gone". Then why use it as a tease for seven chapters only to just get rid of them at the end? Is running to Ochako really the last we get to see him use it? Not even as a part-time hero? (not that it matters at the end-)

Ragdoll works with the WWP, Tsukuachi was head strategist in the final battle, Hawks is the (H)PSC president, Aizawa is Aizawa. Why wasn't Izuku hired at an agency? Intelligence was a huge part of his character, yet the moment he was fully Quirkless again, he had to leave? Men truly aren't created equal...

"Cursed power", "blessing", "special" — the only thing special about OFA was being haunted by a guy whose brother was insane enough to hunt it down for generations. A Quirk's a Quirk; having multiple people/powers in one body isn’t special, Tokoyami and Shoto exist. Izuku was supposed to make it special using it on his terms. But I guess "meant to save, not kill" was a lie, as eight out of ten people who had it died. Nine out of eleven, counting BNHA: HR. Tenko died because his body couldn't handle the Quirk, but I guess Izuku isn't gonna think about any of it? Katsuki was right, I guess. OFA is a curse.

Spinner wrote a book (not a comic, guess he took offense to Izuku. Fair, actually). Mr. Compress got a panel, but no real mention of the LoV? They broke the status quo for months (in-universe), and after all of that, nothing changes? Did Spinner know about Tenko, how he became Tomura? And the people who will read it and pull an MLA? TomurAFO had followers, now he's martyr a lá Re-Destro. I’m hoping Spinner didn’t commit suicide like Destro did.

Ochako’s expanding Quirk Counseling. Reform’s implied (it only said expansion), but Himiko still became what Curious wanted her to be: A cautionary tale. And I’m still asking how Ochako knows Himiko what went through, she only told Ochako she was hated because of her Quirk and how she loves. I wanna think she’s reforming it, but nothing else changed, why should I think she’s the exception? She might literally just think Himiko didn't get help, that's a cruel irony.

(At least she's seen as a hero on her rights… even if it took 429 chapters, messy writing, her face looking like rubber, and still being a girl recognized as a "caretaker", not a kickass hero).

Shoji's travelling through Japan to solve discrimination and got a prize for it. No foundations or mentions of Spinner being the main reason he did it, just "standing atop those who rose up eight years ago", just solving it peacefully, you sure are, buddy. Like, I'm sure you are being successful but how exactly are you solving this? I mean, you "solved" the hospital fight by fighting Spinner with Koda- Oh wait, time constraints, we can't elaborate how. I'm rolling my eyes

Shirakumo showed the noumu state could've been reversed, yet Katsuki, who never killed someone aside from AFO (and that guy was gonna die anyway), fatally exploded him. I hoped it was a misunderstood panel but no. He died because he wanted to save Tenko. Even fucking Gran Torino was alive by the end of this. Why.

I think Shoto is the only main character I’m not really having a problem with (Ochako's ending required Himiko for it to feel somewhat complete. Sorry, Ochako). I’m weirded out that they mentioned the billboard using the guy whose life was ruined by it as an example, but other than that, he’s doing fine. Wish we saw him talking to his siblings though. But alas. No mention of Fuyumi and Natsuo. And Rei's with Endeavor. Fuck I take it back Todofam still deserved better.

Inko got so sidelined when Mitsuki and Masaru were in 424 for half a chapter, by the way. Just one panel for her, the protagonist's mother.

Schedules not aligning is one thing (I get it, my friends and I can't align ours anymore), but Class A not opening an agency together? They survived the same two wars. And you're telling me they wouldn't say "WE'RE WORKING TOGETHER AND TAKING MIDORIYA WITH US"? Also, where’s the "world where heroes have time to spare" when they look so busy? Were they understaffed or working as celebrities? (if someone says it was for the suit I will point out to the three nepo babies of Class A + Momo's Quirk, Katsuki’s a dumbass if he forgot that detail).

We wasted pages on a kid that can throw plates from his hair. To tell him he can be a hero. Coming from the guy who had to stop working as a hero when he lost OFA. I'm not taking this parallel seriously.

I wish Izuku wasn't in "everything’s fine" mode until the end. We're really gonna leave him at "implied" mode, not confirm if his mental state's fine? Being open and emotional was an appealing part of him and now we just get “Yeah that’s just how it is”.

This one's petty and irrational, I know, but since I'm letting some of the steam out: I hate Izuku's new design; face scars (the constant "HE FAILED" reminder makes my eye twitch and I wish that was a joke, but also so many characters in BNHA got face scars, it doesn't even stand out), "perfect tie", normal formal attire- where's the character highlights? The things that make Izuku stand out?

But hey: He gets to be a hero again! Not with skills, heart, intelligence, strength, in spite of Quirklessness. No, he has an Iron Man suit! That Class A paid billions for. The government should be paying the child soldiers- sorry, Class A and B (and Shiketsu and Ketsubutsu) instead, but all they get is a pat on the back. If the suit breaks down, hurts or kills him while in it? I'll laugh (Hatsume and Melissa worked on it? Oh it's gonna happen, I'm hoping). And Toshinori, what happened to him, did he hit his head when he landed on that building!?

Went from: Smiles cover his fear and reassure people, believed saving is about saving body and soul, wanted to help Tenko, only didn't because Gran Torino said it wasn't a good idea. Disliked people were being heroes for fame and not because it's the right thing to do, only used support items as reinforcement and a precaution, never as a full solution, even Iron Might was so he’d have a chance to fight, not a solution.

To: If Tenko died smiling, it wasn't resignation, he was saved, even though he died. Didn't care AFO killed the Shimura - his mentor's - bloodline. Is fine with the billboards existing, even though it caused things like the Todoroki plotline. Now he's giving Izuku a suit, when the last time he did it himself, it didn't save him and his spine was almost snapped? Dude, what?

Also full disclosure, I thought he was paralyzed, but I guess he just had a bad back. Let's not discuss the trauma of almost being snapped in half and feeling your bones break so bad you set a record of how many screws were used, I guess.

... I hated BKDK's conclusion. It's actually so laughable how much I hate it. If it had another outcome, I'd probably be overjoyed as a shipper. But look at this mess:

Thematically, Tenko wasn't rescued, it wasn't a perfect victory because AFO still got away with what he did to him. Save to win, win to save were just nice words. "The End of an Era and The Beginning"? Nothing changed in the world they live in, and they don't stand out among other heroes (these are AM’s successors. And they aren't even important. How.) What new era is this, really?

Their resolutions, relationship rebuild? Offscreen, but Katsuki was the one with the Iron Man suit idea for Izuku and apparently that compensates for it. Because he’s the one who can solve all of Izuku’s problems now, not motivate him to be better anymore. It wasn’t even Izuku’s idea, it was Class A, and sure it’s a nice (condescending) gesture. We’ve seen Toshinori barely come out alive even with one. That's a support item for a reckless little shit who will get himself killed.

Izuku barely batted an eye to any of the things he went through - losing his arms and/or OFA? Seeing Spinner's breakdown? Lady Nagant!? Katsuki or Tenko dying because of Izuku and OFA!? SOME INTROSPECTION?! IT’S BEEN OVER 100 CHAPTERS SINCE YOU’VE BEEN THE EMOTIONAL MC—

Katsuki's insecurities were pointless by the way! Izuku's empathy and heart never mattered, a Quirk was more important to be a hero in the end. BULLIED HIM FOR NOTHING BUDDY- like. Shouldn't have done it at all, but now his character development means nothing because his previous beliefs were the right ones. Changing for the better was pointless. Like Twice's death. Or Katsuki’s own death, since “Control Your Heart” meant nothing as well.

Izuku still remembers Tenko, but has he done anything about it? No one wants to remember him, Himiko or Touya. Spinner's book won't be taken seriously except for Tenko's followers, Mr. Compress was sidelined, Twice's death was pointless. They didn't change society, they've returned to the status quo. Pointless as Izuku losing his arms.

That fucking suit- Wow, he really couldn't be a Quirkless hero, the casual rivalry was just erased for an easy way out of their consequences, there's no catching up because Katsuki paid for Izuku a way to be a hero. Izuku doesn't get there because he still believes Quirks make a hero. This isn't heartwarming or romantic or whatever, Katsuki just proved he also didn't believe Izuku in the end.

And it ends with Izuku seeing Tenko's... Ghost? Hallucination? Vestige? I guess we’ll never know, because Izuku’s following his dreams again! Let's ignore he's doing this during class hours and he definitely should be in UA but who cares, he probably quit, we'll never know. Aside for the BKDK/DKBK fics, being a teacher was clearly a inferior choice for him and he can't do both ignore Aizawa and Present Mic look at him being the world's greatest hero!

It just took 1 year of trauma, scars, following on his mentor's mistakes, losing the thing that "actually" made him be a hero, having the first (Katsuki) and the last (Tenko) people he tried to save dying because of his existence (one literally by his hands), proving anyone can be one! By ignoring the guilt of those you failed, give hands and sparing your thoughts, having superpowers and/or connections who'll give you a suit! And if they still "act out"? Then they deserved death no matter the valid points they've had and you gotta play jury judge executioner. Unless they decide to be quiet like a good entitled citizen.

Fuck this shit I swear- You could’ve had a BKDK proposal with a double spread handhold, and I'd still think Izuku's ending isn't earned. His "happy ending"— actually. BKDK crumbs are the fandom's consolation prize for this ending. I feel cheated out my OTP (like. I'm shipping the version of them in my head, not the canon one 412-onwards because it got worse from there-)

A story about hope bent itself over to give the protagonist an unearned happy ending, when it said it was for every character who wants to connect to that hope, who wants to give that hope. Izuku went from "wanting to be a beacon of hope and save people" to "talk about beacons of hope, but in the end, others are doing this better than you. You had none of the willpower to be one." He's not hope or unity. Act 3!Izuku is just a plot device, I feel nothing for his ending other than irritation, and I hate it because he was my favourite character. Lol, a very useless one in the end.

So. Yeah, those are my thoughts about the ending. I think. I don't know if these are all of them. I feel horrible about hating it, but I've sat on this chapter for days and right now, not a lot can make me like it, especially with the timeskip, which made this "open ending" a rushed and incomplete mess. If you disagree with me, honestly, that is very fair. I'm glad for you if you liked the ending. I'm just disappointed, and wanted to share my opinions. (and I do have more stuff to say about it but I think I've been negative enough)

But for the weeks I spent hoping this wouldn't slap a classic shonen ending in this catasthrophic mess and for making me feel like a dumbass after what we got in the end: Everything after 410 that isn't 421 and 422 is non-existent to me, this epilogue was a freaking waste.

Thank you for reading.

(EDIT.: Fixed some spelling mistakes and added a few more things because I can keep going on how bad this ending is. Also to clear stuff up: I am still a BKDK shipper. But only until 412, anything after that? Yeah, no, keep that shit away from me lol.)

[epickiya722]

A lot of times the problem with these het ships is just, that there is an incredible lack of balance in it that almost feels toxic.

And i don't mean dark fiction or anything, i mean fiction that wants you to see them as a good couple.

Like in bnha, again. Iz///ocha has an inbalance over the fact that for it to go forward, it is completely reliant on Ochako, and whatever she decides to do with her feelings.

Which makes her the only one that ever puts the effort into her crush, even if it ends up not actually moving forward, she still the one who's ever confronted with them.

And Izuku never does anything to respond or even indicate that he feels the same. Frankly, if he was to suddendly show that he loves her, that would just make him look like an intruder. Or maybe even imply "now that everything's over, here's your prize, hero!"

I agree!!

While IzuOcha is a popular ship, it's also not compared to BakuDeku and even TogaOcha got some growth over it.

