#i very much do like the city spirit gotham idea but wasnt quite sure how to implement it here

[the-fenton-anticreep-stick]

@little-pondhead i wanted to add more to the fic from ask I sent you and that you added to so I did :3 (in a separate post because I’ll probably add even more, and others are welcome to as well!! and i didnt want to take up people’s entire dashes snfnfj) @cinturon-cadena

Dan had never quite mastered portals or long-distance teleportation, and he doubted he would be able to while he was so limited by this form, but it was a moot point when his top speed was far faster than Danny’s and he had Clockwork’s Time-Outs at his disposal. He took a quick trip around the globe, tipping over landmarks, moving some buildings, splashing around in some foul-smelling pools of ectoplasm and stealing some left shoes from the ninjas guarding said pools.

Once he was pleased with his mischief, (and more importantly: starting to get hungry,) he headed towards the familiar feel of the cursed city. It was significantly less destroyed than he had left it the last time he’d visited. He understood the necessity of Clockwork’s interference, but it was still disappointing. He had put effort into such widespread destruction!

At least the city’s curse-spirit-mind-whatever it was didn’t remember what he’d done, and as such no longer wanted to give him a slow and torturous End. That didn’t mean it approved of him being there, though.

Time unpaused and he’d barely had the chance to tear down some walls before Gotham slunk out of the shadows.

“Calm yourself!” He growled as he squirmed out of its grasp, wishing he could still turn his form into mist. Intangibility was of little use with a creature like this. “I’m not here for you, or any of those mortals you are so fond of.”

Gotham screeched, and if he had bones, several of them would have undoubtedly been broken. "You are Other! An outsider! You are not welcome here!" It’s voice mingled with the screams of the alarms and the shouts of inmates and guards alike. “You set the Madness loose!“

Their tussle was nonexistent to the mortals as they rolled beneath and through stampeding feet, clawing at each other like alley cats. “All in good fun, Gotham!” He snarled and bit through one of the tendrils intent on relieving him of his eyes. He grimaced at the sludgy texture. “Time Itself sends me, to play with your favored mortals and avenge your dead!”

“You are evil! You will cause harm!“ Gotham screeched.

Dan rolled his eyes. “I will kill the insect who terrorizes what is yours,” He promised as if it were an offering to her, and not something he’d been planning for some time. (Danny had been so upset when the insect who called itself the Batman and its brood were absent from one of his schemes, because they were busy with this Joker insect. It was annoying. No insect, no need for Danny to complain. Danny had even agreed to the plan!) “Decide his fate, and I will enact it!”

The city’s spirit relaxed its grip on him. “You swear it? You will rid me of him, you will leave my Knights alone?"

“I’ll leave them alive.” Unless they challenged him. Then he would destroy them. But that didn’t need to be said.

“I will watch you..." Gotham slipped back into the shadows.

“Oh, how spooky.” Dan grumbled sarcastically as he shook himself in a vain attempt to remove the lasting sensation of Gotham’s touch.

That little disagreement had eaten up much of his precious time before the heroes of this realm could catch up to him. He lifted himself off the floor, startling a few inmates, and surveyed the chaos for a moment, selecting the perfect target. He darted towards the plant themed-villain- Poison Ivy, if he recalled correctly. (He always did.)

The woman staggered, clutching at her head as she tried to force him out. Overriding her will was laughably easy, but he admired her attempt to fight.

“Ah- Hey! You leave her alo- EEP!” With a flick of Ivy’s wrist, Dan suspended the other- Harley, Ivy’s memories named her, -in the air, leaving her dangling from some vines. The baseball bat she’d tried to clobber him with fell to the floor. He kicked it aside as he strode down the hall.

“I’ll give her back.” He said with a shrug, overexerting the woman’s powers to restrain every person he could find within the prison. His plants dragged all the pitiful, trapped mortals to the largest room available, stringing them up from the ceiling in cocoons like the insects they were. There. That would make it easier to find that awful clown.

Unless he’d already escaped. That would be unfortunate. Not for Dan, of course, but unfortunate for anyone who got in the way while he searched the city. And unfortunate for that clown, when Dan caught up.

The clown wasn’t in Arkham, so Dan left the unconscious Poison Ivy on the floor and shot through the roof, grumbling to himself. He flew clear of the building just in time to see Batman enter through a window. He paused, spectral tail flicking back and forth as he thought, before diving back in after the hero.

Danny had said to see how many things he could steal from that utility belt without being caught... And it wasn’t like there was anywhere the clown could go that Dan couldn’t follow.

He slipped out of the visible light spectrum and bit back his gleeful cackles as he liberated some of those delightful green rocks from the confines of the Bat’s pockets.

