#i wonder where hori is taking this

[inkykeiji]

As sad as I'd be if it turns out Dabi/Touya's dead I want him DEAD so bad. Like he deserves it😭 I don't even know if I mean that as in "he's a horrible person and deserves to die" or "he's been through enough and needs to be put out of his misery" but I want him deceased

LMAOOOO i am 100% with you on that anon!! & for me, it’s both—especially since death is what he wants. like he fully intended to die and take his father and possibly brother with him during that final battle. the man wore white on purpose; it was supposed to be his own funeral. in my opinion, the best end for him would’ve been him and enji dying together—this way, touya gets what he wants (to kill his father) and enji makes amends for all of his transgressions (with his life).

[smallmightsupremacy]

Izuku isn't losing his arms and here's why:

Okay so I know that we're all freaking out over that one manga panel, but we really shouldn't be.

Deku isn't going to lose his arms. It's all in his head.

Just stay with me.

First and foremost, look at the reactions from the characters when they join the battlefield. Specifically Aizawa:

What about this screams 'one of my students just lost both of his arms and may not end up having a future as a hero anymore?'

You would think that if Hori were to really go through with Izuku losing his arms, he would put more emphasis on the characters' reactions to make it more impactful, right?

To further reinforce this idea, we also need to consider the significance of Izuku's hands in Katsuki's arc. Whether you view their relationship as romantic or not, you can't deny that Izuku's hands holds significance to Katsuki. It represents the time when their relationship first fell apart, and I think in order to call their relationship fully 'healed' and complete Katsuki's growth, he's going to need to accept Izuku's hand again.

I mean, look at how foreshadowed the handhold is. There's no way they're not going to be holding hands by the end of the series. It's a necessity at this point.

And yes, you can argue that they already did hold hands, but to me that handhold didn't seem like the official one. It wasn't as impactful as it could've been. Now, while I'm not saying that the handhold didn't have any emotion to it, I feel like it's impact got a little diluted by Katsuki's revival. It wasn't the main focus. I think that the proper handhold is going to come later and be in it's own moment.

And, I mean, Izuku kind of needs his hands for that to happen.

So now you may be wondering, if Izuku hasn't lost his arms, then how do you explain what's happening to him right now?

Well, like I said earlier, it's all in his head. I think it's AFO fucking around with his mind.

I think AFO is somehow manipulating the vestige world and OFA mental connection he was with Izuku to make him hallucinate that he's lost his arms. He wants Izuku to crumble, and what better way to do that than to convince him that his dream is over and that there's nothing he can do?

I feel like this has also been foreshadowed in a way too. Take a look at this picture:

This image already foreshadowed Ochako getting stabbed in the chest, so perhaps it's also foreshadowing Izuku's fate?

The knife is in his head, so perhaps it's hinting at him being affected psychologically?

Also, the idea that it's only those that are connected to the vestige realm that can see the illusions that AFO is planting would be a great way to get Katsuki to be a part of the final fight too.

We already know that's he's going to be involved somehow. Hori himself said that the ending for mha was going to be better than the ending for Hero's Rising (the one Kats and Izu share OFA), and what better way to improve that than have Katsuki come save him from the mind fuckery?

I also think that finally having Izuku and Katsuki fight side by side has been foreshadowed for a long time, and if that really were to happen, then there's no better time for that than the final fight.

Also, Katsuki's really the only one that can save Izuku right now if my theory were to be true. He's the only character that fits the very specific requirements that Izuku needs (being connected to the vestige realm, and also having a willingness to save/help Izuku).

Speaking of, Katsuki being connected to the vestige realm was a shock for us all, and it doesn't make sense for why Horikoshi would show us such ground-breaking information if he didn't plan on using it later. This has to be the later. There's no other case where I can see Katsuki's connection to the vestige realm being implemented into the story again other than this.

So here's the TL;DR:

Izuku is being mindfucked by AFO and Katsuki is going to be the one that brings him back to reality

[darkcircles4lyfe]

This doesn't have anything to do with anything, but i had a talk with a friend a few days ago, about shonen biasis and the way this shapes our expectations, and mha came up so i remembered how so many people apply those biasis HEAVILY into the manga, to the point that they sound like they're looking for a different story.

And one of those things that it seemed to be MOST talked about is exactly bkdk's relationship.

I have seen many times people from the fandom (sometimes really angrily) point out how in most cases Katsuki seems to basically take up not one, but four roles in Izuku's life and this includes putting him in situations that people associate with the MC's love interest, and it is weird that, despite Izuku "having a girl" for people to make assumptions about, he seems to completely repulse any female character that could be the counter part to Izuku's.

And this made us wonder if Katsuki's placement in those roles and lack of interest was made specifically because the author precisely did not want the actions that both do for each other as romantic but a whole another thing entirely, as a subversion for the these classic tropes, as he did by making the conflict between Ochako and Himiko not a "rivals fighting for the affection of a boy" but something that is connected to the plot of these characters instead.

Oh you bet! I am always down to talk about this, because I think about it a lotttt.

This reminds me, recently I remembered a funny habit I used to have with books I read. Like, back in middle school. I used to start by flipping directly to the last page and reading the final sentence. Usually this did not spoil anything whatsoever, but sure enough, by the time I read through the whole book, that sentence would take on new meaning.

So I started musing about what it would be like if only I could do this with bnha, if everything was already out. It made me feel so nostalgic…

Will the last panel be something grand, or something small? Hopeful or sad? Distant? Intimate? A parting message to the reader? Will it look like almost nothing of consequence to the unknowing eye—yet burst with hard-hitting subtext?

Of course I wonder about all the twists and reveals that might be still ahead of us, but it’s kinda soothing to think about how the whole thing could be put to rest. Because then I realize I’m not worried.

For once, this is not because the story is following so many tropes so predictably that I know exactly, in so many words, how it will end. It’s more like the story is a close friend who I’ve gotten to know well enough that everything they do is so “them” it makes me smirk. I'm often marveling at how Horikoshi has managed to pull all this off. How is it that (at least here in the west) people who aren't really paying attention call it basic and cookie-cutter. Even a Japanese animator called it "classic," and this interview shows such obvious dissonance between Hori and the interviewer, just... wow. But it's so clear that bnha has broken just about every rule in the book at this point, so much so that I struggle to condense it into words. I'm like--*gestures broadly at everything*--why haven't more people picked up on it??

Yet we still get bombarded with people saying "it's a shonen, c'mon, we all know how this will end." Um. No you don't. I KNOW there has to be a bunch of people who are secretly frustrated by Kacchan taking up all the roles and getting all the moments. It's not even in a mysogynistic way, because Kacchan is the most anti-dudebro character imaginable. Bkdk's relationship isn't intended for them and they know it... and you know what, I'm starting to ramble. You've heard all this before. The thing I should really be focusing on in your ask is the part where you mentioned how you and your friend were speculating about bkdk ending up as "a whole other thing entirely" rather than simply romantic.

Well, fuck it, I've been biting my tongue, but now might as well be the time I talk about this. I got into a bit of a disagreement with someone over it once and then I shut up. Because it's very difficult to approach the subject without being lumped in with those people who see bkdk as "brotherly" (ew) or otherwise try to push some "crisis of male friendship" agenda, or at the very least without being accused of enabling people to make excuses against bkdk being canon ad infinitum. So let me be clear that I do NOT want bkdk to have an ambiguous or open ending. I want their complexity and importance to be acknowledged. I want them to use their words. I think we may have created a bit of a false dichotomy there.