It's not because "het is ew" because I have crossed other shippers who are okay with IzuOcha and/or have other M/F ships they like (I myself like KiriMina).

It's because it is underdeveloped and one-sided.

Izuku reacts to Ochako the same way he has with every other girl. Any time there's crush talk, it's only from Ochako's side. Nothing from Izuku, at all. He compliments her, but it came off more like a bestie hyping you up after you say something self-deprecating than actual "Hey, I like you, let's go out".

To be honest, I don't even think Horikoshi intended for IzuOcha to be seen a ship for people to root for. I don't think he actually ever cares for it because if he really wanted to, he could have made it more balanced. I say this because look at M/F pairings like KiriMina and KamiJiro.

They're more minor than IzuOcha are and yet for both pairings there's a lot more balance between them. Even by design!

I talk more in depth about this here and here.

I totally agree with you on that last bit.

If Izuku suddenly goes "Hey, I love you" or even after winning there's suddenly them hooking up, it will come off as Ochako being some prize because, again, Izuku hadn't shown romantic interest in her like that.

It's funny to me that some people will "BakuDeku are like brothers" but then turn around and want to apply the same tropes and scenarios that BkDk have been through to their ship romantically.

Example, there were people who actually want AFO!Shigaraki to attack Ochako next just so Izuku could save her. This was during the time when everyone was brought in through those portals into the same area.

When I was so agitated about that because one, you really want someone to potentially get killed just for a "shippy" moment? I DIDN'T LIKE SHIGARAKI ATTACKING BAKUGOU LIKE THAT!! Two, so Ochako couldn't be dealing with her situation without any inference? Like she really need to be put in a damsel situation and not be a hero? Because that's how it came off to me.

Look, I myself have ships, but at the end of the day when it comes to the main goal of a lot of these characters?

The last thing any of them really want is romance. If no ship becomes canon I am so okay with that.

A lot of these characters, especially characters like Izuku, Ochako, and Katsuki want to be the best heroes they can be. They want to save people, make them smile, be the best. That was their goal when they chose (and got to) attend UA.

I don't recall Ochako saying "I'm attending UA to get a boyfriend!"

So why reduce her to that? She did not look at Izuku on their first meeting and decided "I'm going to UA to be his wife". I thought she wanted to be a hero so she can make people smile and provide for her parents. Am I wrong? Did I miss something? Did I watch and read a different version of BNHA?

[class-1b-bull]

Class 1-b as random things me and my friends have said to eachother!

I tried to get everyone multiple times but some characters got more than others </3

There is a lot of cussing, name calling and mentions of virginity but dats about it. Plus a brief mention of drug dealing.

:] :] :]

Manga- BRO! IS THIS THE BOKU NO HERO ACADEMIA ULTRA ANYLISIS BOOK THAT LETS YOU KNOW MORE ABOUT THE CHARACTERS, THEIR QUIRKS, AND THEIR RELATIONS WITH OTHER CHARACTERS FROM THE SAME SERIES?! PUBLISHED BY HORIKOSHI, THE AUTHOR OF BOKU NO HERO ACADEMIA, HIMSELF?!?!

Bondo- uh yea?

Manga- i knew you were cringe but a virgin? Do better man.

:] :] :]

Sen- WHERE THE FUCK IS CTRL+Z?!?!?

Awase- ctrl z dosent work on tattoos actually..

:] :] :]

Kuroiro - the atoms will align because im hot like that. *runs straight into a wall*

:] :] :]

Kamakiri - the riddle isnt that fucking hard your just dumb as shit.

Kosei - can I give them a hint?

Kamakiri - no, fuck you.

Awase - you had to high expectations for me and tokage when making this riddle.

Kamakiri - I litterally looked up riddles for kids.

Tokage - well im obviously not a kid so that probably why I cant figure it out..

Kosei - can I pleasssseeeeeee give them a hint.

Kamakiri - fine whatever.

Kosei - ASS!!

Kamakiri - you know what? Actually... shut the fuck up!

Kosei - its a good hint!

Kamakiri - no the fuck its not.

Rin - no actually thats a great hint. Want me to demonstrate?

Awase - what is there to demonstrate???

*litterally 3 1/2 hours later*

Tokage - WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK DOES ASS HAVE TO DO WITH THE MOON?!?!??!

AWASE - FUCKING MOONING!!!!!

:] :] :]

Kendo - just letting you know, your a great friend. And I really care about you.

Kodai - being nice to me wont change the fact that your ass at mario cart.

:] :] :]

Shiozaki - *running up to kendo full sprint* hey um- quick question, could jesus do a kick flip? SPECIFICALLY with the kids hello kitty skatebord that crack dealer tried to sell us...

:] :] :]

Shishida - I dont like gossip but I thought I should let you know that monoma thinks your a drug dealer...

Kosei - why? Is he a cop?

Shishida - no but-

Kosei - is he buyin?

:] :] :]

Shoda - *crying in a voice message to the class b group chat* I just got into a car wreak and the cop had to pull me out of my carrr *loud as sniff* while fucking doja cat was talking about sucking dick... and it was really embarrassing. Oh! And I broke my leg I guess but whatever.

:] :] :]

Pony - Want my autograph? Too fuckin bad bitch! Im Beyonce type famous now I dont have TIME for your annoying ass.

Kodai - what happened?

Komori - she got 15 likes on a tumblr post.

:] :] :]

Tetsutetsu - MEN CAN LACTATE?!?!?!

Kosei - *loudly starts playing carless whisper in the distance*

:] :] :]

Kamakiri - shut the fuck up I only came over to your house to watch madoka magica and pet your cat now where the fuck is kitty kitty bang bang?!

:] :] :]

Honenuki - hand.

...

Honenuki - HAND!

Kuroiro - TAKE ME TO DINNER FIRST?! I aint ready for that kind of commitment man.

Honenuki - if you dont let me finish painting you nails I am going to kill your cat.

:] :] :]

Bondo - *crying while eating pretzels* he really did crank that soulja boy...

:] :] :]

Monoma - statistics show that I am better than you at litterally everything so riddle me this? If I am so fucking awesome why do I cry myself to sleep every night?!

:] :] :]

Reiko - that toddler is so fucking metal..

Like get it bitch. Tell your mom to fuck off for putting you in time out. Girlboss shit.

:] :] :]

Rin - that kid is litterally me.

Kosei - *earth shattering scream and falls off ceiling*

:] :] :]

Shiozaki - so is everyone that does crack jesus or just your mom?

:] :] :]

Shoda - thats a nice fucking rock...

Kodai - please dont fuck the rock...

:] :] :]

Awase - WTF WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEYRE NOT REAL?!

Rin - awase why would sen have a LIVE jellyfish inside of a lava lamp...

Awase - he would if he wasent a beta cuck.

:] :] :]

Pony - if I give you $20 can you draw the dude from highschool musical pregnant? Its for my cousins birthday.

Manga - first of all what the actual fuc-

:] :] :]

Shiozaki - believe it or not. But being a man. Ok? And sucking another mans dick. BEFORE MARRIAGE. Hear me out on this one... Is slightly againt the great lord above.

Kodai - jesus?

Reiko - no, ace ventura: pet detective.

...

Reiko - specifically after he climbed out of the rinos ass, naked.

:] :] :]

Sen - bro what even is this? Its low key ugly as fuck.

Rin - thats litterally me...

Sen - daymn *sticks photo in pants* ANYWAYS-

:] :] :]

Shishida - I get everyone is trying to stay calm but twerking to the fire alarm wont stop the fire!

:] :] :]

Rin - cute dogs!

Kosei - *lifting his foot* thanks I moisturize~

:] :] :]

Pony - i knew something was wrong with you when you laughed at my joke but not in the 'I watched mean girls' type of way.

:] :] :]

Komori - *walking around the house frantically*

Reiko - we would be out the door already if you didnt kiss all of your plants goodbye..

:] :] :]

Awase - I couldn't even hear that because me and kosei were talking about how hot she was.

:] :] :]

*Rin buddled up in like 20 blankets in front of a fire place*

Kosei - hot girl shit. *dives into the pile and face plants right into his balls.*

:] :] :]

Manga - can I eat your knees tall man?

Bondo - no thanks.

Manga - what if I asked in a uwu voice?

Bondo - still no.

Manga - daymn... alpha male type shit.

:] :] :]

Rin - you realize i am a dude right?

Awase - guys can have long hair?

Sen - of course they can have long hair dipshit.

Kosei - who cares if rin used to be a girl?! Hes a guy now and thats all that matters!

Rin - no I was always a guy...

Kosei - its ok man :D ill always be your friend <3

[bibibbon]

something that constantly pisses me off about lov bashers is that they don’t understand that an explanation is not an excuse.

they can’t wrap their head around the fact that yes toga is a murderer but that doesn’t negate the fact that she was driven to that point by society.

if her parents supported her and helped her with the symptoms and urges caused by her quirk i doubt she would’ve become a villain.

she was literally driven to insanity not because she’s always been that way, but because suppressing her urges for so long caused her to snap.

twice became a villain because he had no other choice. he had no family, no job, and he was just a child. he had no where to go and no one to help him.

it really hits home for me because i have autism and several other mental problems, so some of my behaviors are because of those issues. but whenever i say that people say i’m making excuses when i’m not. i understand that some of my behaviors aren’t okay. that my mental illnesses aren’t my fault, but they are my responsibility.

yes toga should go to jail/juvenile detention because she’s killed several people, but we should acknowledge that the reason she became a murderer is because of how she was treated. BUT that doesn’t mean her being a murderer is okay or justified.

this also relates to how i believe spinner was right about how placating to their oppressors will do nothing.

the civil rights movement wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. they had to *fight* for their rights. key word being fight.

yes peaceful protest are certainly effective but they won’t work 100% of the time. sometimes you just have to get your hands dirty.

for example, sit-ins and peaceful marches were extremely important to the movement. but sometimes you just need to throw a brick at a cop.

stonewall isn’t infamous because it was peaceful. it’s infamous because it showed the world that the lgbtq community wasn’t going to sit idly by and let themselves be brutalized.

but the thing is 100% of spinners ideology won’t work, and 100% of shoji’s ideology won’t work either. there needs to be a balance between the two.

tl;dr some of the mha community is allergic to nuance and it makes me wanna scream.

Tbh I wouldn't label myself a league of villains basher but Iam definitely anti against the lov fans that claim the league are completely innocent and haven't done any crimes whatsoever.

I have said this before and I will say it again all of the leauge of villain members are victims. They are victims!!! But they have also done bad things. They are victims and they are bad people. Two things can coexist at once.

One thing that I find interesting about some league members that I wish was explored more often was the hypocrisy they had. For example take toga who has stated that she doesn't want to go to jail for her crimes and has murdered but also simultaneously gets distraught over twices death. I love toga but that can definitely be described as hypocritical and it's something that I love about her and I wish horikoshi delved into this with the league a whole lot more.

Also one of my problems that I mentioned in another post is that the leauge don't actually have a viable goal. As of current their goal was to simply destroy and create carnage so they can somehow get a better world for themselves. Realistically that plan is incredibly flawed and would obviously backfire horribly so I wish that horikoshi could of made it so that they developed out of that plan and used the MVA to target groups like the HPSC and other parts of the government to prove their point without harming innocent kids and civilians.

Agreed shoji and spinners ideologies are both flawed but if combined there can be a common ground reached. Thinking about this I can't help but also wonder what if shigaraki properly used the MVA and their resources? What if there wasn't an outright war? What if there was more bonding between the villains and their heroes?

@mikeellee used to suggest that shigaraki would try and get izuku on board with the MVA and I can't help but think that's a great idea and would help the narrative while adding more nuance and development to izuku and other characters.

