#let the world live please

[ftgirlboss]

omni-man loved debbie. he LOVES debbie. not only did he love her enough to postpone his plans of conquering earth for his kind (which was his sole purpose in life) he loved her enough to let her DOMESTICATE him for 20 WHOLE YEARS. which in his 10,000 year lifespan is nothing, as he said, but it made him HAPPY. he did it because he wanted to, because IT SIMPLY MADE HIM HAPPY! to live that life of his own volition! he went as far as to start saving people, beings he deemed as “lesser than him”, clothe himself with a ridiculous superhero suit and join forces with other heroes to help keep earth safe. he arrived with values completely different from the human species, and in such a short amount of time debbie made him CHANGE his values to fit a humans, made him feel love and joy for the most trivial moments like watching his son win a silly sports game. he would have waited until debbie died naturally to conquer earth because he wouldn’t physically be able to make himself kill her, and he also wouldn’t be able to force her to live in a viltrumite dominated world, full of cruelty, where she would either get killed for being too weak or ACTUALLY be used as a pet. he made himself smaller, more pliant and obedient for her, so she would not even think to be afraid of him in any possible situation. didn’t force her to be dependent on him and his powers. he changed for her, fit himself into the mold of a loving husband and father, and was practically disgusted with himself when he realized he lost his viltrumite ways and that he would be considered as “weak” back on his planet. went against his teachings for what? A few years with a human woman just to know what real warmth felt like? had a child with her, raised him with the values of his mother and prayed he never got his powers, so he could keep postponing his mission. no viltrumite ever strayed from their path… oh, except for omni of course! i wonder why?? For the fun of it? even when he finally convinced himself he was still the conqueror he was raised to be, he couldn’t force himself to say the words to debbie directly. he could not admit that it was all a lie because it just wasn’t, he could never fake his emotions that he literally learned because of her (and that weren’t just engraved/programmed into him like his viltrumite beliefs were) He never told her directly WHY he killed the guardians because he knew with all his disgust and disappointment, that no excuse would be acceptable. the only thing he could do is run and hide from her hate (killing her never was an option) and leave earth if he cannot succeed in his viltrum plan AND have his family at the same time (because as much as he likes to stroke his own ego and repeat how humans have a short lifespan and are therefore lesser and basically unimportant in the grand scheme of things, he would have done anything to spend all her human years peacefully with her). he TRIED choosing viltrum but he could never fully let go of nolan grayson and the man he became . and all it took was a human woman he apparently saw as a “pet”, a son he deemed “a failure” and some measly years spent with them as a family.

anyways season 1 was alright i guess

[vaguely-concerned]

just had the thought 'in the end the most important thing varric taught rook was how to make a home for, with, and in other people' and then I had to go lie down on the floor and clutch at my head in unceasing agony for a few hours, as you may well imagine. hawke and the kirkwall crew........ in the end you kind of saved the world a bit in the most characteristically indirect and chaotic of ways. not by anything in particular that you did or achieved or accomplished (lmao imagine!), but just by -- having existed, and by the love that was always there, despite it all, in all its imperfections, even when no one was saved by it in the end. you're not here right now and you're not quite haunting the narrative but I hear your voices bickering and arguing and laughing from the other room. (and so, I think, does varric. all the time.)

'did you think you mattered, hawke? did you think anything you ever did mattered?' yeah actually, varric says with da2 and keeps saying through the series. you were here. and I loved you. and as it turns out that mattered more than almost anything in the world, no matter how long it lasted or how fucked up it was at the time or what else happens, because varric manages to pass that feeling, that intangible... home, that echo of you all as you were together, that love, hopefully the best parts of it, on to someone else for them to bring with them on their journey, with their family. and maybe the world will be kinder this time. you never know. merrill's line of 'Everything affects everything. We were born, a bunch of things happened, and now we're in a mess with our friends.' varric's greatest fear of becoming his parents. even through the wreck and the ruin of the world, ghosts upon ghosts upon ghosts of love -- malcolm hawke, who we never even see, but his life touched hawke's and hawke's touched varric's and varric's touched rook's and rook is passing it on to the family they're creating. the unbroken legacy of love shines through in ways that are stronger and stranger than any magic. help

[bangchansrose]

poolverine cherik sambucky may never be truly canon but at least we get the increasingly homoerotic bromance dynamic so that's something i guess

[romanticatheartt]

Rhys would sacrifice himself to save the world and let Feyre live

While Feyre would rather be no world than sacrifice him

And if there's no Feyre, there should be no world

[cybertron-after-dark]

Being constantly surrounded by the presence of a loving God sounds great until you realize you never know when his freaky fuckin eyes are gonna show up to check on you.

And man. They do it a LOT.

[dirtytransmasc]

thinking about how Spider had nothing to claim as his own again

there is nothing that Spider can call his own.

his siblings, his parents, the sully family, the forest, hellsgate, base camp, the forest, Pandora, his name, his culture, his identity, his language, his very life. he has no claim over any of it. he can barely hold any claim to himself.

he as nothing.

he cannot, in any way, claim any of these things, not without resistance or hostility.

because he is not allowed to have things. because he's human, an unwanted wild child, a stray, a reminder. because he's the demon son of Miles Quaritch, who must pay for his sins. whatever the reasons, he is denied a connection to them. he dirties it. he is undeserving of it. he is alien to it.

and while in some way or another, he does continue to partake in these things, stay within these places, and such, it's not without comment or resistance. he isn't supposed to. and just cause he's resilient enough of a kid to do so, to power through it all, it doesn't mean he should have to.

he has known nothing else, yet he is denied a place or claim to almost any aspect of his life.