I am aromantic, and to suggest romantic relationships are inherently the most important and intimate goes against every fiber of my being. I also reject the idea that cut-and-dry gay representation is more desirable just because it is more easily understood by the masses than aspec representation or representation of relationships "beyond" both romantic and platonic. We recognize how ridiculous it is for people to expect Izu*cha at this point, right? Well, the reason they're so confident anyway isn't just because of heteronormativity. It's also because of amatonormativity, the assumption that romantic attraction trumps all: no matter how much focus bkdk get, Izuku blushed at Ochako, so that automatically makes them more "important." THAT is the notion that I want to challenge most. More than anything, I want bkdk's relationship to be fully acknowledged because they have so much more going for them than just attraction.

You and your friend make an excellent point, that it would be very much in line with Horikoshi's taste and the patterns of his writing so far if he chose to subvert the shonen romance trope not just by giving it to two boys, but also by disregarding its premise entirely. It's unlikely he'd try to stuff them into such a copy-paste ending right at the end.

So maybe they won't get the blushy confession, the obligatory kiss, the wedding, the 2.5 kids and a white picket fence. That's fine, we shouldn't pretend those tired tropes are suddenly revolutionary just because they're gay. But don't be disappointed! Without them, we have more room for things that are actually personally meaningful to bkdk to stand out and receive the nuance they deserve: talking through their feelings openly, building each other up like no one else can, understanding each other like no one else can, smiling at each other, embracing, holding hands, rushing to the other in the hospital, being glued at the hip (or even closer), healing mutual trauma, putting each other first in all things. Maybe we'll also get confirmation on Ochako's side as she moves on from her crush on Izuku. You know what other shonen manga took this exact angle as a way of subverting tropes and presenting genuine complexity? Blue Flag! There are so many ways to do bkdk justice.

Even a kiss isn't out of the question, if the right opportunity comes along. A perfect example of what I'm talking about is Good Omens (major season 2 spoilers) because the kiss between Crowley and Aziraphale was not at all about canonizing them. It was an expression of pain and desperation that just made sense at that particular moment. Neil Gaiman was adamant that if it took that kiss to understand the context of their relationship, you really weren't paying attention. I respect the hell out of that.

Recently I was even daydreaming about bkdk getting something similar to the sort of uh, shall we say tasteful nudity, that togachako got, because of how Izuku appears in the vestige realm.

Ya know like not in an nsfw way but in like a "this is so deeply intimate and soft that I feel like I'm intruding" kind of way... yeah. Because it represents vulnerability and openness and acceptance of someone as they are. And I don't care if people call that bait. It's not. It's beautiful. It’s honest.

[itsnothingofinterest]

Any predictions for the next chapter, or from this wrap up in general?

I’m gonna be honest; with Shigaraki dead, who knows how many of the League with him or soon to follow, and most of Class 1A ending their arcs as a disappointing collective carbon copy of the last generation, I’m not too interested. And that may hinder my ability to predict what little we have left, let alone to any enjoyable capacity.

The only real prediction I can make is about how the wrap up will take every implication or consequence of the kids’ failure to save or change and…continue to ignore them, brush them under the rug that is this feeling of how much the ‘day has been saved’ we’re being given.

I’m talking zero mention of corruption in the hero industry, no talk about the folks heroes aren’t around to save despite inspiring complacency & dependency, nothing to make us think villains won’t be treated worse after how Twice, Machia, and Shigaraki were treated, and you better believe they won’t bring up the Singularity Doomsday.

(Or, potentially more infuriatingly if it’s done poorly*, they actually will bring up some of the League’s old talking points…most of which no one on the heroes side have ever been shown caring about and weren’t really brought up in the final arc at all…and it’s all to talk about how they’re handling it the right way tm, which we learn is super easy for them. Turns out Shoji really can solve all of quirks racism by just being super inspiring at bigots, maybe with some finger wagging at them if he’s feeling daring**; don’t know why Spinner’s mob thought they needed to riot like that. And Shoto just made a few calls, gave a speech maybe, and now heroes abusing their power and/or families is a thing of the past; sure makes the lengths Touya went to seem silly.

Ugh, I’m getting a migraine just typing that out.)

And it’ll all end with future Deku saving some kid lost in the streets like Tenko Shimura, and we’ll be asked to just pretend that means every kid like Tenko Shimura gets saved from now on…even though that’s not how his backstory or criticism of the system worked at all. Remember: ‘the day is saved, so don’t think about it too hard.’

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*Which I expect it would be.

**Which he will not.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If, after seeing me say that I don't want an ending where they do nothing but also don't want an ending where they do everything, you're wondering what ending I'd be satisfied with…I honestly couldn't tell you.

I should want an ending where they change and improve things; but after spending a sizable fraction of MHA's total length effectively fighting against change and improvement because it was villains trying to shepherd it in while the heroes were always talking about rebuilding it all back to normal to the very end (including just last chapter), I don't know how Hori could pull that off without it feeling like bad writing. And unless that writing gets bad enough for Tomura to return from dust, I don’t much care for that idea either.

[thr0wnawayy]

So I was looking at the 'Get It Done Chargebolt' Fight and realized how bullshit it is.

Your telling me the MLA. A militia ideological group with numerous connections, a major one being Denerat (A Tech Company!) cannot give one of it's higher ranking members anything more than a taser!

(god, this is so forced.)

His quirk (Ampivolt) seems to work by taking electricity from any source and releasing it back out from his body, much stronger than it once was. (No, I did not read the wiki when writing this)

His body acts like a power amplifier, taking the watts absorbed and imparting some of it's own energy into it before sending it back out.

In a fair scenario (not manipulated by Hori and his bullshit), our elektromaniac here should have won out.

So, in a bid to do the MLA one better, I present to you my own contraption:

(Not my best. I made it on my cell while on the move, also yes that's the Denerat logo)

I've effectively strapped a car battery to this guy's back.

It's outer chasis made of a lightweight non conductive mesh, as to not drag him down. The battery stays locked inside, needing to be opened to charge beforehand.

The gloves are attached to gold wires to ensure maximum output and lifespan (as gold doesn't tarnish) and are wrapped in a sturdy carbon mesh. The gloves themselves act as tasers for both long ranged and short ranged attacks, having holes in the front and back to allow for combos and continous fire.

You may point to the Tesla coils that sit on either the sides of the battery's chasis and wonder what their purpose is?

Simple, destruction. They also ensure that the battery doesn't overload.

When the battery has reached it's max capacity, it will send some of that energy to the coils and these in turn transfer it to the single spike located at the end of each coil.

The spike on the end acts as a reverse lightning rod. sending the excess electricity outwards in a devastating attack that destroys anything in it's path.

Both coils are positioned outwards as to not harm the user as well as to ensure the electricity does not arch between the coils.

The battery then uses advanced tech in it's chasis to reabsorb some of the linering electricity floating in the air and recycles it back into the battery.

I don't show it here but the backside (facing the users back) of the chassis is a very plush material, as to not leave the user in discomfort. It is also where the straps are hidden.

--------------------------------------------------

Test Drive (Or Denki's cooked, literally)

Ok we have the equipment, we have the MLA soldier. Now what?.

Well we speculate of course!

We know from OFA and the USJ Nomu that absorption and accumulation quirks usually have some upper limit.

We've also seen Denki fall victim to his own quirk numerous times (and quite severely at that), so it's not much of a stretch to say he could be burned by his own quirk.

Let's say Denki gets hit with Count Shock-ula while he's wearing the battery.