[deadboyswalking]

You know what feeling this epilogue is giving me? That feeling when you've just had a big fight with someone and instead of actually addressing the problem, they just act "normal" and pretend like nothing happened. There's this weird veneer of happy normality, but an uneasy underlying tension. On the surface, it feels like we've circled back to the happy school days at the beginning of the series. It seems like the world is trying to get back to the status quo (the kids going back to school, re-establishing the hero commission/system, condemning the villains, etc), but several important characters don't seem happy with this outcome.

Deku is consumed by guilt and his mistakes, and he still thinks the villains are worth saving and seeing as people. Shouto, his mom, and his siblings are prioritizing Touya while wanting nothing to do with Endeavor. We haven't seen much from Ochako yet, but we know that the minute Deku tried to talk seriously with her, she made a joke and dodged the question. I think the next chapter will focus on Toga and how Ochako really feels about the whole ordeal.

Frankly, I think that fans who genuinely think Horikoshi is writing a traditional happy ending are only looking at the surface of the series. If he was, Deku would've kept his Quirk and not been visibly filled with guilt and anger about the outcome of the battle. Spinner wouldn't have survived and even if he did, Deku wouldn't have talked to him and connected over humanizing Shigaraki. Endeavor's half-hearted attempt at "redemption" wouldn't have failed, and the Todorokis would've ended the series as a big happy family (or else he would've died a "heroic" death in battle and saved Touya in the process). Ochako wouldn't have emotionally connected with Toga that deeply, and they would've either had Toga give up villainy for Ochako or, more likely, (confirmed) killed Toga in that battle and had Ochako lose her empathy for her so she could be happy once the war was won. For villain fans like myself, would a traditional happy ending include the entire society of BNHA changing overnight to empathize with villains? Even if literally no one except a few young heroes and the villains themselves know enough about their backstories/personalities to connect with them as people and understand their perspective?

I think Horikoshi has something interesting to say about society here and I'm curious about what it is. We have 3 chapters to left to find out what the final message of the series is going to be and personally, I'm invested in it.

[greenhappyseed]

Very spicy salty and lengthy rant incoming. This is part 1 of 2, focusing on All Might (with Izuku and Katsuki), while part 2 will focus more on Ochako and the 1A reunion. I’m trying to help myself feel better about how deeply I dislike the “Dark Deku” and Star & Stripe arcs because I need to excise the real-life anxiety I’m feeling over this coming up in the anime. IMO, these arcs did not age well at all, and are absolutely no better in light of the ~35 subsequent chapters. It’s just that the subsequent chapters feel more cohesive and well thought-out despite Horikoshi’s physical pain and burnout.

While I’m not emotional over fictional characters, it is true that these arcs have impacted the fandom; namely, many people who were fans of All Might, Aizawa, Midnight, Mic, and the overall UA vibe dropped out. I get that sense from some LOV fans too. Overall, it means far fewer fics and art pieces with my blorbos, and it’s also meant far less interaction with my blog. (I don’t give a damn about “engagement” or followers, but I like talking about my hyperfixation with others who share it!). Obviously the story has to change as the series end draws near, but spending SO much time with Endeavor, Hawks, and Jeanist has worn me out, even if I think Horikoshi is handling Endeavor’s character growth well. (FWIW, I’m utterly disinterested in “Hawks the Optimist” who inexplicably became the expert on how OFA works, and Jeanist is…well…you know…a male model.)

Aside from everyone’s basic rant about how Horikoshi introduced two hot middle-aged women only to more or less fridge them (after killing Midnight!), my real complaint in this post is that the Dark Deku & Star arcs made a complete mess of All Might’s character arc and in-universe relationships. Don’t get me wrong — Chapter 326 with Stain seemed like something Horikoshi had planned since the early days of the manga, and that one hit HARD. But the rest felt like an improvisation. It’s horribly inconsistent on (1) when All Might speaks up and when he can’t bring himself to talk, and (2) how his relationship with 1A is handled compared to Star.

When it comes to All Might’s failure to speak up, it feels like Horikoshi was nerfing All Might and reducing what we know the former No.1 is capable of doing. I mean, in Chapter TWO he stops Izuku from overdoing his training. After Kamino, All Might helps Izuku develop Shoot Style by telling Izuku point blank that he’s trying too hard to imitate his mentor. In the Overhaul/Nighteye arc, All Might refuses to support Izuku’s desire to take on a work study because he thinks it unnecessarily exposes Izuku to villain activity AND Izuku needs to strengthen his Shoot Style first. (The awkwardness with Nighteye is his third reason.) When Izuku persuades him about getting stronger under Nighteye’s guidance, All Might carefully asks himself if Izuku is being impatient just because Izuku is his successor before agreeing to let Mirio do the introduction. When Izuku confronts All Might over Nighteye’s prophecy, All Might makes SURE Izuku is ready to hear an uncomfortable truth and then proceeds to tell him everything. In the next arc, All Might encourages Izuku to use whatever support items he needs, even though All Might always chose to fight with just his body. All Might is protective of Katsuki and Shoto too — when they want to jump out of the taxi and fight the Cider House gang, he tries to get them to slow down and “assess the situation first.” In all these situations, All Might can’t physically stop his students (and is usually on the losing end of the argument, as happens with argumentative teenagers™️), but he uses his voice to speak up and make his opinion known.

At the beginning of Dark Deku, things are looking okay. All Might gives up on the secrecy that defined him early on and tells Hawks and Jeanist everything when he realizes secrets didn’t keep people safe. That’s good, I think, but he didn’t seem to consult Izuku about it. Based on context clues, and how All Might initially wanted Izuku to stay at UA (again, he spoke up!) I think his motivation was to recruit the pro heroes to protect Izuku at the hospital and at UA. It sort of makes sense he would move fast and wouldn’t ask Izuku’s permission to do that…but in front of Inko after Izuku wakes up, All Might DOES ask Izuku’s permission to tell her. A minor inconsistency, but all right. It’s made clear All Might is worried sick about Izuku, warning him not to go overboard (once more speaking up!). Hawks even picks up on All Might’s hesitation, telling him that Izuku has the right strategy and it’s on All Might to keep the kid propped up. All Might does not look pleased about this as he looks up in the sky towards Izuku.

In helping Izuku, All Might fends off assassins and talks about how Izuku’s idolization of him weighs on him. It’s not just that he promised Inko he would live and look out for Izuku; he’s acutely aware his boy is just like him in ways good and bad.

Yet when All Might sees Izuku struggle and he begins to see why Nighteye wanted him to retire, he can’t bring himself to talk to Izuku. Even though he understands Izuku’s feelings, he just can’t say a word. You would think seeing Izuku get shot, or barely escaping AFO’s mansion explosion, would prompt a conversation. But no, he says nothing. (Then again, nobody seems to remember Izuku was shot; no mention in the bath scene either.)

At the same time, we see Nighteye pop up in All Might’s thoughts, but we don’t see All Might struggling with telling Izuku what Nighteye told him (that is, we have no idea if All Might still feels violated in some way by Nighteye’s actions). We also don’t see All Might worrying about Izuku realizing the Symbol of Peace was just a human being. All Might isn’t trying to keep up Izuku’s hope by hiding the real burden of being the symbol (besides, didn’t he pull back that curtain in, oh, CHAPTER ONE???) We aren’t given any solid motivation or thematic through line — he simply procrastinated on what he knew he had to do for an unsatisfying hodgepodge of invasive thoughts. That is inconsistent with the All Might we know.

Before anyone comes at me, All Might not telling Izuku about Nighteye’s prophecy is very different. In that situation, All Might honestly did not think Izuku needed to know because knowing would put MORE pressure on Izuku than necessary. In Dark Deku, it’s the opposite, and All Might knows talking to Izuku could help relieve pressure.

I understand this is supposed to be All Might’s low point to lead into the Stain conversation. All Might is supposed to feel like “doing his best” didn’t prevent society’s downfall and didn’t stop his boy from repeating his mistakes. But…it feels like Horikoshi tied his tongue because that’s what needed to happen for plot reasons, and Horikoshi just wanted it to happen quickly. We still don’t have a good character reason why. Would it have been so unbelievable that Izuku, in his panicked state, brushes off All Might’s advice to rest? Or would that “break” Izuku’s idolization of All Might in a way that Horikoshi is still saving for the finale, where Izuku finally becomes his own hero without imitating All Might at all? I don’t have an answer, but it feels like we still could have had the same basic story beats without the bizarre characterization.

The strangeness of All Might staying quiet also makes Katsuki’s argument to Endeavor in Chapter 319 feel funny to me. Katsuki is spot on that Izuku doesn’t take himself into account and All Might does the same thing. While Katsuki understands far better than Izuku that All Might is human, Katsuki doesn’t consider how protective All Might can be of Izuku. Katsuki doesn’t see (or understand, perhaps?) how All Might doesn’t want anyone else to be a Symbol of Peace the same way he was. Maybe that’s part of Katsuki’s idolization issues? Post-362, with Katsuki seeing All Might’s vestige and showing him the trading card, I think Katsuki never let himself appreciate that he had the former #1 in his corner, or that a person can, in fact, use their willpower to become a symbol that inspires a nation. Not to sound like Prince Harry in “Spare,” but maybe there’s also a tinge of lingering resentment over feeling left behind? There’s just something about Katsuki screaming to Endeavor, of all people, that you can’t leave Izuku and All Might alone together when Endeavor knows Izuku has already ditched All Might AND Endeavor and Hawks have already realized they’re “too slow” compared to Izuku. Of course it’s Hawks — who was saying Izuku made the right choice like Second and, uh, AFO — to announce that Izuku left All Might. There’s also Shoto yelling about how Endeavor “let them operate together,” but it’s not like Endeavor has enough credibility to control either Izuku or All Might.

How does a #2 protect their #1 when they’re too slow? Can you ever “run alongside” someone whose power vastly outpaces yours, or is idolization all you can do? I think these are fascinating thematic questions, and Dark Deku makes a mess of them.

These problems compound in the reunion chapter, 327, which is really cute when it comes to the bath scene and the 1A kids, but is inexplicably confounding when it comes to All Might + the kids. Izuku clearly calls All Might multiple times to reconnect, but the man doesn’t pick up his phone. (I think we’re supposed to assume All Might is talking to Stain when Izuku calls, but…he couldn’t use the Hercules speech-to-text feature to tell the kid he’s driving over?) Then All Might just happens to show up at UA as Izuku talks about him, and gives Izuku a deep bow while saying sorry “for being of so little help.” He says nothing aloud about how he feels towards Izuku, and nothing aloud about being proud of 1A (though he basically thinks that in this chapter and again in 335). When Mina asks for an apology because he just disappeared post-war and left 1A with the Wild Wild Pussycats, he briefly says he’s sorry for any anxiety he caused, but quickly pivots to the need to prepare for “the battle that will decide it all.”

Like the Stain conversation, I understand that this is supposed to be All Might stepping up and figuring out his place in the world post-retirement. He’s realized he passed the torch to Izuku and 1A, but that doesn’t mean he’s useless. He wants to join the fight with the kids; to catch up and run alongside them. And to do that, he….ditches them to join Tsukauchi and Endeavor. I do appreciate that All Might is open with Tsukauchi (and Sansa!!!) about his OFA experience. But he basically disappears from UA for two days to deal with Star and TomurAFO before coming back in 335 and then seemingly disappearing again before joining the UA faculty to discuss the Aoyamas. (As pictured above, Ochako and Tenya, then Katsuki, all rightfully call out All Might’s “I am not here” act in 335.) Are you really telling me that the man who cries over Aoyama’s reveal isn’t emotionally attached to the class and wouldn’t, you know, BE HERE for them?