[thekingofwinterblog]

Why Izuku FEELS like a Failure Hero

So, it's no secret by now that the final chapter of My Hero Academia ended on a less than universally loved ending.

There is a small host of reason why this is, but one i see thrown around a lot withouth any analysis really going into it, is the idea that Izuku was a failure hero.

He wasnt of course, Izuku though he could not save Tenko... But he did defeat both Shigaraki and All For One.

He saved the world, he restored peace and order to Japan and stopped a rampage that would have seen the entire island sunk beneath the waves and everyone on it except for Shigaraki's personal inner circle dead.

He saved millions, upon millions of lives and ended the life and times of AFO, the great evil of over a hundred years.

He was also instrumental in stopping the third movie's villain, and was one of the people of saved billions of lives by doing so.

He is withouth any doubt, the MHA World's greatest hero, bar none.

So with that in mind... why does izuku FEEL like an utter failure in the end? He might not logically be one, but he sure as hell FEELS like one.

Why?

Well, to put it bluntly, this particular problem stems from 2 overarching parts.

The first is of course that Izuku had a bad ending. He returned to being Quirkless, didnt get to live his dream, he seemingly begun to be the one guy that Class A begun to leave behind(Even with the surprise at the end, it doesnt change the fact that we get nothing to suggest he remained particularily close with any of them, and the fact they kept this plan a secret for 5 years just makes everything worse), and has been forgotten.

That is a full on bad ending, and the fact the narrative refuses to focus on that and acknowledge the fact that this is a horrible outcome for izuku, is one of it's mayor problems.

However, that is only the first big problem of the final chapter, and it's the more obvious one that pisses so many people off.

But just because he had a bad ending, does not mean that Izuku had to feel like a failure hero. After all, plenty of Heroes had bad endings, and did not feel like failure Heroes.

Batman both in the DCAU and in the Dark Knight Returns stopped being Batman, and yet i dont think you would find many people who would say either felt like failures at the end of the day in their stories.(well unless you count the terrible sequels Miller wrote after he went off the deep end, but that's a subject for another day).

I could pull out a lot of examples of similar heroes who in the end quit or died and who very much doesnt FEEL like failures, but i want to continue to focus on DCAU Batman in particular for one, very specific reason that illustrates so well why Izuku feels like a failure, even if he ultimately isnt one.

Batman Beyond opens on an old Bruce Wayne's last night as batman, when he decides to finally quit after a heart attack forces him to threaten a man with a gun.

In his own mind, he is a failure, and it is this action that finally breaks his spirit.

But most fans dont consider this Bruce a Failure at all. Why?

Well it certainly helps that he has so many other amazing feats and accomplishments across the rest of the DCAU, so it's hard to blame him for this one, single moment, but there is a bigger reason.

Bruce Wayne's big mission in life, was to clean up gotham city.

He did a lot of things outside of that, such as saving the world multiple times, but this was his great mission, his goal, the thing that truly drove him.

And you know what?

He suceeded.

Crime would return both big and small scale, but Bruce Wayne's choice to keep going for years and years, ending up outlasting all the traditional supervillains and street criminals of his age, allowed Gotham to flourish, and become an incredibly advanced and developed futuristic city.

For All that Batman Beyond is about deconstructing Bruce and his personal relationships and how they fell to pieces, He WON the war.

It might not have been a total victory, but every single episode of Batman Beyond that showcases Gotham showcases that The Dark Knight's Crusade was NOT in vain. He gave EVERYTHING for this cause, and he won.

Bruce might never be able to mentally appreciate it, because it was not a total victory that led to no more crime forever, but we the reader can.

We can see the change in Gotham from before he started, into his early years, his prime, the later years, and finally where it is now in Beyond.

It was a long, and bumpy road, but Gotham's number one son succeeded in his great goal of cleaning up his city and making it prosperous and reaching the heights his parents dreamed for it.

His legacy is clear and lives on, long, long past the days when he stalked the night.

He was not a failure, neither on the logical level, nor in that he feels like one.

And you know what? The DCAU crew managed to make that clear, even though I dont think there wasnt a single statue in all of Gotham dedicated to the Dark Knight.

Now, lets compare this to Izuku.

Izuku also gave EVERYTHING for his cause.

His body is a scarred and deformed mess, because time and again, wheter it be to defeat villains, or just helping people, he was always willing to sacrifice every bit of himself to do it.

Izuku gave away his quirk, and with his future.

and though it was reversed, he gave away his arms just to TRY to help Tenko.

He more than anyone else, gave EVERYTHING for this fight. He gave away his body, dreams, future, EVERYTHING for the cause, and he pulled it off!

He beat All For One, he saved the world and countless lives.

So, why then does he feel like a loser at the end?

Is the fact that he ended up alone and forgotten by society at large really why?