Above is the amount of electricity he normally expells when using his taser. Even now it could probably cause severe nerve damage or even death.

To save on length, we already know this man is a trained soldier, likely has been his whole life.

Given this, his fighting prowess and strategic mind should lend to him getting the upper hand in his fight with Denki, one of 1A's lowest ranking students in both academic and physical.

He hits Denki with a clean shot, maintaining a constant transfer of energy.

Even even as his muscles spasm and clench, Denki thinks he has the upper hand as does Jirou.

But now the battery is there providing a constant supply of electricity and Denki can only keep up so much, as Shock-ula's quirk does it's magic and increases the output.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Exposition Time:

Presuming that Denki's stockpile is located at his center of gravity, we can say that the focal point of the overload will start here.

The inside of human bodies typically sit at an average of 98.0 Fahrenheit or 36.64 Celsius, about the same as a 50w light bulb.

The maximum amount of heat a human can take before they begins to burn is around 140°F (60°C).

The human body temp can flare up to as high as 106°F (41°C) when in extremely stressful situations (though this is more in the regards of certain anxiety disorders)

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

As Denki's stockpile begins reaching it's limits, he begins to stress slightly. He can begin to feel the effects of his body temperature climbing and his growing panick isn't helping.

Jirou may try and interfere, but is either hit when the tesla coils expell the excess energy being absorbed or she is unable to approach all together as electrical currents surround the two electricity weilders.

Either way this only contributes to Denki's stress. He begins feeling the heat build in his abdomen, just above his bellybutton. Soon his insides feels like the inside of a hotspring.

Any attempts to sweat are foiled by his own electricity's heat evaporating it as soon as it forms on his skin. His body has no real way to cool down.

The MLA member may feel guilt in killing a child, but chooses to look at the bigger picture and what's at stake if he fails. He tries not to dwell too hard.

A long, aching moment passes by.

Denki is actually burning now, his intellect increases with each passing second and with it comes the ability to truly comprehend the situation he is in.

Trapped.

Denki's blood feels like it's boiling as he struggles to shut his eyes, fearing they may melt out of their sockets. His head is pounding and his stomach is rolling with intense nausea, a sign of severe heatstroke.

Yet the heat continues.

Blood vessels burst in his nose, lungs and eyes as the heart goes overtime, the kidneys have long stopped functioning and by this point Denki can't even think coherently.

A few moments later.

His organs and muscle fibers are now becoming covered with burn scars, he can smell himself burning and is finally then that Denki passes out. Perhaps for the last time.

××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××

So, pretty grim huh.

Had MHA been darker (and more thematically consistent) this could have been a possible scenario.

It really makes you wonder what the fuck the heroes were thinking sending teenagers to fight in an active war zone.

Really makes me question the competency of both UA and 1A's respective parents because lord almighty...

Sending them to raid the base of the biggest crime organization in the country is already bad, as mentioned in my Jaku Disaster Post, not knowing what your doing is even worse.

This isn't the first time we've seen this either, remember the Shie Hisakai?

Yeah they pulled that shit too, despite knowing the entire base was a death trap but I'll leave that dissection for later posting.

It's not just Midnight who could have died, we could have been looking at roughly 10-13 members of 1A being dead (Not counting Bakugo) and that's just off the top of my head.

You know if Hori wanted to add shock value, rather than pulling shit out of thin air he could've just tossed some excess weight by utilizing his threats properly.

Really his over reliance on surface level "shock"* value in the later seasons, doesn't exactly put me in high hopes that his horror Manga will do well.

(*Retconning Rei's family, AFO's constant returns, Stars and Stripes, The Mech suit, Vestiges, etc etc)

If Hori wants to write horror, he needs to reapproach how he writes. Simple as that.

===============================

Note: To the person that sent me the AFO ask. My apologies for not answering, I accidentally wiped it by mistake when trying to post, please feel free to resend the question to my inbox and I will glady give you an answer.

That was a wild one, so have a quick-sketch gag based off an MLA AU that's been floating around my notes for your troubles.

[dekusleftsock]

Sigh… the newest chapter.

Very beautiful, very wonderful. It’s gorgeous looking, so much time and meaning put behind every single panel.

These two panels have been the most interesting to me though.

The first, where the last tear falls away, and the second, where the first leaves flow freely through the spread.

And don’t you worry, I saw that parallel immediately.

“And save people by winning.”

Still, I can’t help but feel as though these panels are still SO DIFFERENT from then!

First of all, the light in Izuku’s eye, the one that really makes the admiration and love pop in this image—it’s missing. Completely.

And, in the second one, where the tears have fallen and the leaves have come, that one is still shaded in darkness. Izuku still has no light.

So yes, has Izuku calmed down? Absolutely, but it still has this underlying melancholic atmosphere. Everyone else has a sense of success, everyone else is THANKFUL that Katsuki has saved allmight from the brink of death, he has won by saving someone—but don’t we all remember Bakugou Katsuki Rising?

You know, the chapters where everyone thought Izuku was just SO heroic and SO amazing, except for Katsuki who knew that something was very very wrong.

And this time it isn’t Izuku almost dying for everyone’s safety, it’s Katsuki—can Izuku’s heart really handle that right now? Right after he just got up?

Can Izuku control himself under all this weight?

(Ofc I gotta throw in the girls, they’re the representatives of love for this series for christs sake)

Izuku is selfish, we all know this now, so where will this selfishness take him?

Because I know for damn sure that, if I have Izuku’s character right, if I have Hori’s themes down…

Idk I just wanna see him lose control. Right in front of Katsuki. Because my god this boy can mask his queerness when he wants to.

Because what happened to THIS?

Where’s that melodramatic passion?

Why is he not allowed to see it Izuku?

So I can see two ways this can go:

Izuku, at some point while Katsuki is awake and alive, loses his shit at Katsuki getting hurt or a comment that targets Katsuki. The way he WANTS to lose his shit.

Izuku attempts to sacrifice himself much like Himiko did for Ochako, solidifying their parallels even more. (Himiko is not dead and I don’t mean that in the “oh I’m delulu!” way. Y’all it just doesn’t make sense you guys realize that right. The same way it didn’t make sense to kill Katsuki. LIKE COME ON)

Personally, while I COULD see Izuku doing that, because he would do anything for Katsuki, I don’t think he’s gonna have the option to. Not only that, but I think that the first option is far more interesting for ALLLLLL the reasons above.

Izuku is known for being sacrificial, it would be far more interesting to have Katsuki have to assure him and calm him down in some way (it’s also the queer connection. I find this extremely important. We need a scene for bkdk like we had for the spirited away scene for tgck). Not only that but Izuku very much needs to have that moment where the story creates that wall that directly tells him he needs to change. It needs to challenge him, emotionally. And not in the panic, big fight way, but in the “Katsuki has to see the things Izuku still performs for him” way.

Katsuki needs to see how Izuku feels, because Izuku isn’t good at telling him that.

AND HE STILL HASNT

HOW LONG WILL YOU DRAG THIS SLOW BURN HORI IM SO.

Anyway, my main point is that Izuku WONT be able to control himself anymore. Just one more thing, one more comment said in just the right way, and it’s over.

That confrontation is the one that I’m waiting for. Because Izuku still isn’t happy, this chapter isn’t happy—it’s laced with insecurity, despair, heartache, and a deep sense of loss.

And it’s hopeful! Very very hopeful, because that’s what mha IS, but you can’t read this chapter and tell me that Izuku right now is happy, in love, over the fact that it’s Katsuki who has to save allmight.