What makes All Might’s absence from 1A even more problematic is that now he’s…Star’s mentor??? See, All Might sends out the call for help from his international super friends and Star comes riding in acting like she’s his successor. Chapter 364 later reinforces this, with Agpar’s monologue about “children observing adults and adults supporting the children as they pass it forward” showing a Prime All Might reach out out his hand to Star. It’s stupid because All Might has a direct successor already, plus two students (Katsuki and Shoto) that are direct heirs to other parts of his legacy, and another group of students that he’s been hands-on teaching for the past year. But Horikoshi decides to ignore all that setup and focus on “All Might + Star” rather than have him spend more time with 1A. Once again, if the point is to introduce thematic questions of inspiration and imitation, and how there’s a difference between someone imitating their idol based on their own interpretation vs actually receiving mentorship from the human behind the idol, it’s utterly lost in the execution. I just can’t bring myself to see Star as anything other than an interloper. I’m glad her pilot bros stayed in Japan to help out, and her sacrifice was heroic I suppose, but it suffered the same flaw as All Might. She tried to take on TomurAFO alone, and the best she could do is slow him down temporarily.

That’s all I can manage for now! In part 2, I’ll take a closer look at Ochako and the chain that leads to Izuku’s retrieval and where we are now.

[transhawks]

Firstly, Happy New Year! I hope all your future dreams come true.

Secondly, I have a strong affection for Kaigo, but at the same time, I find myself disliking him, haha. I thought this would be the right place to share my thoughts because I'm confident that if you disagree with me, you'll enlighten me.

I believe that advising Hawks to take care of his health, "for the him that's not Hawks" considering the person beyond his role as a hero, would either leave him bewildered or possibly upset. But I also think that seeing right through him (if possible) would be the only way to reach out to him and form a connection. What do you think? :D

Happy New Year! Thanks! I hope everyone had a good one and I wish for this year to be peaceful and far less full of turmoil than the last few have been. Anyway, on to Keigo. I've said for a couple years that Hawks is not an easy likable character, and it's owing to a very shallow surface reading and his intentionally pretty looks that he's popular in fandom. He's written to be polarizing. Horikoshi designed him to essentially pose a moral quandary to the reader and to be the example of the hero philosophy of saving taken to an extreme conclusion (killing to save).

This is a character meant to be divisive; a base breaker.

For this reason, I always find myself stunned at some Hawks fans and how they approach him. Even outside of a more detached look at him as a character in a story, as a "person" I don't think Hawks is "likable" once you have a fuller picture of him outside the immediate hero persona. He's actually quite disturbing the more you look into him. This is what makes me adore him, actually. He's so rich and paradoxical in personality that he's never boring to think about. I don't think you're too strange for not liking him but loving him as a character, if anything I think you have a pretty good grasp on just how conflicting he was written out to be.

As for the second part of your ask - I think he's not good at thinking of himself outside of Hawks. And yet I also think he's self-aware about the abnormality of this but the safety of being Hawks and not Keigo (whoever that is) probably appeals, despite a cycle of feeling trapped/caged because Keigo doesn't know what to do with freedom anyway. There's a song called Selfish by Sylvan Lacue that I always think of when it comes to this line of thought.

People who see through him tend to really shake his world up. Whether it's Dabi who partially did, or Jin who really saw the emptiness and reached out in friendship, digging deeper beyond the many walls/masks/personas Keigo puts up is crucial but that's really on him to let people do. Again, he keeps his distance with people (read Graduation Day!) and when I have energy, I really want to examine him and Fumikage with this sort of lens of Hawks trying to push away people who care.

[autumn-foxfire]

toga is saving ochako on live tv. i was right the villains were going to be redeemed in the eyes of (some) civilians this way. the contrived situations is why i’m not a fan. quick note, pre plf war i don’t remember the set ups and executions being this bad. week-by-week hori was really good at it, idk what happened.

also looks like hawks might save toga now too. it’s what i expect from him anyway and it feels less impactful because toga isn’t out to hurt anyone anymore so he has no reason to not save her anymore. maybe fandom will get off his case about twice?

Who is going to save the heroes, Ochako asked! Well the villains that caused you to be in this state of course, Horikoshi answered as I try to brain myself on the nearest counter.

From what I've seen from the manga though, I don't think Hawks will be involved because that would have been good writing to include the man who initially caused Toga to actually reflect on her actions due to the consequences they could have.

Honestly it's annoying me how fandom is eating up this fight because of the wlw implications. I've said it before but I wouldn't have too much of an issue with Ochako wanting to reach out to Toga if it had actually been set up well. But no, it went from Ochako disliking Toga for her attempts at the lives of herself and her friends (with the fact that Hori in his attempt to make Toga 'sexy' made these acts come across as sexual in nature which brings up insane issues of consent), to her being angry that Toga killed an innocent women just to be selfish and ask what Ochako would do to her for her crimes and Ochako's answer was that she didn't even fucking care at the moment she's trying to save the people Toga and her 'friends' have condemned to death, to her wanting to save and then reaching out after being nearly murdered by this girl by saying she thinks her smile is the cutest in the world???

Ochako knows NOTHING about Toga's past. We could have had a chapter where Ochako learns that Hawks killed Twice and that Toga was very close to him, to Ochako asking Hawks why he did what he did, to her looking into Toga to find out about her and her circumstances (such as confronting the parents and the counsellors and we can see if their treatment of Toga was truly horrible instead of it being left extremely fucking vague for the purpose of letting the audience fill in the gaps like Hori loves to do) to THEN her reaching out.

It's lazy writing but fandom loves it because it's queer (and I'll probably have people angry at me because I'm critical of said queer writing but as someone who is bisexual so Toga is most likely my representation, I can be annoyed at the sloppy handling of her arc and the unaddressed and toxic traits Hori made her have.)

[sakuramiku]

＊・゜☆．。

it's been so long so it's time for a well needed update

🧸 my godmom + family had a beach day! i struggle so much with my anxiety these days that it literally does not make any sense to me because i have a very outgoing personality, i could honestly describe myself as an outgoing introvert. i admire people who can just DO things because i LOVE connections but my anxiety and overthinking limits me so much. i got to see my cousin who often comes up here for the summer and our other cousin who is up here with my aunt (her grandma) and we even got to go to american dream! we got super lucky cause my godmommy was so anxious to let them come. i had lots of fun with them probably going to see if i can get my godmommy a cake for her birthday which is today

⭐️ i am seriously thinking about my future. all my friends are having or announcing that they are having children and it feels me with a form of envy or jealousy . . i think? i'm not sure how i feel. after this semester, my next will be my last. i'll have a degree but i feel like my dreams of one day being a girl mom will be unfilled dreams. life is moving so fast for me and i honestly don't see it happening at all, like its one of those things that you say will happen later and then you never do it and go through those moments of grief and regret when you get older. but enough about that.

🌱 this new seasonal anime list has me so excited! i read the juicebox scanlations of yakuza fiance and i can honestly say that i'm more excited for that than dandadan. i got into both series when they only had 2 chapters and they both hold a special place in my heart because of those reasons. it's been lovely to see both series become well known and loved!

🍄 oh my god. bnha finally ended and i am so in mourning when it came to the ending. i originally dropped the series when twice died in 2020 and when i saw it was ending, i decided to quickly catch up so that i could experience the ending with everyone at the same time. i knew that eventually that the series would end but i thought the villains would get some closure and healing but i guess not. that deku/luke skywalker & shigaraki/anakin skywalker parallel is going to kill me everytime. i honestly forgot horikoshi was a huge star wars fan until that last chapter where shigaraki is a ghost, which is direct reference to anakin turning into a force ghost in return of the jedi. man i'm such a shigaraki girl. i bet he smells so bad but thats my man!

🎢 i want to get a picture on the coney island cyclone before it gets cold! one of the best things to be a landmark in my home city. okay i'm ending this here.

[wolfyaka]

Okay... I'll admit I'm having a hard time not freaking out after watching the spoilers, (damn you Horikoshi!), but apart from crying my eyes out for an hour before I could convince myself that this is the reaction Horikoshi wants, because it does look pretty bad, damn it, I was thinking about all the unknown factors that could save Toshinori and... You know, it keeps bothering me that we still don't know what was the relevance in the information Stain gave to All Might, yes, the discourse was very relevant to rekindle All Might's spirit, but there *must* be some relevance to that information too, right? I'm probably thinking something too farfetched and elaborated, but what if part of All Might's "I understand now" to Stain also included "I know what to do to survive now thanks to your info"?

I'm just rambling and breaking my brain trying to think of ways that such a close impact could not kill All Might, because, what's Bakugo really gonna do to save him if he actually (because we're just assuming he exploded his gauntlet, which is pretty likely but not 100% confirmed, at least not from what I have seen) exploded himself along with AFO? Unless All Might knew through his vestige that Bakugo was ready to fight and he somehow manages to free himself from AFO right in time for Bakugo to explode the hell out of him?

Damn it, this story is slowly killing me.

[sarahjtv]

My Hero Academia Chapter 403: The End of an Era and The Beginning

It's been a while since I did this mainly due to being busy with Grad School (which I'm almost done with thank god). But, I don't think a chapter has gotten me this hyped since Shoto Todoroki: Rising and Ochako's chapter where she saves Toga. Since the chapter is officially released, I can scream, cry, and kick my feet with you all in these bullet points. God, I love My Hero Academia, y'all.

• First off, HOLY SHIT KATSUKI BAKUGO IS ALIVE!!!!!! Apparently, it has been over 400 days since he was initially killed and brought every Bakugo lover to their knees in tears including myself. I still remember leaks night when that happened and pretty much everyone was in mourning. Then leaks night happens for his revival and everyone is celebrating like it's the second coming of Christ or something and I'm with them!

• We all knew that Bakugo would come back to life once Edgeshot started surgery on his heart, but it was the way his resurrection would be executed that I was wondering about. I can see why the whole "Edgeshot suddenly sacrifices himself to save Bakugo" would lessen the impact of his "death", but I really don't care much anymore because the way Kohei Horikoshi brought Bakugo back was SO good!

• Think about it: All Might is on the brink of death in the hands of All For One. All the red flags are there including the flashback of baby Toshinori (SO CUTE BTW LOOK AT THAT BIG LAUGH🥺) and his mother (whom he absolutely inherited his hairstyle from) in this very chapter. Gentle wants to help save him, but he's focused on keeping UA in the air. Every pro hero, UA student, and the Big 3 are either severely injured, passed out, or too preoccupied with something else to take on AFO. And even Izuku Midoriya, his protege, is busy dealing with Tomura Shigaraki in order to prevent him from turning Japan into dust. The only other person who can possibly save All Might now is Bakugo despite probably still being seriously injured himself.

• And this is great for Bakugo because this is his chance to save All Might. Not only is All Might his idol and his hero, but he is also the man Bakugo truly believes he destroyed after being kidnapped in Kamino Ward. I still believe Bakugo hasn't truly forgiven himself for that yet and this would be his way of redeeming himself. This reason alone is why I don't think All Might will die in this final arc. And if he does, I will be devastated because I really want to see him survive until the end.

• I am going to conclude this by commenting on how incredible Horikoshi is not just as a writer but as an artist because holy shit he needed that 2 week break. We got an incredible WSJ-colored Cover Page, a chapter-colored cover page, and then 15 pages of peak fiction. Those final pages once it's revealed that Bakugo is alive will live in my head rent-free for the rest of my days. ESPECIALLY THOSE LAST TWO PAGES HOLY SHIT! THE FACES, THE TEARS, THE WAY TIME SUDDENLY STOPPED WHEN THEY LOOKED AT EACH OTHER 💚🧡 The way Horikoshi draws All Might, Bakugo, and Deku is astounding and makes me cry. Those are his adopted sons. Those boys are soulmates in some capacity whether you like it or not. It may be the end of All Might's era, but it's the beginning of a new era; a new generation of heroes with Deku and Bakugo taking the lead. I can't wait for next week!

