#it seems like canon made ejiro and ashido share screentime instead of individually developing them which is a shame

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Characters with wasted potential: Mina Ashido

This ask inspired me to make a longer post on mina and the wasted potential of her arc.

Mina was first introduced as a light hearted and fun character that added an extra pop to the series whenever she appeared. Mina is loud, funny and relatable. All of mina's moments before the war arc are to add a light hearted tone to the story and she is usually seen through the lenses of others who also view her as this confident and outgoing student.

we never see her deeply upset (not to the point that it effects her character on a long term effect) and from other characters prespectives like ejiro we see that he views her as an incredibly heroic person who can somehow solve situations with a breeze (horikoshi makes mina the idealised image that kirishima wants to be) and the other parts of 1A and the teachers view her in a similar fashion thinking that she is outgoing and a confident character who has potential to be a great hero.

Mina's relationship with kirishma and the way hori uses their characters is really interesting (I would of definitely loved a lot more of it) and I want to focus a bit more on how kirishima viewed ashido and how that is the image that we also naturally establish for Mina's character which all shatters during and after the war arc.

The image that kirishima sets for mina is an image of a perfect girl, with a perfect quirk for heroics and a perfect teenager that does well socially and school wise. Mina fits exactly what UA looks for and she is exactly what kirishima wants to be. I think what's even more interesting is that kirishima focuses and chooses to highlight the part of mina that is courageous, passionate and the one that stands for others without even thinking. Kirishima doesn't focus at all on the aftermath of the situation, he doesn't acknowledge the scared mina who completely collapses and starts sobbing after such an encounter. No, kirishima is too focused on himself and his own self hating to recognise the true mina, the other half of her and the more real not perfect image of her.

Mina is in a way kirishima's catalyst. The perfect image that he has of her is what influences him to change and in the end even as he becomes "more like her" (outgoing, loud, energetic,optimistic) he still doesn't end up becoming her because he doesn't acknowledge the other sides of her (well he will in this rewrite/post and it can be argued that he does in canon)

However, during and after the war arc that definitely changes and I would like to argue that we see mina lose a bit of her spark that she once had before. (Or she will in this post)

Mina during the war arc starts to show her insecurities and we start to see her own fear. This is the first arc where we see mina from Mina's prespective. This is the first arc where we see just how effected mina was by her encounter with gigomachia and we see how it haunts her.

During the war arc we see mina cling to her optimistim and positivity. This is specifically seen when it comes to the midnight situation and we see her denying the mere possibility thay midnight is dead. Midnight can't possibly be dead because she is a hero, their teacher who still has tons to teach them so she can't be dead. Midnight can't be dead, they have went through things like this before and everyone was alright so midnight will make it right? These were the thoughts that went through mina's head, a mental battle one where she pitifully clawed and held her innocence and naivety for as long as she could until she saw midnight's dead and mutilated body thats when it was forcefully taken from her. That's when mina had to come to terms with reality at full force.

Seeing midnight's dead body was Mina's last straw in mha. Mina had to come face to face with the mangled corpse of her favourite teacher infront of her after all of that denial, wishing and praying however,reality of her situation hit her hard. We see Mina hold midnight's hand maybe in an effort to check if midnight is alive just for her skin to meet the cold dead skin of her teachers or maybe in a sombrely failed attempt to comfort both herself and midnight whose already dead.

Even though midnight's death was the last straw for mina in the mva arc, gigomachia and his reappearance also played a huge role to Mina's character. As I have mentioned before the mva arc is the first arc that we see mina through mina's own respective perspective and lense meaning that her first encounter with gigomachia was through kirishima's lense. Kirishima (as mentioned before) only saw the courage and strength that mina had and that he lacked. While mina broke down crying in fear kirishima doesn't truly register that and is too busy internalising his own self hatred for being incompetent and unable to help his school mates.

So what happens when mina meets gigomachia again for a second time? And how is this significant to her character? Mina doesn't recognise gigomachia the 2nd time she meets him not at first that is. However, even when she doesn't recognise him she is still cautious and afraid yet tries her best to push through it and get the job done as so many people are depending on her. We see Mina try and fail to cling to her optimisitc, happy go personality. We see the slow and dark reality catch up to her as she questions if midnight is alive or if she can even do what she needs to do. Ultimately, these dark thoughts catch up to Mina and when she hears Gigomachia up close she instinctively freezes her body going back to that moment in middle school where she was overcome with so much fear that all she could do was cry.

We then see the transition between high school hero costumes Mina and middle school Mina. It's a beautifully drawn page by horikoshi that cements the point and shows us including kirishima that Mina isn't just optimistic against all odds but she is a scared teenager trying to survive a war that the HPSC sent her to fight, a war that she should of never been apart of. Mina just like the rest of her classmates is scared, young, naive and a vulnerable student that is treated as a solider within a broken system.