[bibibbon]

MHA CH 421 rambles

Ok so this was a chapter ok. Iam personally not a fan of what happend here but you do you.

I hated AFO's little monologue. introspection thingy and to be honest sukuna does it better. Look Iam critical of both jjk and MHA as they fail in their own aspects on certain things but dam I couldn't care less for AFO and his monologue I seriously couldn't. Yoichi as already dead and if AFO's goal was to be a supervillain from a comic and to reunite with yoichi then why not just idk get the doctor to do it for him or just die to reunite with AFO 🤷‍♀️. His whole thing about tragedy making people stronger or him not feeling anything didn't even hit well because his development sucks and him coming back feels repetitive anyway

Sero getting to respond to the things about tragedy felt so underwhelming I didn't like it. Sero throughout the whole and entire series lacked any screentime and development for him to be getting a big moment that should be given to another character feels like a horrible move. We seriously don't know of anything that has affected sero aka hurt him directly in the manga (aka something just him) so it all feels underwhelming and disappointing. Unironically, I feel like sero should of been one of those characters who left the story or just stayed as a minor character because hori is trying to develop and give him importance way too late into the story.

Where is inko?!?!?! So we see everyone heck we see the civilians, gran Torino, Kota and Eri all comment and hope for izuku to do something but inko his own mother isn't present. Now this probably means something bad is happening or will happen to inko but if nothing happens and she isn't present then dam classic neglectful inko strikes again ig or if they make it a gag that she fainted out of stress i will just hate it even more

I hate that this is something out of the endgame and if hori was trying to be like gege by making everyone join it felt rubbish. Iam not a fan and I mean it I HATE the whole everyone joining in to fight AFO together type thing and I just do. To me it's Izuku's time to shine and people take down villains and do their jobs in other areas at this point everyone is doing more damage to AFO than Izuku who hasn't even landed a hit on izuku. Also why is it that character like Todorokis who have had their big moments here?!?!? It seems like this is a fight where hori is trying to make everyone have a moment before Izuku lands the final hit which doesn't sit right with me. Like there are characters here who have already had their moments like jirou, camie, yuuga, asui, mina and way more but they're here to ... Assist in the fight have another big moment and make AFO more of a potato character then a proper scary villain

present mic is back which I love. One of the good things is that present mic is alive, it's good to have confirmation of that

Even though I think erasers writing is heavily flawed at least someone is holding Izuku. At least izuku is getting something , some comfort out here at least someone is holding him but dam this seems like a disservice all of this seems like a disservice to izuku. Like I wonder do the civilians feel guilty does anyone feel sad or guilty for having this 16 year old child fight something way bigger than him in the name of peace and other peoples safety?

I think the whole thing with Izuku getting that guy's shirt is rubbish and underwhelming. It just doesn't sit right with me, that guy's shirt would of probably been dirty as hell considering it's the only thing we have seen him wearing. Like @mikeellee told me it would of been more impactful if the shirt was given to izuku and that guy had a healing quirk or helped izuku more directly. Now I get that this is supposed to make the guy more likable and show that he ahs developed which we can see and dam hori can actually give some decent development when he wants to but it all falls flat and doesn't do much for me. Also I have seen someone say that izuku wearing this shirt and it covering his upper half is showing how he is losing his ability to be a hero and dam that breaks me.

I can't with the Izuku running to the battlefield and the parallels kill me (we haven't really developed/moved on from chapter one considering the story just loops around itself). Izuku running towards danger quirkless thinking that it's his job because people who were supposed to help and protect him failed. Izuku now quirkless with only the tiny and fading embers of OFA thinning trying to defeat OFA with the damage of kudos quirk still effecting him. All of this to protect others to help them something he never got during the past. This fight will probably parallel all might but all of this happening and I feel nothing all of it falls flat and I feel bad for izuku that's it.

It was a chapter and considering how I hated previous writing decisions I was also gonna hate on the developed/expanded writing decisions either way

[ofmermaidstories]

do you guys think there’s gonna be a deviation in trends between ship and x reader fics, now that the series is ended? like i think the bkdks, for example, will implode with pro hero bakugou/quirkless deku fics, to fill in the gap between their graduation and the story’s end. they seem to really like AUs, on the whole—anecdotally, whenever there’s a massively popular post or tiktok about bkdk fic, i’ve noticed it’s always the same handful that are suggested, that are all AUs. and i guess two points in their defense there is that a) all romantic fic is an AU lmaooo and b) most of the fics i’m thinking about were started and completed in the early days of the fandom, before anyone had any idea of guessing where Hori could take things. i just bring it up because i feel like you can already see the shift/movement towards embracing the pro hero/quirkless trope, whereas bnha x reader fics tend to already be that? so i guess i’m just wondering if the series ending will affect what we make popular among ourselves like it inevitably will with character/character ships. 🧐 hmmmmm much to think about. 🧐🧐

[angy-grrr]

thoughts:

Himiko Toga never chose a villain name because she has always been the monster and demon for others, internalizing it. But also because she isnt trying to be someone else, but proudly show herself and her love -AFO exploited this to reaffirm the previous, so she never even realized she could give her blood for others.

Ochako Uraraka's goal and arc isn't finished until we see a few main points: "who will save heroes?" A discussion about heroism and saving, and I wouldnt be too surprised if saving villains also come up here as a developed version of the first. They are all people, and that's what matters over their assigned roles. "Himiko Toga". Where is she? Ochako's arc can't be finished until we see or hear what ended up happening. "What does she feel about it all?" She needs a resolution and express her feelings, and with the hiding she has done recently I cant help but wonder even more about Himiko's state, as she is the person who makes Ochako feel safe enough to talk about her thoughts. And lastly"You like him, dont you?" What will happen with her love for Izuku? Is she going to hide it, confess, talk about it more with Himiko? I still think about "the reveal" during her fight with her, and her hair covering her whole face... It could be because she "needs" to tell and show her whole face to Izuku*. I would prefer it another way tho

*She said she admires Himiko for being able to say her feelings and love who she does with her whole face, if I remember correctly, while remembering an Izuku who is looking somewhere (someone?) else smiling. I believe its important that she doesnt have her face shown there, but we still dont have a clear reason why. Is she just not able to show that love to Himiko because she hasn't shown Izuku first? Is it because she no longer feels it? In the next panel she says shes now going to stop her, we can see her face, and her mouth is covered in blood. Is it because their battle was never about him? Because she is ashamed of those feelings? Because she doesn't want to engage in them?

With chapter 425 taking us by surprise because of her first interaction with Midoriya after the war, I prefer to think she has her hair covering her face because she still can't be honestly herself with him. Partially? Yes completely, but she can't tell him her feelings like with Himiko.

I hope she expresses her feelings to the class, to her parents, her friends, the civilians... but I really don't think a confession to him and him only would solve anything.

She doesn't want or can't chase him and his feelings like with Himiko; Izuku is acting weird, upset about many things, and she doesn't see that, im sure she would have tried to help if she actually knew. Even tho she looks around to find a crying Himiko, she doesn't try to do the same now, and in fact rejects it; she decided her feelings are not for him or others to see, at least at the moment.

So how does Hori plan to change this in such little time? Is Izuku going to chase after her, when thats what he has always done with everything he wants? Doesn't he deserve to be chased back? Doesnt she deserve the right to decide how much of herself she wants to reveal to him? Or mourn the loss in her own terms, in case Toga's dead or she thinks she is?