[stillness-in-green]

Chapter Thoughts — Chapter 382: Don’t Let Him Go

Two big lengthy segments today (guess what about) and some shorter observations. I'll just go ahead and put the jump here, shall I?

On Toga:

It’s hard to talk rationally about the drama with Toga this week, both because 

(A) The early leaks led to a lot of discussion centered on Toga and love and why—as the leaks expressed quite baldly—she doesn’t love Shigaraki and Dabi, and the bad takes are like unto a lingering poison I have to shake.

and

(B)  It feels so overwhelmingly like a copout.

There’s so much that can be theorized about Toga's dilemma and to what extent Tsuyu's assumptions about her love are correct, but I find it difficult to engage in good faith because it just feels so cheap. This is an almost Platonic example of arbitrary complications that are only a problem because the author says they are, not because they flow naturally from previously established facts.  If the Shigaraki that couldn’t make his quirk go off were a Toga-disguised-as-Shigaraki, that would be one thing, and you could move into discussion of her feelings freely.  But so far as we’re presented with, it’s not��it’s just a clone Shigaraki, exactly like any other Jin could have made himself.

Jin never had any problems with creating incomplete doubles.  If he didn’t understand something well enough, it wouldn’t look perfect on the surface despite missing core aspects internally; it would just immediately turn into sludge, like his attempt at replicating Overhaul’s quirk-erasing bullet.  Likewise, the various members of the League Jin doubled never manifested Jin’s own psychological need to cover his face to keep from splitting; that always remained unique to him and his self-doubles.

So why do doubles Toga makes have her emotional restriction?  Well, because the author said so.  Because Horikoshi couldn’t have this whole field of heroes be annihilated by a single double—even though, from all we knew about how Double worked before, that should be exactly what happened—so he had to come up with some arbitrary explanation why dozens of people haven’t been dusted where they stand.

As far as (A) goes, I think the real translation is more nuanced than the blunt statements in the leaks, and certainly the chapter as a whole is much more nuanced than the wild leaps people started making when all they had to go on was Tsuyu’s hypothesis—that people immediately took as fact—that Toga doesn’t love Shigaraki and Dabi.  For myself, I’m not inclined to second-guess Toga on her own experience of her feelings of love, what qualifies and what doesn’t.  She says she loves Touya and Tomura; I have to read that as at least as credible a claim as her love for Ochaco and Deku.

So where does that leave me?  Well, I think there are two major possible explanations for Toga’s problems that aren’t just the incredibly reductive and insulting, “She doesn’t love them.”  Both have some sub-issues of their own, but, well, that’s what comes of this whole development being dictionary-definition Arbitrary.

Theory 1:  Toga’s love always been tied up in her sense of wanting to become more and more like the objects of her affection.  She doesn’t just love Ochaco; she wants to become Ochaco.  So maybe the issue is that, while she loves Shigaraki and Dabi, she doesn’t particularly want to become them, and it’s the desire to emulate, rather than the love, that actually defines her ability to use quirks.

That would be consistent with the way her quirk evolution was portrayed in Chapter 226—much more consistent, even, than the idea that her “love” is the key factor.  Back then, the thought that’s on her mind as Curious comes in for the kill is, “I wanna be just like you.”  When she uses Ochaco’s quirk to kill, her spoken line is, “I wanna be even more like the people I love.”  Love is a factor, certainly, but it’s filtered through that additional qualifier.  This would mean everyone involved[1] has misread Toga’s condition in a small but crucially important way.

I can see two immediate problems with this theory, but both are fairly minor.

First, Toga never showed any particular desire to emulate Jin, but she’s obviously using his quirk—not without issues, but using it all the same.  This one’s fairly easy to get around, in that it would be very easy to say that she didn’t want to become Jin before he was killed, and her desire to do so now is inseparable from the fact that he was murdered.  Does she want to become him so he won’t be gone from her life?  So she can carry out revenge for him?  That’s fairly immaterial; as long as she does want to become him, his quirk becomes accessible.

Second, Toga has shown signs of emulating Shigaraki and, to a more debatable extent, Dabi.  While it’s not as full-throated as for Ochaco, obviously, Chapter 226 ends with Toga thinking that whatever she hates must be destroyed—right, Tomura?  Likewise, people have pointed out that Toga’s pose on the 339 color spread could be her copying his Frankenstein’s monster hands pose from 191.  So there’s at least some basis for Toga mimicking or adopting aspects of Shigaraki and Dabi, which would undercut the idea that she doesn’t want to become them ergo she can’t use their quirks. A single line of dialogue and a highly interpretable pose in a non-canon color spread make a pretty thin objection, though, so I don’t regard them as hard evidence against the theory.

Theory 2:  Toga’s transformation into Twice is flawed, so his quirk isn’t working to its fullest.  A flawed transformation would line up with that extremely unsubtle page of Toga agonizing about why she can’t become Jin overlaid against a background of thoughts about hero mass extinction that are highly un-Jin-like.  It would also point to the Sad Man’s Death Parade not being made up of Togas-transformed-into-Jin, which I had thought was the explanation for why they were so deathly silent compared to the riotous clamor the Sad Man’s Parade raised in Deika.  Rather, they are clones of Jin, but they’re flawed clones, strained through Toga’s grief and overpowering hatred, choking out Jin’s actual character: chatty, protective, desperately loyal.  If those distorted copies have Toga’s emotions, it makes a certain amount of sense that they’d also have her restrictions.

This one runs into serious trouble with my (B) objection, above, particularly the idea that Twice’s own quirk was always very all or nothing—it either works or it gloops, no in between.  If Toga’s attempt to use Jin’s quirk is reflecting a flawed understanding of Jin, she shouldn’t really get usable copies at all, just sludge.  As for explaining away this problem, well, we might say that quirks are pretty weird, so Transform and Double having some unpredictable interactions isn’t entirely out of bounds.  It’s just, again, deeply arbitrary.

I can't help but think, whatever the explanation, that there are ways around a hero massacre that wouldn't have required kneecapping Toga with nonsensical quirk restrictions. It's not as if we lack precedent for clones being way less dangerous than the real things!  The Shigaraki/Dabi/AFO clones were probably made by the bazillionth Himijin clone, so are about as strong as wet paper.  They'd also take longer to make, because it always took Jin longer to make clones of other people than clones of himself.  Just get Hawks off of AFO-sitting-duty and back down to the field to put feathers through any League/AFO-clones that are reaching out their hands in dangerous ways.

Heck, you could even further the teamwork themes by having Hawks—who's probably a bit low on feathers to do that whole thing himself—be the eye in the sky to coordinate everyone else!  (This might then leave him open to Actual Toga, who still deserves to knife him and has inexplicably not gotten to do so yet.)

Anyway.  I guess we’ll see how it develops.  I’m not against Toga having some good crunchy anguish, heaven knows, but it would be nice if it didn’t feel so mandated by the need to stop her from murdering a dozen acres’ worth of on-the-ground heroes.

One other thing, though, before I leave Toga and move on to the other big headache this chapter.  Tsuyu says, “It seems like Himiko-chan’s own restriction applies to the doubles she makes after transforming into Twice.  (...)  In an extreme situation like this, a single emotion could override that restriction at any second.”  That’s extra dangerous because of—and I don’t know if Tsuyu knows this or not—one of the factors in how Double works, or at least could be read as working.

Recall that back during MVA, we were told that the doubles Twice makes of other people are limited to what their real selves knew at the last time real!Twice saw them, but that this limitation doesn’t apply to Twice himself.  I never could 100% parse that, but one of the logical explanations is a sort of instant knowledge transmission—that anything the original knew, any double of him made would also know, even if it was itself made by a double that wasn't present for whatever new thing just happened.

Would this have applied only to new clones, each created as an up-to-the-minute copy of Original Jin and then lagging behind as they slide into their own experience?  Or is every clone updated moment to moment such that they stay accurate reflections of Jin?  That’s unclear thanks to the vague phrasing, but if the knowledge transmission works the same way for Toga, and she resolves her crisis and suddenly becomes able to create quirk-capable clones, then whether every Himijin on the field can abruptly do the same or only newly created Himijins, it’s an instant ticket to The Worst Situation either way.

(I’m rooting for you, Himiko!  Resolve that crisis!  Go go go!)

On Shinsou and Gigantomachia: 

On the one hand, this is the exact opposite of arbitrary authorial handwaves.  I can look back over Shinsou’s arc all the way back to the Sports Festival and see the groundwork being laid for this.  Indeed, I’d say all of his major appearances, combined with what we know about Machia, contributed to the setup for this.

At the Sports Festival, we learned that he could take control of people by tricking them into responding to them.  By the Joint Training arc, he’d picked up a support item that allowed him to mimic others’ voices.  In MVA, Machia was shown to be fanatically loyal to AFO, a trait that could be particularly guided by the sound of his master’s voice.

After the traitor reveal, Shinsou mind-controlled the Aoyamas through their phone call with AFO.  Since he can’t force people to do anything that requires much mental engagement (here meaning he couldn’t just order the Aoyamas to respond to AFO the way AFO expected them to), we must assume he needed to be able to hear AFO’s side of that phone in order to respond to it properly.  Thus, that phone call enabled him to learn what AFO’s voice sounded like such that he could later mimic it.

It all fits!  It fits extremely elegantly, more so than the vast majority of the late-stage twists have done thus far.

And yet...  And yet.

And yet it’s morally dubious and frankly, the Machia we were introduced to in MVA deserves better than this.

I know most people don’t care about Gigantomachia—indeed, the post-MVA series has not gone out of its way to encourage us to do so—but imagine for a moment that this wasn’t Machia attacking AFO.  Imagine it were Mister Compress.  He’s much too chatty to not trip into responding to Shinsou, and then he could be dropped in front of, say, Toga in hopes that seeing him would cause her to drop her guard long enough for Mr. Compress to be ordered into marbling her.

Wouldn’t that feel incredibly shitty, manipulative, and even outright villainous?  Especially for the kid whose entire character arc is about proving that he can use his quirk in non-villainous ways?  Like, Shinsou immobilizing Machia would be one thing, making him walk back into his cell, something like that would entirely fine. Actually forcing him to attack his own allies, however, is many, many steps past fine.

And it’s not like AFO doesn’t deserve to have a mountain thrown at him, but does Machia deserve to be forced to throw it?  Well, I could talk about that,[2] but as I see it, it’s a moot point.

Forcing enemies to fight their own allies, just so we’re all clear here, would be considered a war crime if this were a duly declared war situation.[3]  It isn’t a war, not least because the heroes are a nominally civilian force fighting against their own nation’s criminals, but, hot take, anything that would constitute a literal war crime in an international conflict is not something that should get readers cheering for the wholesome good guy heroes just because the crime’s being perpetrated against their own people.

Even if you set aside the ethics of the situation, though (which you by no means should), I have to ask about the tactical wisdom of bringing Machia to the field as well.  So Shinsou's controlling him now, awesome; we’ve weaponized one of the villains against their own side.

What happens when that control wears off?  Or Shinsou gets wounded (or worse) and loses focus?  Or AFO warps Machia out of there, likely out of Shinsou’s range of control?  Or Machia breaks himself out of the control because that’s just how much it agonizes him to be forced to fight his beloved master?  Or AFO breaks him out of the control because Machia is conditioned to respond to his voice, and he’s got the right smell to go with it?  Or literally anything because this is not a permanent solution but now Machia's out of prison and on the field with AFO, great job, team!!!