That's what happened to DCAU Bruce Wayne after all... But that's not really it.

The Reason Izuku Feels like a loser at the very end, is that the last chapter does not in any way feel like he contributed anything to help usher in this new age, nevermind that HE above ANYONE ELSE was the one that made it happen!

The idea of having a final chapter showcasing the successfull futures of everyone else EXCEPT for Izuku who ultimately didnt get to live his dream is NOT a bad idea at all.

It might not be how i would have ended it, but even taking away the idea of a reversal at the end, you could make that sort of ending satifsying.... IF you spent that chapter showcasing what a difference Izuku made in everyone else's life.

Because that would have hammered in the point that HE was the one that made it all happen. HE was the catalyst for all of these people to continue on and grow into great Heroes.

Shoto is a great example.

What we get of how he ended up is a really sweet thing... But you know what would have been way, way better?

If we had a scene of him being interviewed, and he talked about how it was IZUKU who was HIS great hero, and inspired him to become the hero he ultimately became.

But we dont. For anyone.

Not one time, amongst all of Izuku's friends and acquaintances are we reminded or shown in this final chapter how much he inspired and motivated them forward.

Not ONCE.

The closest we get, is Kota asking Izuku a question while blushing, and the only thing that tells us is that Kota is still a bit shy in his teenage years.

The ONLY character in this ENTIRE chapter who actually feels inspired by Izuku is Dai, and even is untientionally backhanded, when it's clear that it's not that Izuku really inspired him, the way All Might Inspired Izuku, but rather that this kid is a Hero Otaku like Izuku himself who just so happens to recognize Izuku amongst a lineup of heroes.

He's not even the first Hero the kid Thinks of after All Might!

ENDEAVOR IS!

THE GUY WHO IS PUBLIC KNOW TO HAVE ABUSED HIS KIDS, RAPED HIS WIFE, AND WHO'S OLDEST SON WAS AN INFAMOUS SERIAL KILLER THAT ENDEAVOR BROUGHT ABOUT!!!

THIS is the problem with this chapter.

This chapter elevates EVERYONE else, EXCEPT for Izuku.

When people complain that Izuku didnt even get a statue for saving the world, when monoma did, and it's shut down as "it was never about fame for izuku", they are missing the forest for the trees.

The Problem is not that Izuku didnt even get a statue. The fact he didnt get a statue, is part of a greater problem that new age does not in ANY WAY fell like something that Izuku was the main driver in bringing into being.

---Edit---

So apparently there was a statue after all... And the fact it's so inconsequential that at first point you'd be forgiven for thinking it was actually Kirishima, as I thought at first.

That said, the fact it is so tiny a detail actually hammers in my point that Izuku feels completely inconsequential to this chapter even more.

---

Even the whole class A getting Izuku back into the game feels like it completely shits all over Izuku, like he did not matter at all in making this new age, the age where this class is able to shine.

We are not in ANY WAY given a SINGLE insight into their thoughts about all this! The reason why so many people shit ALL OVER their stupid plan to NOT tell Izuku ANYTHING is that this is the ONLY THING we actually know about how they felt about all of this!

And because this is the only insight we get into their thoughts, the only thing we can say for sure, is that whatever their feelings were, they did NOT RESPECT Izuku at all, despite everything they went through together.

They decided his future for him withouth ever asking, and let him continue for over half a decade resigned to his new job that despite everything he says, he clearly was not happy with.

This moment could have been the culmination of their bonds with Izuku, where they finally repaid him for everything... But instead it just hammers in the point that Izuku FEELS like a huge loser that DID NOT MATTER in the slightest in the end.

That's not true, but that IS how it feels.

Izuku could not achieve anything by his own power, and the people who helped him achieve his goals? Well they clearly did not respect Izuku, and they did not seem to care to go out of their way to keep their relationship with him going strong through the years.

what it FEELS like, is that a bunch of school buddies throwing one of their former friends a bone now that they have all made it big, rather than an actual long term motivation because they really loved Midoriya.

honestly, this entire chapter feels like Hori took it for granted that the reader would just think "See all these people Izuku was aquainted with succeed? Remember how strong his bonds with them are?" and make us immediatly just take the most charitable reading possible at face value.

It clearly WANTS us to think that way, that all of this was only possible thanks to Izuku, but it doesnt actually do ANY attempt at selling this idea.

This world, and the people in it, does not in any way feel like Izuku was the one who brought it and them about. That might be the logical truth, but it does not feel like it at all.

Instead, at the very end, when all is said and done... Izuku feels like a complete loser, a side character in his own story who never amounted to anything, and does not inspire love, admiration, and respect from anyone he actually knows.

That is why, even though he saved the world, he FEELS like a total loser.