With her feelings for both Midoriya and Toga she has tried to put heroism first, focus only on that; with the first one because she fails at her goals and just blindly imitates him without finding herself, and the second one because she shouldn't feel that way and questions herself over those quite frequently.

I have no idea if Horikoshi plans to make her put her feelings first for him over heroism like she did with her -risking it and acting against what a hero "should" do so they can both just be Himiko Toga and Ochako Uraraka.

I have no idea, but it would make me so sad if he did.

EDIT:

In chapter 424 we see Shoto first in the hospital, when the narration explains things cant be as simple as Deku thought as a kid. Then Ochako appears, with her arm over her stomach probably thinking about her fight. It can't end so easily, and I wouldnt be surprised if chapter 427 or 428 was about them.

Fun thought: what if Himiko is the one about to see Spinner? jkjkjk. It could be cute tho.

[marunalu]

Soooo..... *kracks knuckles* time for my review of the newest chapter and OH BOY what a chapter it is! I dont even know where to start.

(Warning this post is long as fuck and NOT edited, so be prepared for some horrible grammatical mistakes 😜)

Okay so first of, as far as Im aware of, there is literally a feud going on right now on twitter with people debating if this chapter confirms that afo was true evil from birth or not. I did read about this opinion AFTER I read the spoilers and I have to say while I was reading the leaks not ONCE did I have the feeling the narrative was trying to tell me that baby afo was evil from the get go. Its a BABY guys! All what I did see was a child desperatly trying to survive in a fucked up enviroment which continued with the following years!

But lets start from the beginning. There were a few things in that chapter that really surprised me and then some things I reacted like: I FUCKING KNEW IT!!!

What surprised me was the backstory of afos and yoichis mother. Not gonna lie Im a little dissapointed, because I wanted to know more of her and not just "well, she was a prostitute that got pregnant without noticing and then died. End of story." But despite that I think it still works. It confirmed my suspicious from the start that afo and yoichi grew up without parents in a horrible hostile and dangerous world all on their own.

An other theory I had which was more or less confirmed here is that quirks are indeed a disease or what I like to call them "parasites" that take over their hosts body (vestiges). Its still not clear from WHERE or from WHO they originate from. The translation I did read made it sound like as if they either originate from rats and spread like the plague or its an sexually transmitted disease which could explain why afos/yoichis mother (a prostitute) had it. The only thing that seems strange is that the chapter says she wasnt aware that she was pregnant for 8 months, because she had some kind of memory lose and couldnt remember that it happend. So who knows, maybe its still possible that quirks originate from a failed experiment.

One of the things that actually surprised me is that afo and yoichi are actually TWINS! Its so simple but somehow I never really thought about that possebility, maybe because afo was ALWAYS framed as the older brother (which he still kinda is I guess if he was born first). So baby afo already possessed his quirk since he was in his mothers womb and "stole" her quirk (the reason why the "wart" on her arm vanished). Baby afo holding on baby yoichis arm is both kinda heartbreaking and creepy at the same time. Barely born and he already shows his possessive nature, BUT I want to remind everyone that it makes sense. Afo is selfaware enough that he calls himself a kleptomanic (the urge to steal and possess). This kleptomany is a negative side effect of his quirk controlling him (hence why I call quirks parasites). In other words, he never really had a chance to choose otherwise. This kind of quirk? In this kind of hostile enviroment to grow up alone without a loving parent? Yeah, no wonder dude turned out fucked up!

So the next thing we see is this

Yeah no nice place to grow up for a child and I want to point out the crazy parallel here between small afo and little tenko. Both get rejected by adults that should take care of them. The difference is that small afo sees these man who refuse to give him anything and decide to ignore him as a tread and lashs out at them.

The next we see is baby afo violently sucking at his dead mothers breast.

Its incredible unsettling and creepy to see a baby drawn like this. But I think thats more hori trying to give us the image of a monster baby we shouldnt feel sympathy for which is of course wrong. It makes perfectly sense that a new born hungry baby tries to survive by sucking at his mothers breast. I really dont think baby afo was aware at that point that his mother is dead. The next pictures we see is an toddler afo beating up (killing) some man. We dont know the details why afo attacked these man but we need to remember that the people living in the same enviroment as him are very dangerous and people with quirks were getting killed. Then I also want to point out what we see next.

We see little yoichi LYING ON THE FLOOR, with a BRUSED face and MISSING TOOTHS. Do you get what Im trying to say? Because all of a sudden it makes sense why small afo was beating these guys up, right?!

They hurt his brother!

Afo sees his brother as his possession (surprise surprise) and when someone hurts his possession there needs to be a punishment. Yoichi is of course a little angel and doesnt want people to get hurt. I saw a lot of people freaking out that small afo kicks small yoichi and not gonna lie its very hard to watch. But again I want to point a few things out. Yoichi while justified threw a cane at his brother and tells him to stop to hurt the people who were (most likely) about to hurt THEM first! So the kick is in respons for throwing a cane at him and standing up for a group of adults who most likely wanted to hurt them (or DID hurt yoichi). The kick is brutal from a readers point of view, but we also need to remember that small afo was NEVER teached which part of his behavior is wrong. There was no one who raised him or teached him anything. There was no moral in the world he lived only survival. In his eyes yoichi belongs to him/is a part of him. Yoichi has to do what his brother says because he is the weak one and cant survive without him (afos mindset). We can also see on afos visible ripps that he is malnourished.

A few years later we see yoichi finding the captain hero comics. (It breaks my heart to see how this two children literally have to live in FILTH! At least afo doesnt wear a trash bag anymore....)

We find out that they cant even read properly which makes of course sense since they dont go to school. And not gonna lie that picture in the left of them sitting and reading the comic together is actually quite wholesome 😢

Afo instantly fixiates on the demon lord of the comic! Why? Because the demon lord does the same things as he does (killing people) and the demon lord wants everything for himself. It makes sense why that would intrigue a small child that has NOTHING! If we look at small yoichi and then at small afo, we can see that yoichi looks actually better groomed. Afo wore a trash bag while he already wore proper clothes. Yoichi wore shoes while afo walked barfoot. This shows that, as fucked up afos mind set of seeing yoichi as property is, he took way better care of yoichi then for himself. He gave him the better clothes and shoes to wear, he maybe even made sure that yoichi was never to hungry while he is clearly malnourished. Afo sees yoichi as property.... because he is the only thing he has and so he takes care of him as best as he can. But lets remember he is still a child himself without a moral compass and without the knowledge what is right or wrong.

I saw a few people question why afo turned out so messed up while yoichi didnt. Its actually quite easy. Afo SHIELDED yoichi from the cruelty of the world they had to live in. He feed him, gave him clothes, a place to hide, protected him from danger. And thanks to that shielding yoichi was able to gain a conscience and moral. It also explains why afo feels so entiteld with yoichi. In his mind he does everything for him while there is NO ONE who actually does something for afo in return. Yoichi is to young to do that. All he can do is giving his brother love, but in this kind of cruel world thats not enough to survive. Yoichi has his brother who takes care of him. Afo has nobody. It makes sense why he wants to be like the demon lord who gets everything for himself. Afo wants everything for himself, because he has nothing. And the very tiny bit he does have... he gives to yoichi... because yoichi cant die... because if yoichi dies he TRULY does have nothing anymore.