Another issue a chat friend brought up: Machia’s basically just retracing the path he took before—from the Villa to Jakku then back again.  Given how incredibly destructive that was before, how destructive was it this time?  Did they swerve around every settled area on the way?  Just run over it again because, heck, it’s not like anyone’s had time to repair it anyway?  ‘Cause like, back in Chapter 282, when the radio was running through the list of places that needed to be evacuated, the announcer listed twenty names before Uraraka picked up her line of dialogue, interrupting any further roll call of affected areas.

Furthermore, all the places listed were called cities—shi in the Japanese, the largest of Japan’s three municipal categories.  There are also towns (machi) and villages (mura), neither of which were mentioned in the broadcast, but which must surely also be scattered along Machia’s route.  That’s a lot of municipality to swerve around; would it even be feasible to do so and still reach the battle in a relatively timely fashion?  How much time has elapsed since we saw the Jakku battlefield in 353, at which point Machia was still down and dreaming?  How much time is that compared to how long it took Machia to clear the villa and arrive at Jakku in the previous war?

Machia’s travel times have always been a frankly impossible abstraction,[4] but seriously, it ought to take considerably more time to navigate around every clutch of houses in his path than to just plow through them.[5]  Unless, again, the kids just said fuck it and ran back over the path he took before, trusting that it was still an evacuated wasteland.  Which, while it doesn’t account for those who declined to evacuate to begin with, might be a fair bet—I can’t imagine the government’s shelling out much for repair and construction with things still so unsettled—but would still be a pretty bad look for Team Hero.

Stray Thoughts:

O  The layout of the narration boxes on the first page is very fun.

O  AFO is obvious, but I wonder why Dabi and not Shigaraki for Tsuyu’s pick on people they’d be doomed if Toga had chosen to transform into.  Shigaraki’s ranged Decay is by some measure deadlier, and that’s not even getting into everything else Shigaraki’s packing now.  Meanwhile, Dabi has still yet to kill a single named character.

O  Tsuyu calls Toga Himiko-chan, which is certainly A Choice she’s consciously making, given that last time they met, Tsuyu was still rebuking Toga not to address her by her given name.  Suffice to say, it’s a pretty strong suggestion that Tsuyu and Ochaco have had at least one serious conversation about Ochaco’s intentions towards Toga.  I wish we could have seen it, but I suppose there’s always a chance of flashbacks.

O  The panel of “Twice” with Toga’s eyes is a very nice touch.  I assume it’s not meant to be literal—the “Camie” the reader first meets at the License Exam also has Toga’s eyes, which are wildly different from Real Camie’s eyes, a discrepancy you’d think her classmates would have noticed if it were meant to be a true depiction of her appearance.[6]  Anyway, Ochaco doesn’t recognize her by the eyes; she recognizes her by the tears.

…Which is ironic, really, given that Jin was by far the most openly weepy of the League.

O  Teen AFO is great, but what I find most striking is the shadows beneath his eyes.  Specifically, the way they so strongly resemble the hollows beneath Shigaraki’s in e.g. Chapter 373.

I don’t know if this means anything, but it’s an interesting visual parallel.  I wonder if Yoichi was not the only brother prone to frailty as a youth?

-------------------- FOOTNOTES --------------------

1:  Tsuyu, who makes deductions based on it this week, Toga herself, who states it in Chapter 289; Ochaco, who heard it from Toga’s own mouth in the same chapter; and Dabi, back in 241, who probably also heard it from Toga at some point post-Deika.

2:  Mostly I’d say that since we know neither what AFO did to earn Machia’s loyalty nor how much say Machia had in the walking disaster he’s become, we don’t actually have enough context to say what he “deserves” and what he doesn’t, and that it’s not the heroes’ job to unilaterally dispense that justice regardless.

3:  Article 130 of the Geneva Conventions, which includes “compelling a prisoner of war to serve in the forces of the hostile Power” as one of several “grave breaches” of the Conventions that constitute a war crime.

4:  As has been the case for all the travel times this arc has flippantly handwaved.

5: Because if plowing through them would take him longer than running around them, he would have run around them the first time, the sooner to make it to Master’s side.

6:  Oddly enough, “Camie” only has Toga’s eyes for the first phase of the exam.  Once Toga switches transformations to Ochaco to target Deku and then shifts back into Camie after, her eyes look the Real Camie’s.  I haven’t done a thorough hunt, but she manifests Ochaco’s and Deku’s eyes normally at Deika and the Shie Hassaikai raid.

[dabistits]

quick bullet point of 394 thoughts again:

-at face value, the chapter holds up! it's pulls together ochako's changing thoughts throughout the 2nd half of the series and brings them to a conclusion as she's faced with someone else's pain who isn't the ~victim of a villain~ but an actual villain herself.

-himiko is in turn affirmed by someone who is "normal," who has never been abnormal and never been in her shoes the way the league has, who actually adjusts her (ochako's) perspective and admits her perspective was wrong in order to accept himiko.

-i do find this to be a much better turn than the todofam or (jfc) the mutant storyline. yes, todofam is forced to confront the skeletons in their closet and "own" their mistakes (not gonna get into whether or not that's correct given how it's mostly endeavor's fault <3) but i think there's a notable lack of acceptance of the way dabi is now. the focus was on the mistakes of the past and how they failed touya, not about what dabi might want to hear and do now. dabi was fought all the way to the end whereas ochako actually did reach out.

-and this might be bcs of where himiko and dabi's problems diverge (himiko's problem is one that is inherent to her, an instinctually-ingrained drive that doesn't necessarily entail harming people, whereas dabi's is explicitly taking out a bunch of uninvolved people to stick it to a shitty father) but positioning dabi as an issue to be solved by the family, rather than as somebody deeply wronged by multiple people who has a right to his hatred and rage (disclaimer: ~but not to hurt other people~) was weak and unsatisfactory. especially when contrasted with the fact that he has been more harshly judged, scolded, and physically beaten down in comparison to an actual abuser.

-the mutant storyline is just blatant libshit that horikoshi couldn't even hide under the guise of being about interpersonal relationships lmfao.

-in short, himiko's story actually gets a nod about how people were wrong about her and how that led to her mistreatment in a way that todofam and mutant storylines don't acknowledge. there is actually a focus on her feelings and how she was wronged, instead of being preoccupied with listing reason #872 why dabi/spinner are bad people.

-thematically though, does the chapter hold up? i'm still never going to be a fan of a story where the answer is assimilation into a society that scorned them. while this chapter is better than the mutant storyline, it still feels like it'll take a similar path: bnha teases "the attitudes of society has to change," but it also pins the responsibility of incremental/respectable change on marginalized people. idk ig this will either be addressed way into the future or not at all so we'll see.

-himiko's (and the league's) fate is still a huge elephant in the room. you can call her cute but can you be in her (and her friends') corners if the state wants to imprison or execute her?😳 how much is the acknowledgement of the league's importance to himiko worth if we're comfortable putting them all in jail? if i wasn't already a prison abolitionist bnha could make me one.

-being a qwoc myself i can say that a nice girl can call me beautiful all she wants but if she's in favor of putting me in jail her words would mean jack shit <3

-the other huge elephant in the room is twice. like genuinely no one acknowledged that he is dead, he was killed by a hero, and that fact is responsible for 99% of himiko's current rage😭 and then he just dissipates like he's a metaphor for himiko's hate-fueled rampage😭 come the fuck on stop treating this like it's a metaphor with no answer, we know there is a specific person who is responsible for this. hawks🤝endeavor, characters the story can't accept are directly responsible for this bullshit.

-good chapter canceled, horikoshi drew a teenaged girl nude again.

[curiousquirks]

holy fucking shit! You're the author of Secure, Contain and Protect! It took me a while to *fucking realize that!* I was whole ass scratching my brain on why your writing felt so FAMILIAR! I can finally ask the question that has been fucking bothering me for *centuries* What inspired you to write such a masterpiece? and I REALLY want all the headcanons! Please! unless theyre somewhere on your blog!

Hi hi!! Omg omg, I'm so glad you enjoyed it <3

I know it's a very obscure crossover for these fandoms. I honestly just wanted to combine two of my favorite things together. SCP is a hidden hyperfixation of mine (and I had been binging a bunch of videos at the time my obsession with BNHA was at its peak) and with the quirks and everything in BNHA I just had to do a crossover. I ended up doing my best to not make the characters just humanoid SCPs with superpowers because I find that kind of boring. I enjoy a lot of the more complicated SCPs personally myself. Once I got the ball rolling it was fairly easy for me to start brainstorming how they'd get transferred over. (Also I did the main LOV and Hassaikai since they're my favorite) I went through all that effort making sure that as much of their character transferred over into their backgrounds/SCPs.

The first characters I remember thinking about with my sister was Setsuno, Shigaraki, Dabi, Mimic, and Mr. Compress actually. I searched and searched through most the database for SCP finding all the information I could about various SCPs to get inspiration, usually looking at ones that were similar to the SCP I wanted for the character. Like how Twice is similar to SCP-999, Mr. Compress is similar to SCP-035, and Dabi is similar to SCP-457. Tomura was the easiest to fully flesh out, since I took heavy inspiration from that moth imagery that Horikoshi used for him in the manga <3 Ahh it was gorgeous.

As for headcanons, oh boy. I loved the idea of All For One being an important Council Member, making his right hand man Ujiko that specific site's Director for all of his pet projects. AFO had his hands in collecting every single SCP in that facility, finding each of them interesting in ways that not even Ujiko knows about. Tomura getting free temporarily was the only that genuinely surprised him, and one of the only things that kept Spinner alive.

Aside from Tomura, AFO is only concerned about Dabi and Chisaki since they are the most unpredictable. It fascinates him but infuriates him to no end. Ujiko is actually a firm believer in giving the SCPs a stable and happy environment would provide more results than they're getting but the Council nearly killed him for this opinion. Ujiko is very fond of Twice's SCP, it's why he was allowed to wander around the facility from time to time.

Also my little hidden detail of the MTF being named "Vanguard" after the vanguard action squad from the LOV <3 It was a detail I never got to really point out to readers. I can honestly go into detail talking about my thoughts and inspiration about each of the characters if you wanted, I can talk about my AU all day aha

[theophagie]

if you could go back in time and hold horikoshi at gunpoint, how would the manga have ended?

I wouldn't change anything about the Todoroki family except for Touya living, and the same thing applies to Spinner, I love the idea of him being a narrator but I would expand it to the lov in general because in my ideal world Tenko wouldn't be dead (also maybe let's not do a comic 'kay, everything literally started because of a comic ajdjfkwjfj). Other than that. Man... I can't describe the hows in detail, but I do have my general ideas

Starting with Himiko, I would have made Hawks play a part in her salvation and eventual reintegration in society, especially in light of the part he indirectly played in her "villain awakening". It would have also been a way to bring closure to Jin's subplot I think: Hawks could have never been able to go back in time and not kill him, but he could have shown compassion towards the girl that he adored so much and one of the people he had been willing to die for. This post is one that I went back to and reread over and over again while in despair after the finale (to make myself feel even worse lol), op put into words everything that I also thought when Himiko's chapters first came out and expressed what I still think should have been the direction taken with them. Also, older Ochako and Himiko working on the quirk counselling program together 💔💔💔💔💔

When it comes to Izuku and Tenko, starting from when they began seeing each other's memories, I would have loved for actual reactions to what they saw in/about each other and their similar origins, like I would have loved a Tenko rising chapter (which would have ultimately been the chapter where he gets saved). Horikoshi dropped the bomb that decay came from overhaul, and while reading the manga I thought the most logical follow-up on that would have been a quirk evolution of some kind to regain those restoraltive qualities, at least in part... *thinks about the state of his body afte he got hit with all those ofa punches*...... and by contrast I wouldn't have made Midoriya "save to win" Izuku's rising chapter culminate with him smashing someone into smithereens (lol. lmao even) *thinks about the fuckass old lady using that image as her reference before helping the boy on the street. ??????*. Like I said, I can't tell you how I would make Izuku save Tenko, but all other hero-villain match ups also involved a confrontation through words, so. that. I would have wanted that here too.........