The page also shows us just how much the past haunts mina, it completely destroys all of our previous thoughts of mina and the impressions she has given us as we get to see the truth that Mina was trying to hide from everyone and herself : Mina is scared and she never moved on.

All of that pressure and hope that everyone put on Mina so she could put Gigomachia to sleep failed. Mina couldn't do it and instead of berating her there's a moment of tension and sympathy that we collectively share for mina as readers and even the heroes within the story have that feeling. It's exactly that moment that kirishima also comes to a full circle understanding of Mina and how she like him was also scared, that she moved because she put the fear behind her and she feuled herself with that fear.

Mina and kirishima's positions in this arc switch its mina's turn to come face to face and tackle her fears, deconstruct the happy go personality and show us the duality of her character while it's kirishima's turn to step up and fully understand Mina helping him become a better hero and a character.

Kirishima takes the brute force of that hit while delivering the sleeping substance into gigomachia's mouth. All of this while helping save mina. This moment shows kirishima as a character reaching his supposed peak while Mina reaches her one of her lowest points. Overwhelming anxiety and fear can be seen throughout the page as mina expresses verbal distress over what happend to kirishima. She is scared for her friend and she blames herself for it. She blames not being fast enough, strong enough, brave enough to do what she was tasked to do. She blames herself for crumbling under the pressure and memories of the past. In a rush of pure adrenaline and determination she shouts and tries to reach for kirishima praying that he is okay. Her list of worries growing, this isn't just about survival but also about the life she had the life that might be changed so drastically today. Another person Mina has to think and beg that they can't be dead, it simply isn't their time it can't be their time not yet right?

The war arc passes and Mina is incredibly effected by the tragedy. Her life is no longer the same and she still blames herself. Mina is tired, she is angry and she is scared.

The next time we see Mina there is no smile on her face, a strange image that is. We see that she is angry, she is also scared and she is planning something. A mixture of emotions all that lead to the brewing ideas of revenge. Revenge or a sliver of it was in Mina's mind the moment she woke up in the hospital and remembered her loss, desire for revenge grew as she hears of her teacher and classmates condition, it then grows after attending funereals. Little by little the desire for revenge grows bigger and bigger. Upon this mess Mina is spiralling and well who can see it if the whole of Japan is plunged into a post apocalyptic doom? It takes a while but iida sees it then kirishima sees it.

For iida and kirishima they start of as little hints things that can go unnoticed like mina asking iida and shoto for their training routine to get stronger, or mina writing something in a notebook, then whenever Mina would just be outside of the dorms at night training and with that same book. All of these little things add to the suspicion little by little until the vigilante arc. For iida it finally clicks when he sees mina pouring her heart our saying that she doesn't want to lose anyone else and then his theory is further cemented when he sees her reaction to yuuga being the ua traitor.

The revelation of yuuga being the ua traitor sends mina eveb furher into her spiral a mixture of emotions is she is feelings with a stronger desire for revenge now more than ever. Iida confronts her about it and she tries to feign ignorance but knows that it's pointless and tells him everything. Iida disapproves and shares his own experience and while mina does contemplate and think about it she still wants revenge she still wants justice and her decision doesn't change.

In the end, when it came to the fight mina grows both mentally and physically realising that she is afraid and accepting that. She learns and understands the other party to an extent they're all humans at the end of the day all of them with emotions and connections. Yes mina wants revenge, yes she wants justice but when given the chance she is more willing to sacrifice those actions and ideals to protect her classmates and friends because at the end her desires of revenge all stemmed from loss, fear and the failure to protect what was once so close to her.

In the second war arc, mina expresses her thoughts of revenge she expresses her anger and her understanding to both midnight's killer, gigomachia and redestro. Kirishima also hears her and a further layer of understanding deepens their bond with both of them sharing what they think about the other. Kirishima views mina as his hero, she is his catalyst and she is who he wants to be where for mina she is glad to have a friend as courageous as kirishima, someone who can laugh with her, someone who can cry with her, who can understand her.

All of these emotions and interactions are what make mina who she is. Her grief, her power, her love, her laughter, her friends all of these little intracies that were once attachments and burdens are what feul mina to be better, do better and ultimately turn all of that into hard raw determination and power so she can fight to protect instead of harm.

This idea is reflected in the improvements of minas capabilities in the second war arc where she is successfully is able to form acidman a creature designed to protect and used to protect.

In conclusion, Mina is a character who could of been very complex since the story wanted to put a huge emphasis on her interactions with characters around her and how the changes in society effectively effect her making her feel various emotions. Mina is a teenage girl who is a hero, exposed to things at too young of an age and a character that matures with an intere understanding and tackling of her own views about heroes and villains. She in the end realises that the villains she is fighting are also humans the same as her and that gives her a better understanding of the hero world and society as a whole as she learns the duality of man.