And now it gets REALLY interesting

3 years later afo comes back and yoichi instantly realizes that his brother was in a fight. He is bleeding, looks tired and his clothes are in shreds. Afo explains that he killed the "glowing baby" (the older one) and stole his quirk (I FUCKING KNEW IT!!!) and has a whole ass rant that he cant understand how this person was able to gather 10 MILLION supporters who love him when in fact that "glowing baby" wasnt even the first quirk user and there were 50 people from india who got quirks before him. In other words afo only killed that "glowing baby" person, because he was fucking JEALOUS that he had so many supporters and people on his side showing love and understanding, while NO ONE was supporting HIM! Think about how afo is obsessed with gaining followers and supporters and HOW does he archive that? By "helping" them and by that forcing them to join his side because they are in his debt.

Afo has no grasp how to gain friends in a selfless way, because he was never teached how! He has no grasp of love and how to love in a selfless way (since his possessivness of his brother). Its not that he cant love or doesnt want to love - he simply has no idea HOW to do it in a healthy and selfless way! He killed the "glowing baby" guy simply just because he was LOVED by people, while he himself isnt and it pissed him off. Afo has no concept of love and doesnt really understand it. The love he feels for his brother is toxic and more possessivness then anything else. He never experienced parental love, never had a friend that loved him. And still what afo wants the most is to be loved. He wants everything for himself and that includes the love of people. Dude has just zero idea how to do that without killing people.

And at least a little dfo crump. Without a doubt we can all agree that afos concept of love is pretty fucked up. Personally I always thought that if dfo is canon then afos affection for inko and izuku would also be portrayed as toxic. Knowing a little bit more of afos backstory now and seeing how obsessed he is for wanting everything for himself including peoples love, makes me wonder how afo and inko could have meet. Maybe its not even because of some conspiracy theory like the inko shimura theory, but something way simpler. Maybe inko showed afo at one point just some kindness and afo with his completly messed up view of love interpreteted her kindness as love and became obsessed with her. So he startet to follow her (stalk her), organized some meetings that were of course completly "coincidentally" (not) and charmed his way into her life.

And at least I also want to say, that afo clearly lied when he said that his last name is shigaraki. The mother didnt had the chance to give her sons any name, so I guess that confirms that "shigaraki" is a fake last name afo gave himself at one point. And the question is also who named him and yoichi? Does he even have a name? Did he give himself one? Was he the one who named yoichi? Because yoichi means "first gift", and I could see afo giving him that kind of name. (And now Im picturing afo introducing himself with the name hisashi to inko, just because in that very moment a truck drove past them with that name on it 🤣).

Okay that was a pretty long post and I still feel like as if I forgot to mention something. But I think that were all my thoughts for now.

[justatalkingface]

Hi there,

I'd love to know your ideas and opinion on Hori going out of his way to make Bakugou the second OFA user as it was shown in the movie. Are you a fan of it?

This post has aged badly because of how long it's been sitting in my inbox, but... well, I was the one who did that, so that's my own fault.

Hahahahahah, yeah, wow, sweet flying fuck no. In a series that has been escalating in how many bad decisions they've made lately, that is one of the worst. More than that, it is telling, in this deeply concerning way, about how little Hori seems to like his own main character.

I've never watched the movie, and I have no desire to, because I'm pretty sure all that'd happen if I did would be me spending the entire movie picking out plot holes than anything, but I have done some basic research on it, and my impression is that it's very... Naruto filler-movie-y, where the protagonists get Random Power up that is basically never spoken of again (note that this is basically official confirmation of Bakugou's promotion), the same general kind of big fight sequence where both of them work together, etc.

It's just... it's just shallow, though, is the thing. At least the filler Naruto movies had the basic decency to make up whatever power up they used and threw away; here Izuku is taking one of the foundational parts of the entire story and just.... giving it away. All of his emotional attachment to it, as a Quirk, as his Quirk, as part of a legacy connecting him to All Might, One For All, and what is singlehandedly keeping him in his current place in society (since at this point he wasn't allowed to be smart anymore), and he just throws it away to Bakugou.

And then, to top it off, it just comes back to him. Some Fucking How(TM). And, because this is, again, one of the foundational parts of the fucking story, that just leaves... so many questions. So many.

Like. If the Quirk could yeet itself from hosts it doesn't like, could AFO ever really take it? Or would it Yeet Thyself from his body, and presumably take a copy of AFO with it in the process (and doesn't that mean, since there was that nod to this happening in canon, that Izuku should have Explosion now? That he literally, by Hori's own logic, has taken that fundamental core of Bakugou's character, and should be in the perfect place to invalidate his entire, badly managed and over all atrocious 'character arc'?).

Really, the more I think on this, the more I realize that that is proof that, not only was Explosion drastically warped to contort to Hori's whims, but so was OFA; OFA, originally, was just supposed to support Izuku, as an assistance to his character, but as time passed, it became clear that that was no longer true, and Izuku only existed to assist OFA. And no, I'm not even talking about the actual person, I'm talking about the set of powers Izuku's entire purpose in the story had been reduced to helping display on demand.

And the fact that, looking at it with that symbolism in mind, that movie's ending was a perfectly horrible encapsulation of what happened in the overall story, of Izuku handing his entire self identity over to Bakugou, for him to take and use however the hell he wanted.

...Fuck, that's depressing. Really, honestly, I wonder why the hell Izuku even exists. Seriously. It's clear that Hori doesn't want him, and he wants all the good Izuku things to go to Bakugou; there's plenty of manga and anime with an asshole of a main character, although a lot of early things would have to be changed to explain how that'd work...

I wonder, but I actually know that answer: beyond needing a more acceptable hero, beyond changing plans, having Bakugou as the focus the way Izuku was would, A, put a spotlight on the traits of him Hori clearly wanted to avoid doing, and B, would put more pressure on Hori to make Bakugou change in way he so clearly wasn't allowed to do, to make the reality of him match up with the narrative version so many people love (You could argue that Izuku, in a similar place, stopped changing after awhile, but at the same time his complete lack of growth is the main reason why the people stopped liking him anymore, because he stopped feeling like a person, and one of the major reasons the second half of the story became so overwhelmingly shit, to the point even people just casually enjoying the story on a surface level read couldn't miss; combining that clusterfuck with Bakugou's shit characterization is probably the only reason Hori didn't just... have Izuku die at some point so Bakugou could flat out replace him, along with shallow nods to their 'rivalry' (like this movie!) to help the story sell).

...I've gotten off topic. So, to sum up: No. No, I hate it, it's terrible, I'm glad I've never had to actually watch it happen.

[mamashenanigans]

Quick thoughts on recent MHA chapter 410.

-AFO was always going to die to the Rewind. Bakugo didn’t kill him. He held him back from Izuku just long enough for Rewind to finish.

-It’s disappointing that Hori showed us Yoichi looking sad at the end of the prior chapter, but didn’t include him anywhere in this chapter. It’s a strange choice.

-As is always true, the current rough translations are strange. The first page initial translation has AFO remarking that, with how Tomura looks, the AFO vestige has “died”, so he lost his trump card, but he can still win this? WTF does that even mean? It’s AFO’s POV so is he saying he can still win in another way?

-AFO actually says “Yoichi, I need you”. That’s very different than how he’s spoken about Yoichi prior. It seems to be more about how he knows he’s about to die and wants his twin. Not a “I have to have you”, “You need to be mine”, “You’re mine”, but an honest “I need you because I’m about to die”.

-Why the FUCK couldn’t Hori just add a quick panel of Yoichi when AFO says that? Why isn’t Yoichi shown in this chapter at all? Drives me nuts.