KUROGIRI. I don't even know what to say. The rooftop trio demons never got to me, so I don't have well-formed thoughts on what more Aizawa and Mic could have done, and I've always gone back and forth on whether I wanted him to "live" or not, but at the very least they should have had more time together, and he shouldn't have been killed for quite literally acting like a hero for Tenko. Like it's still crazy to think about. He got killed while trying to protect someone and invoking that someone's friends' need for him. Head in my hands

And idk there are definitely things that I'm forgetting atm but this is the major stuff that has left me with a gaping hole in my chest. :'|

[bnhaobservation]

Sure I'm open to discussion! (though the day after tomorrow I'll have to leave for a travel, I'll be pretty busy and I won't have with me my pc so I'll likely won't reply to messages or, if I'll manage to they'll be pretty short).

I think you're under the impression I don't live in the west. I do, by when I was born. And I've seen the opposite. On the news I've seen families still sticking for their criminal relatives, not forgiving what they've done but wanting to still be there for them. I worked in a area near to an ex-prison. The houses there used to be all of people who had a relative in prison. They moved there to be close to their familiar because otherwise visiting became too troublesome. I've known of people who kept visiting their loved ones in jail.

I've even seen people who're not relative forgive the one who murdered their loved ones.

And I've heard way too much people should forgive. Forgive, forgive, forgive. Not condone but forgive.

I'm a bad sheep, an odd one as I'm not really pro forgivance in real life. It's not I don't understand it's importance and all, it's just not my cup of thing.

I don't know if I would be capable to forgive a relative if he were to end up in jail and I hope I'll never find out.

Of course you can complain I've generalized maybe a tad too much. The west is a BIG area. Countries in the west are more similar among them than with countries in the east but they're pretty different among them.

And people in the same country are different among them.

In truth I don't know if there's a country in the west in which people who has a criminal son would find normal to do like Yagami Soichirou and say 'fine, I'll kill him and then kill myself' (BTW, just to play safe, I've said I'm not forgiving but I still wouldn't be all right with this either).

So I guess the best thing we can do is to agree our experiences are different and formed our opinions, instead than trying to tell each other who has the experience that's more valid and general and fitting of the rest of the west population or who of us as an opinion that fits the most of the fandom and therefore can talk for the whole of it for this little discussion.

Now... could Enji save Touya or not?

I think you agree with me that the story want us to believe that Enji loved Touya. We have this as a common ground.

Now here it's were our experiences differ.

My experience teaches me that people who love other people have an extremely hard time letting go of them. They insist on doing CPR even when there's nothing to do, or are at the hospital and are told the hospital will shut down the machine that keeps their loved ones alive because there's no hope and they don't just get the memo and insist they can't. They search for crazy ways to heal incurable diseases, everything as long as there's hope, they dig into the dirt to pull out people who were buried under a building crash and keeps on digging even when there's no hope to find them alive.

My family experienced it, losing someone and refusing to just accept it at first.

Credits, when it's due we have some people that accepts death calmly... but they're considered uncommon.

This is of course a story and in the story Horikoshi wanted Shouto to save the day so no one else could do something but, for me, Rei's attempt at cooling Touya, which is impossible from the start because Rei just has nowhere near enough power, is much more my cup of tea than Enji's 'okay, nothing can be done'.

What's more BNHA is not a story of a consequential series of facts that happened to real people.

It's a story split in more arcs, in which the characters are tasked with accomplishing something.

In Enji's specific case he was given an arc of atonement toward the family members he had hurt. His role as a character is this, in the same way as Luke has to face and 'save' Darth Vader.

Narratively speaking, Touya being a mass murder who doesn't want to repent and wants to ruin his life and murder him is an obstacle in Enji's arc of atonement to his whole family (which includes Touya).

In the same vein Darth Vader being a giant size mass murder who destroyed planets and lead an army that invades them and put people under a fascist regime is also an obstacle. Dath Vader too doesn't want to redeem himself, he asked Luke to join him, he told him if he weren't to join he would try it with his sister.

In real life Enji has the option to say 'who cares, I don't have to atone to someone who's doing me that, actually scratch this, I don't have to atone to anyone, no one is pointing a gun to my head. telling me to do it'.

In real life Luke too has the option to say 'nope, not going there' or 'fine, I'll kill him'.

In the story, that's their role and if they try to escape, they're failing their role. It's game over. The story can tempt them because that's what are stories for but they've to overcome temptation.

The real question in Enji's arc is WHAT CAN HE DO TO ATONE TO HIS FAMILY FOR WHAT HE DID?

WHAT CAN HE DO TO ATONE TO TOUYA?

If we start to say 'no, but afterward, Touya did this so Enji doesn't have to atone to him anymore...' we abort Enji's quest.

If anything what Touya does afterward enriches Enji's quest because it made it more difficult. It's not much of a quest with Rei and Fuyumi, who basically immediately say okay, but in itself is not much of a quest with Natsuo either as he just say 'stay away from me'.

It's Touya who's the challenge and, at the same time, the consequence of what Enji did (by the way, I'm keeping this reply specifically about Enji, there's more to say about Touya but that's not the place).

Some people who complain he didn't do enough aren't necessarily Enji haters... they just wanted to see him do even more. I've met some people who wanted HIM to be the one who were to save Touya, not Shouto, they wanted another quest for Shouto.

Sometimes you just want a character to get a perfect score in his arc. Each of us is different.

Enji's actions had drastic consequences for his family but, at first, no real negative consequence of equal value for him.

Enji's sorry now and I think it's beautiful because in real life too few people get sorry about it. But in order to atone for what he did, he had to narratively pay a huge price. That's why he gets the harsher ending out of all the Heroes. Because he had all the power in his family, the family he was meant to protect, that it was his duty to protect, and instead he hurt it beyond belief.

For some the price he paid might feel enough. For others it will never be enough. It's not biased, it's life.

If I hadn't misunderstood you, you wouldn't forgive a murderer. Another person can chose not to forgive an abuser, even if said abuser says he's sorry.

I'll also clarify that I don't think Enji is forcing his presence upon Touya. I'm sure Touya wanted him to be there. I've said this in another meta. Horikoshi foreshadowed Touya wanted more time to talk with his family, Touya said he wanted his family to see him, his heart speeding up is clearly a sign the fact his father is willing to keep on coming to see him touches him, the fact he ultimately talked to Shouto showed he was willing to engage... but again between you and me is a matter of different experiences.

I've read way too many takes of people saying he's forcing himself upon his son to assume my take is the one of the majority.

Yes, undoubtedly there are many bad takes on Enji, fanfictions love to pin on him crimes he hadn't committed... or, on the opposite, completely absolve him saying Rei was actually the abuser and he was a poor victim and a perfect dad (some even went and blamed one or all the kids).

There's extremes in everything, bad takes are among both his lovers and his haters, and there's not really just two sides of the fandom, there's not my part of the fandom and yours.

I've noticed that too many think if you like one character you can't like the other, if you like Touya you can't like Shouto or Enji, if you like Shouto you can't like Enji or Touya.

In truth we can like multiple characters or just one, we can agree on something and disagree on something else and our opinions can shift, change.

I find all the Todoroki characters EQUALLY interesting.

I don't find Enji boring or hate him as a character.

And I think that understanding his culture (or trying to as I'm not sure I've a good grasp of it) and where he comes from help to understand him and why he does things a certain way or why he doesn't get punished in a certain way, which doesn't mean you can't like him even if you don't understand Japanese culture or that you can't hate him even if you understand it.

And funny enough in this blog I often end up talking about him instead than all the other Todorokis... it's not a complain it's just it feels a little odd.

Said all this, yes, I'm open to talk if people are willing to be polite about it. Comparing opinions, even different opinions, broad perspective and improve the understanding of a story. Though as I said at the start, I'll soon be away for a while so I might end up finding hard to do it until I'm back home.

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

Boku no Hero Academia has a grave 'flaw'. The fact that's strongly tied to Japanese culture and Buddhism makes it a very interesting work but also makes it a hardly international work because way too many cultural things are left unexplained because they're assumed to be a given. Only they're not when the work is read by foreign readers. And this lead to confusion.

The Todoroki plotline is an example of this.

In the west many feel Enji did nothing for Touya or did too little because the little he did is a given in the west. The point is... it's not a given in Japan. In Japan is a BIG DEAL. So let's go though it.

First, the fact that he doesn't want to kill Touya even though he's a criminal

Todoroki Enji ‘Ore wa ikinobite mo... ENDEAVOR wa shinda. Tairyō satsujinsha (read: musuko) to tatakaenai.’ 轟炎司「俺は生き延びても...エンデヴァーは死んだ。大量殺人者（むすこ）と戦えない。」 Todoroki Enji “Even if I survived... Endeavor is dead. I can't fight against a mass murderer (read: my son).”

Let's compare it to these two scenes of "Death Note" and see how Yagami Soichiro, a policeman, is taking the idea his son might be a killer and how, although Misa protests, the story doesn't present it as him being crazy but as it being his duty.

That's why Hawks doesn't want to send Enji, who's on an atonement path, to face Dabi, because Enji might end up in a situation in which he would have to kill his son and he would refuse... which is more or less what happens.

Second, Enji acknowledges that what Touya said is true, Touya is his son and Enji did what he did. In such a situation many would lie. Dabi's video proves nothing. He is a Villain, they had a doctor in the team who could create Nomu, the paternity test could be fake, even if Dabi were to provide a sample of his blood or skin they could insist that's fake.

Society didn't want the truth, they don't want Enji to confess, they wanted him to reassure them, they even commented he should have lied because yes, that's what's done often.

Basically he put his honor on the chopping block. A public apology like this one is a BIG DEAL in Japan. It's much more serious than in western countries and he does it when he could have spared himself and say Dabi lied but that would have meant to deny his son.

Third, it connects to the first in a way. While Enji is unwilling to kill Touya, he's willing to die with him. It's ‘shinjū’ (心中 Lit. “Mind/heart center/inside” but more likely means “oneness of hearts”, probably reflecting a psychological link between the participants) and it’s a word used in common parlance to refer to any group suicide of two or more individuals bound by love, typically lovers, parents and children, and even whole families. People who commit shinjū believe that they would be united again in heaven, a view supported by feudal teaching in Edo period Japan, which taught that the bond between loved ones would continue into the next world, and by the teaching of Pure Land Buddhism wherein it is believed that through shinjū, one can approach rebirth in the Pure Land. By volunteering to die with him, Enji is basically agreeing to remain with him in their next reincarnation.

For us it's crazy, it's Enji giving up on saving him. In Japan it sounds like 'I love you and I want to be with you'.

Forth, he'll apologize to Touya. As said before it's a BIG DEAL, especially since Enji is the family head and, although for us most of what he did is wrong, in Japan most of what he did is well within what he can do. Marrying a woman you don't love in a combined marriage to expect the child who'll be born from it will fulfill your ambitions and not really bothering to raise it because that's a mother job, well, things are changing in Japan but none of the above is a crime. In a not so distant past it was actually the norm. Yet Enji apologizes even though normally a family head wouldn't.

Fifth it's a bit in the first point and in the second but it'll drag on through all the story, Enji won't reject Touya. He's the only one (except Fuyumi who however doesn't get to say much) who never calls him Dabi after the reveal, and he won't strike him out of the family register but will keep on considering him his son.