-I like how AFO’s final thoughts align with the backstory we got. He had a fucked up childhood and never made any good memories, so he wanted everyone else to feel as he did. He wanted everyone to look at him(nod to wanting to be the Demon Lord from the comics) and needs his brother. His true feelings and he can’t stand it so he goes out screaming about how he can’t handle all the emotions.

-So, the AFO vestige is “dead”, but Tomura still has the Quirk? That doesn’t add up to literally anything related to vestiges we’ve seen thus far. Stars and Stripes was able to destroy vestiges within AFO and then those powers were lost. AFO ate vestiges so they wouldn’t go against him. So, is the AFO vestige really gone? If the Quirk is still being used then the vestige of that Quirk is still there.

-So, Tomura was able to take Danger Sense INCLUDING the vestige associated with the Quirk. Again, this contradicts the whole “AFO’s vestige is dead, but Tomura still has the AFO Quirk” thingy.

-WHERE THE FUCK IS YOICHI?

So, yeah. I’m a fan of AFO, but I always knew he was going to go out with Rewind. It’s just disappointing how he went out. Having Yoichi there, especially after the “Yoichi, I need you” would have made it better. I mean, don’t fucking show me Yoichi looking sad watching the end of Bakugo and AFO’s fight and then not have him around when AFO blips out of existence. Huge let down.

Obviously, we’re getting a Tomura redemption thing because of course we’re going to use AFO as the entire excuse as to why Tomura mercilessly killed hundreds of people throughout the series WITHOUT the AFO vestige and WITHOUT remorse.

Yeah know, I’ve still always wondered about the vault door in the realm of OFA. The shots we’ve gotten of it has always felt ominous and it begs the question as to why the door is there, all chained and locked up, in the first place. I’ve always thought that maybe there’s an AFO vestige or will be and the door is holding him back. It isn’t a stretch that AFO could now exist in the OFA world either through the twin thing or that a vestige pops up since he originally had the stockpiling ability that he gave Yoichi. I dunno. I think it would be kinda funny.

I’ll never not be salty at the lack of Yoich interacting with original AFO. So bad.

[todomitoukei]

bruh imagine being a deku stan after reading that ending? you spent a whole decade waiting for your favorite character to be the number one hero (from what i remember) by faithfully reading the manga and watching the anime only to be slapped in the face with the reveal that deku is quirkless (again) and he’s a teacher. i would YEET myself if i were them 😭😭

Also true. To be fair, people have been saying for a long time that he should be quirkless, although I suppose that was more in terms of he should've stayed quirkless from the beginning rather than Hori going for the most ableist take of yeah actually, he can't be a hero unless he has a quirk. In a way, he sent that message twice now! Interesting choice, I gotta admit.

I also love that the story kept pushing the idea of class 1A being a sort of found family where "no one gets left behind" only for us to be told Deku hadn't seen any of them since graduating.

Don't get me wrong, it's realistic for people to go their separate ways after graduating from school and slowly losing touch with one another. But in the context of the story and with the story telling us all the way to the end that the students are tight and stick together no matter what that was another interesting choice Hori made, especially after having Deku lose his quirk.

I wonder if he tried to see how many awful messages he could possibly send with a single story, otherwise I have no explanation for any of this.

[that-spider-fan-over-there]

I said hours ago I thought the title being "Midoriya Izuku: Rising" felt a bit too early but now I think it makes sense. How do I explain, I'll try my best!

I thought about about the other Origin and Rising chapters and I've tried to establish a pattern of all, and I think I have a conclusion.

Shoto's origin: The bond he had with his mother being a tether of what being a hero truly meant to him, with Izuku being the one to remind him he gets to decide what being a hero meant to him- it's his power, what does he want to do with it?

Shoto's rising: The one he wants to have with his family, the desire to find peace with himself, his biological family and the one he has in Class 1-A in the future and being the hero his family had wanted vs. the one they needed at that exact moment.

Katsuki's origin: denying the help from others, especially Izuku, was the thing that held him back. By accepting it, he and Izuku, despite the beating, won.

Katsuki's rising: his willingness to accept help bloomed into a seed of empathy that paid off, and by sacrificing himself he understood why Izuku is willing to help others at his own cost (otherwise the last arc wouldn't even be happening).

Hypothetical on where Hori wanted this one, as despite her lack of these, Hori does consider her part of this group. So if I were to guess:

Ochako's origin: she's shown she has the guts and determination to become a hero, but what holds her back is her own constant comparison to Izuku's power and people connecting her motivations to him.

Ochako's rising: by asserting her agency and power to help others, and accepting she's not defined by what she feels about Izuku, she ends up helping the girl who needed someone willing to understand her.

With that in mind; an Origin chapter is not the beginning of their story, but the antithesis what holds them back, the hubris,the fatal flaw in their own hero's journey vs. who they can become as the story goes, the heroes they've envisioned and more.

Tenko has three origin chapters- Two for Tenko, one for Tomura. But in the pattern, he's yet to receive a Rising one, let alone three: Unless, and I mean unless, Shigaraki Tomura is his Rising chapter, but only the first part. But that's for another time. (And maybe for someone else; I'm not the person to talk about Tenko).

With that, Izuku's.

I was wondering why Izuku's rising chapter happened so soon, when he's just returning to the battlefield- then I've pondered the pattern. I've said I was expecting it to be a multiple-parter; because of Tenko's. But it does make sense why now.

Because since Chapter One, never once Izuku has actually been able to contradict his own goals. In fact, if he tries, narratively, the story actually punished him for it two times; his failure to save the first times led to consequences that follow him in their relevant arcs.

(for clarification if you're curious:

Not helping Eri on their first meeting = Overhaul almost kills multiple of his friends and actually succeeds in killing Sir Nighteye. Mirio temporally loses his Quirk and Izuku wonders if he should even have his own.

Attacking Tomura with clear intent on winning without saving = Aizawa cuts his leg, Gran Torino is in a hospital bed and Katsuki gets stabbed, latter one is the main motivator leading up to the Dark Hero Arc.

Sound good? Good.)

But what makes this Izuku's rising moment? What is the antithesis to "Midoriya Izuku: Origin"? If his convictions are the same as the first chapter, what makes this moment special?

Unlike the first time- this time, everyone supports him. He has friends, fans, allies all over the world. His childhood friend, his idol, his mother. Everyone believes in him. And it's all because Izuku inspired them to take action, even when he had nothing.

Because it wasn't a Quirk that made him a great hero- Toshinori even said so.

It's because he can't ignore he saw someone in need of saving, someone who looked him in them eyes and was asking for help.

And the reality he's living at the age of 16, he's Quirkless. He's standing up to someone who will not be reasoned with. He's at a huge disadvantage. He's the only one who can do it. And maybe has "nothing", but he has everyone, and everyone wants him to do his best. And they'll pave the way, they'll make it easier to carry the burdens he can't carry alone.

This is why it's everyone's thoughts on him, instead of his point of view; his convictions were always clear; it's everyone else's that's changed.

And for that, not only he didn't just become the world's greatest hero: by all accounts, he already was. He already is.

Thank you for reading.

[sapphic-agent]

Sorry in advance for how long and wordy this gets.

My Hero Academia is squandered by the less than mediocre writing of Horikoshi. I will give him credit only on his ideas and concepts as the premise of the series and the setting are likely the only reason any of us are still tuning in, that and spite.

The show is too quickly paced and surprisingly for a complaint about a shonen, it's too action packed it doesn't offer much up in the way of quiet moments allowing characters to breath properly outside of conflicts and so I don't really care much about the conflicts they are involved in, especially when the thematic relevance of said conflict got spoon fed to me moments before it started in a shoehorned scene or a flashback.

Hori introduces themes of Heroic corruption regularly but never actually shows any corrupt hero's, and those that are said to be corrupt show very quickly that they aren't, usually at the detriment of others.

A complete reboot is necessary, slowing down the pacing immensely to the point where this war arc we are on will take place once they have all left UA. Have major events of the story take place staggered across the three years of UA, include "filler" with dedicated episodes to every student of 1A with mini arcs exploring the more important side characters such as Todoroki, Tenya, Uraraka, Tsuyu and maybe even Momo.

Completely redo Aizawa to actually perform to his own standards, he should teach the students to work on their fundamental "quirkless" capabilities as he more than anyone should know how easy it is to beat someone who has had their quirk countered to make sure they won't die in a situation where their quirk is useless, instead of threatening to expell them for having a weak quirk or non versatile quirk.

This can be done easily by just inverting his test. Have elementary/middle schools let kids use their quirks in gym and PE to help them understand their quirks and use them safely and give genuine context for why teenagers are expected to be skilled with their quirks when public quirk use is illegal. And have his starting test be about who is the most capable without them, showing him to be an unorthodox instructor and less of a hypocrite as that genuinely ties into his fighting style.

Have Izuku be quirkless for either half or all of his first year at UA. Have All Might take notice of him but still teach at UA to scout out a proper successor. Have Izuku manage to get into UA and do well in it's entrance exam as someone quirkless.

Make quirkless people exist and actually matter. 20% of the human race are quirkless, that is a much larger number than people realise coming in at a wopping 1.6 billion would be quirkless out of 8.1 billion. That cannot just be the elderly like fannon suggests.

Have Izuku go from the quirkless wonder to user of OFA actually matter, have him being conflicted about it, have other quirkless people actually have opinions on it, have people discredit him for being Quirked all along, only pretending to be quirkless. If you have him inherit the quirk at all.

Have stain be quirkless and have that revelation chill the world, have him being rejected from heroics for being quirkless have Stain parallel Izuku in many ways.

I could go on and on and on and on about a million and one ideas that would make the show/manga better but I feel like I've made my point well enough that there is so much here untapped that Horikoshi has, but rushed his way past for the next action scene and ultimately squandered.

Agree that MHA does need a major rewrite. It had such great potential and introduced a lot of intricate concepts for an average shonen, only to squander it at every turn. Like someone super smart in one of my reblogs said, "the story has a lot of interesting ideas, the author just has nothing interesting to say about them." A series that was built upon discrimination, inequality, and prejudice has done nothing more in the end than prop up the privileged, bigoted kid over the MC he abused.

Talk a about disappointing

[italeteller]

Well, it's officially My Herover

What a god damn bummer

I remember starting the series, feeling not quite satisfied with the MCU at the time and loving Izuku and All Might and the way the series didn't take long to put Bakugo's ego in check

Then the sports festival arc blew everything out the water. Deku's resourcefulness during the obstable race, the cavalry team battle, Bakugo vs Uraraka, my boy Shinso, and the unforgettable Deku vs Todoroki really made me feel like this was a mangaka who could make an excellent story with any character, no matter how little screentime they'd had before

The Stain arc wasn't quite as impactful as the sports festival, but it did wonders for Deku, Iida and Todoroki's growth, and Uraraka's martial arts training was a welcome surprise

The training camp was Deku's finest moment. I don't care what anybody says, "My Hero" is the greatest Izuku chapter and both the manga and anime did magic with it

And then came the peak of the series, though we wouldn't know it for years. All Might vs All for One. I remember being stressed out of my mind that All Might would die, and happy beyond belief when he survived

But then cracks started appearing. The eight precepts arc skipped the all-girls team and gave Izuku a get-out-of-jail-free card to abuse his powers with no consequences whatsoever. The festival arc was great but seeing Nejire in a beauty competition didn't make up for her being skipped in the eight precepts arc

And then Izuku developed a second quirk, and the promise of six more quirks down the line, which was honestly the beginning of the end. I said as much when the chapter dropped and history had proven me right. Because Izuku was already gonna become the strongest hero in history, stronger than All Might, because that's how OfA works. There was no need to give him a swiss army knife of extra superpowers

The villain arc did little to ease my worries. It focused on the three villains that had already had the most screentime and ignored Spinner and Compress who really needed some more background exploration, and it made Shigaraki bonkers levels of powerful

And then there was the war. During the kids' first year of school. Midnight got killed offscreen, because I guess Horikoshi needed someone "important" to die but he didn't want to kill anybody actually important (seriously, go look at the list of casualties of the war. It's a bunch of nobodies and Midnight)

Star and Stripes came and died only to nerf Shigaraki, which wouldn't have been necessary ir Hori could balance his power sets

Nagant came, exposed even more the dark side of hero agencies, got immediately redeemed by Izuku and then blew up

Deku's vigilante arc was. A thing that existed. And it really showed how underdeveloped most of Class 1A were, because the big emotional scene where everybody asks Izuku to remember the good times they shared together was 80% "hey remember this one and only scene we had?". Points for Bakugo and Iida though, they got the good stuff

The traitor reveal arc was also a thing that happened. Woulda been nice if the kids had had some actual time to process their feelings and deal with the fallout of the whole thing

And then the final war. Boy, did that one drag on forever. Bakugo died, then he got better because a hero who never had any screentime with him sacrificed himself to save him except he didn't even die so no biggie

Toga and Spinner could have had something, maybe, but Hori didn't spent enough time to seriously make them impactful. Spinner especially, the whole heteromorph discrimination thing felt way too forced and tacked on at the last minute

All Might busted out a mecha suit to fight on All for One's level, which would've come in pretty handy when they fought against Shigaraki. Then AfO died, but then he wasn't dead and was actually the one who gave Shigaraki his quirk, and he ate Shigaraki's soul and became the big bad, and then he died literally 2 chapters later, and Shigaraki who had enough energy left for one last hit against AfO also died for good. Oh and Izuku lost both arms, which had been built-up to happen since the sports festival, but then he got them back one chapter later so. No biggie

And then the final chapters. Society got better, don't ask for details. Everybody is 8 years older, don't ask for timeskip designs. Izuku is now a teacher, but he gets a new mech suit that shouldn't have taken 8 years to develop considering All Might's took months, and he jumps right back up to be a hero. The end

My Hero feels like the new gen Naruto. A large cast with varied powers that 80% never get properly developed in favor of the big 3, and a very interesting world that barely gets explored

The 1A vs 1B arc really feels like the point where the series becomes something different. Side characters begone, it's the Izuku-Bakugo-Shoto story. Inko, the protagonist's mother, who always had been shown suffering through Izuku's many injuries and even got All Might to admit he hadn't been taking proper care of his protegé, got sidelined and we don't even see her react to the truth of Izuku's quirk. Izuku masters 6 quirks offscreen, whereas before the series made an absolute point of showing the process of him growing and learning and improving

I really loved this series, and I'm damn dissappointed in what it became, in case it wasn't clear. I hope Horikoshi has made enough money to rest for a while. By the end he constantly needed to take breaks because his health was just going down the drain. I hope he gets to kick back and relax, and if he ever writes anything else I'm not gonna read it

Good bye, My Hero Academia. I'll always cherish the first parts and the characters, almost as much as I'll mourn all the wasted potential they all had