Look at the Tobitas instead and at how they kick their son out.

Don't think Hawks is cutting strings with his parents solely because they were abusive, the Tobitas show us how you should just cut strings with a criminal. Same as the Togas.

Have "Theseus no fune" in which a man accused to be a murderer, send a birthday gift to his son and watch the reaction of his wife.

They don't want to keep contact with a criminal. It's scary because they'll be mistreated if they are discovered to be related to him.

And, in this vein, the fact he wants to go see him, that he'll keep on seeing him till the end instead than turning his back on him, is seen as important. It's seen as him being his father.

To many of us it seems as if he's forcing his presence upon Touya. Actually, from a Japanese perspective he's instead not abandoning him like many others would.

And since Touya is dying, very likely the talking will be the talking that's done in a Buddhist culture when someone is dying. Death should occur in a calm and peaceful environment, with close friends and family in attendance. Together they should reflect on the good deeds the dying person has done throughout their life, in the hopes it will help them in their next reincarnation. Additionally, family and friends can perform good deeds on behalf of them, which they believe will be of merit to the deceased.

So, since Touya is dying he won't get a scolding like Chisaki, they'll all only tell him nice and soothing things so he'll die peacefully.

Now... in the west all this is absolutely way too little, and in some points even feels wrong. Dying together instead than insisting in trying to save him? Deciding unilaterally to show up every day? Not our thing...

We can totally say 'thanks, I hate it' because we grew up with Darth Vader who instead gave his life to SAVE his son. All this accepting that Touya instead is going to die so Enji can at best die with him or keep him company until he does... well, it's mostly not our cup of cultural tea.

In in Japan though, all Enji does is important. Enji is doing something for Touya as a father, something important many fathers wouln't do for their sons.

Does it would satisfy a Japanese audience? They'll get the message better than us... but things are changing and anyway it can still feel too little. "Death Note" is dated 2005/2006 and back in it Misa was already questioning the idea of a father killing his son and then killing himself. BNHA is more innovative as Enji doesn't think to kill Touya but he still goes for the 'let's die together' route... and Horikoshi subtly criticizes it by having the rest of the family decising they'll try to stop the fire before just giving up. They're willing to die, but not before trying.

Enji represents plenty of old theories after all, which Horikoshi acknowledges were moved out of wrong beliefs, not moved by mean intents... which, is possible, would still not be enough for Japanese readers either because among teenagers, the target audience, there's an increasing number of teen who, in Japan, are forced to leave home (the Toyoko Kids) and often ends up committing crimes to survive and the league seems to be based on all the kind of homeless people Japan has.

While for a kid at home with a loving family being told that your father will die with him if he messes up instead than just dumping him might be comforting... for a kid that was abused and forced to leave home this might feel not enough.

People want to be saved, being told it's too late to save them, might be a lesson for those who hadn't done anything wrong yet so that they won't do it, but it's surely not a hopeful message for who instead got himself into troubles.

But well, that's something for the Japanese audience to ponder.

There's also to point out that, even though the message is not hopeful, Horikoshi is seeing the homeless people and acknowledging they should be helped.

Japan in regard to the Toyoko kids is mostly like the old woman who pretended not to see Tenko but that, in the end, helps that new boy.

I think Horikoshi's message desperately wants to be hopeful even for them, that he wants BNHA be like Midoriya's final stand, something that will push people to acknowledge they exist and reach out to help them.

It just that... it gets lost in what I'll call the 'litteral translation'.

No one explains us how we should jusge the scenes and, since we lack the cultural background, to us they are perceived differently because to us things work differently.

And, personally, even when I think I figured out the author's intent and can see the positivity of it, the cultural filter is still too tick and the picture gets blurried.

It's like being beginner at speaking a foreign language and having to constantly translate it in your head. The message loses its natural beauty, get simplified and not fully grasped.

I think I understand how Enji's atonement work in regard to Touya... it still doesn't feel fulfilling to me. But enough about Touya.

'Now,' you might rightfully say, 'fine, I'll bite, let's assume what Enji has is an atonement arc for Touya. It doesn't work at all in the west but let's give it a pass. What about his other kids?'

Natsuo and Fuyumi's wishes are in conflict.

Fuyumi wants the five of them to be a family (at the time she doesn't know Touya is alive), Natsuo doesn't want to be part of a family with Enji.

Enji's solution is giving Fuyumi a house in which she can welcome her mother and live with Natsuo (and Shouto when he comes home), while he removes himself from the equation. The solution fulfills Natsuo's wish of not seeing Enji because it makes him feel bad. It only partly fulfil Fuyumi's wish because it'll allow her to have her mother back (Rei couldn't bear meeting Enji either) and to stay with her siblings... but Enji takes responsibility for it, he doesn't tell her it's due to Natsuo that he can't live with them, so, in theory, it won't be Natsuo the one who's stressed to be at home when Enji is there and the one who has to leave home because he can't stand the sight of Enji.

There are many things I can say on how this is not a good solution (it doesn't make Natsuo feel better, it just stops him from feeling worse), but there are two points to consider. The first is that Enji is getting old and it would be his children's duty, due to filial pity, to take care of him, instead he's basically giving them the means to leave and take his wife with them.

Actually, since Natsuo is now the oldest MALE, it should fall on him specifically. Yes, Enji always intended to have Shouto inherit his mantle but this doesn't free Natsuo from his duties. Instead Enji is letting all his children free.

Even with Shouto, he doesn't insist anymore for Shouto to learn Flashfire Fist as his heir but just as an intern.

I take this is big in Japan.

Here again, not so much, especially in the countries in the west that think kids should leave their parents' home as soon as possible and we don't think our children are obliged to inherit our mantles.

Note how the story implies that this was meant to be the end for the Natsuo/Enji arc.

Natsuo made clear he didn't want to meet Enji again, he does it solely because they've to stop Touya and, once they've stopped Touya, he makes clear he doesn't want to see him again.

If we want though, the fact he's leaving the family can be seen as a concession in a way.

Since apparently Rei wants to stay with Enji (and likely their old house was devasted because that's what happens to relative of criminals) Enji can now move with Fuyumi and Rei and Natsuo won't have to see him because he'll leave home... to make his own home.

As for Shouto... Horikoshi answered his request by basically showing him Enji being a father for Touya and then promising he would protect them from the fiery fallout, which Horikoshi doesn't show at all because it's another thing that's a given in Japanese culture, it'll be hell for Enji to protect them, but not for us.

Just to get an idea of the fiery fallout here are some images from "Theseus no fune" again showing you how bad is this sort of thing.

Back to Enji, Horikoshi gives us verbal confirmation that Enji is now being a father by being willing to do this, by having Natsuo, who never called him as such, calling him father for the first time.

For Horikoshi that's Enji being a father.

Again, we've no idea of which hell Enji will suffer because that's not part of our culture. I've posted above screencaps of "Theseus no fune", that's how the fallout should be so not pretty at all.

So the fact that Enji will try to protect them from it is, again, BIG.

So yeah, Enji did do BIG things to atone and keeps on doing them and if he'll ultimately get forgiven by Natsuo (the rest of his family wanted to forgive him way before he were to do something), that's up to Natsuo... Horikoshi likely left this as open ending because he wanted to let it up to readers so as not to make them feel they were forced to forgive Enji.

In the general hopeful theme of the manga and with Natsuo acknowledging him as a cool father I guess his idea is that Natsuo too will eventually forgive him because he's kind.

I don't want to say that Natsuo forgiving Enji would be a culture clash because there's people even here that forgive their horrible parents and that's valid. Forgiving is a personal choice and one has the right to make it even if said horrible parent did nothing to deserve it.

It's up to you.

But sure is, if again we take the story at face value and not in its cultural contest, we can't see what Enji does to atone, because for us is nothing big.

It's even made worse by how Horikoshi doesn't show at all the hell Enji will go through (as for him is a given) so for us IT DOESN'T EXIST. We see Enji as having it easy, talking big but not having to face anything at all.

Honestly though... I think this is a bit of a flaw of the manga as a whole.

Way too often it prefers to focus on the good than on the bad so that the bad gets sidelined to much to the point people forget it.

There were horrible Heroes who committed crimes and had no intention to repent or stop... and we never met them. Nagant killed them off but we never met them.

Mountain Lady, who became a Hero for money and fame, then sticks to the job even when it's bad. Desugoro, who left the job when it turned bad, then came back to help. Enji is on an atonement path and, anyway, on work he was always a good Hero.

In the same way Horikoshi prefers not to show Enji's hardship but focus on how he'll have the support of his sidekicks, driver and Hawks... partly also because it ties in so well with the general message of everyone reaching out.

The result is that the Midoriya plotline of everyone reaching out becomes more important of the Enji atonement arc and overshadows it.

Enji's atonement arc ends in 426, chap 430 doesn't feel the need to tell us if Enji is keeping up with it despite the hardship, nor how his family is doing. It feels the need to reassure us that people will reach out for him even if he's in hell, that even if he had to give up on his family, he now as a new found family.

It's thematically consistent with the theme of reaching out but... the fact it overwrites the atonement arc honestly FOR ME doesn't work so great.

I think it's an overall problem of the 'reaching out message'.

While in itself is beautiful... it saves nothing I was lead to care about.

In Enji's case I was interested in his atonement arc, in how he could help his kids. I wanted more of that, partly because his atonement arc is so far from my culture, partly because it touched characters I cared about, I wanted to be reassured he would keep on working on it and that his family would be well.

Yes, he should be in hell, but the story didn't really work hard on trying to make me worry for him as it established already a support network for him. The story made me worry for the kids, for Touya, who was dying, for Fuyumi, who wanted back her family and won't have it, for Natsuo, who's marrying an unknown character so young, for Shouto, who has to cope with the loss of the brother with whom he wanted to connect.

I don't really care Burnin, Onima, Kido and Hawks are willing to continue to protect Enji, to reach out to help him, I knew they would, I wanted to be reassured Enji's kids are safe, well and protected. I wanted to see ENJI reach out and help them.

In this vein I don't really care the old grandmother saved a nameless abused kid, or, at least, not as much as I cared for Tomura to be saved. It's nice she saved him, it's nice he gets to live the life Tomura was denied but honestly, he's a mob character with a super tragic backstory created deliberately to force us to emotionally connect to him.

The message he now will be saved is good, but my emotional investment to him is too little.

The same applies to Uraraka's Quirk counsueling program, we knew next to nothing about the Quirk consueling previous program beyond that it didn't work (a real problem in Japan as they have a school consueling program that didn't work... and changes are in progress) and that now it supposedly does.

To how Shouji now solves peacefully plenty of conflicts caused by Heteromorph discrimination, which Horikoshi tossed in later and never really showed how to solve (and, don't take me wrong, it's not solved even by Shouji, he just solves peacefully the conflicts, how is up to everyone's speculation).

Long story short, I think Horikoshi worked really hard for BNHA to have an optimist, hopeful message... but part of it goes lost in cultural differences and part of it goes lost in how the story didn't try to get me invested in the things it's now saving.

So yeah, I'm still sad for this little panel in chap 430

I guess I'll eventually get over it. Today though, it's not that day.

On a positive note... if we count the pages of all the chapters that should go in vol 42 they're only 132. The chapters that were meant to go into Vol 39 had 165 (which yes, Horikoshi further expanded once the volume was released).

So yeah, unless Vol 42 will be slimmer than usual or that he'll add to it some sidestory or extra story, it's possible we'll get more plot in terms of epilogue. We'll see.

(also yes, I'm not touching Rei in this post. Rei is another can of worm entirely and one, I fear, Horikoshi doesn't care about. The poor woman doesn't even get a profile while Ikoma Komari does. And really, I do think Rei is much more important than Ikoma Komari)