Jake and Neytiri reject him, to varying degrees, not allowing him to even truly be able to claim the kids he considers his siblings, the kids he would move mountains for, as his own. he does claim them, but he can't do so openly and confidently.

same with the village and The People. Spider would lie his life down for them. for their safety. he has done so. but he, like with his siblings, is barely allowed to claim them as his people, and he isn't really given a space amongst them.

many strip him of most, if not all, of his claim to his identity. it is "odd" and "wrong" and "inappropriate" of him to act Na'vi and partake in the culture. to have a complex relationship with being human, with other humans, with Na'vi and the Sullys and their treatment of him, with both the idea of his father and the actual man himself.

he doesn't even have a true place to call home or parents for 16 years! Jake and Neytiri, Norm, other scientists, were all out adopting kids and giving them loving homes, and he…. got the McCoskers? who didn't like him and abused/neglected him? he got to be a stray?

he got to watch all the other kids with their families. he got to know they liked going home at night and felt safe and loved. but he got none of it.

and then Q rolls around, and genuinely gives 2 shits about him, but he isn't allowed to hold a shred of love for him-no matter the sea of hate and hurt it drowns in. he isn't allowed just this one thing. he couldn't even talk about him, couldn't get support, like any orphan should be able to get, prior to him coming back. but now he can't even have him. he can't even save his dad without being overly hated and punished for saving Quartich, many can't even understand the difference, cause it doesn't matter to them.

that's not fair, he's just a kid.

and the most interesting aspect of this, which was really the point of this entire post, is that it spreads to the audience, and that's actually where we see this trend most prevalently. because while it is mostly hinted at in the movie and comics, a good portion fo this movies fandom and audience are the quickest to question, deny, and even argue over what Spider holds claim to.

every aspect of his life is torn apart by the audience. his behavior and connection to Na'vi culture is inappropriate. he doesn't deserve to call the Sully's family or the forest home. he isn't allowed to like, let alone love, his dad. many don't even think he deserves to live.

when did we forget this was a child born and grown on pandora, around the na'vi, and that he is deserving of a life and a culture and a home and a family?

(this post is cross posted and extended from Twitter. so anyone who follows me on both sites might recognize this.)

[plushytoast]

Mark and Gemma as Orpheus and Eurydice: boring, obvious, unoriginal

Helly/Helena as Persephone/Kore, queen of the underworld but only as a prized prisoner: new, bold, fascinating

[camellcat]

first xander brought her back with human breath and determination... then willow with supernatural power and love.... smth smth two halves to keep their third in balance from drifting too far into either side and losing herself.....

[goldkirk]

hey this isn’t aimed at anyone in particular but I’m saying it for the record here: if I tell you no, please stop messaging me about fundraisers and mutual aid.

I get enough messages that it’s impossible for me to keep up without devoting at least half an hour each day, when I’m not even on tumblr that long most days. Me having a boundary about this isn’t a moral failing, it’s a lifeboat for me on my own blog.

In my personal life I’m already advocating and donating literally as much as I can spare. This is not me not caring, it’s just me not willing to interact with that on the one place I go online to not interact with irl news and world events for the most part.

I cannot be upset all the time. I cannot be upset everywhere. I cannot use all my emotional and mental energy fielding my own upset from ongoing events. My options are to hold boundaries about this or stop coming online at all.

I’m all for sharing information and signal boosting to reasonable extents, but the scale of it this year is so large and so enduring that it is literally not possible to for me to participate on every account I have. I’ve previously shared links to Gaza eSIM donations and a major hub of verified Go Fund Mes here and elsewhere online. We, the online humans, know how to look those things up ourselves by now. There are many, many people choosing to do advocacy work, and right now, I can’t be one of them.

If you’re extremely upset when I tell you I can’t share/donate right now about a Gaza family or personal fundraiser you ask me to share here, just unfollow and block me. That’s what those buttons are for. Protect your own emotions and energy and get me off your feed instead of staying upset and continuing to engage with online people or content that upsets you.

Please don’t send repeated angry messages based on manufactured purity politics and moral outrage into my messages and inbox when I exercise the right to run my own blog.

[ad-1812]

Oh their love language is passionately stabbing each other 💘

[jannacalendar]

I understand why it wasn't possible, but it's such a shame we couldn't get Jenny back for The Wish. She and Giles fighting a losing battle side by side and being hardened from it, but remaining each other's solace. Them piecing together the puzzle Cordelia presents to them and having faith in a world better than this, only for Anyanka to try and throw them by hinting at Jenny's death should they return. Giles faltering at the thought of losing her and Jenny, once again, sacrificing herself and destroying the necklace. The way she sees it: she'll either be dead by The Master's hand or by her own, and only one of those inevitabilities gives the man she loves a chance of survival. She kisses him as she plunges herself into the abyss, wanting the last thing she experiences to be his love.

Giles waking up the following morning, the pang in his heart he always feels whenever he remembers Jenny accompanied by a newfound feeling of emptiness, and he's not quite sure why.

[corporalkiheart]

I just finished Long Live Evil and want the Emperor in a way that is frankly concerning. Sarah Rees Brennan knows her villain fuckers and what we want, because she is definitely one of us.

[afantasyoffiction]

k my loves my darlings my fellow 911 fans my compatriots in the weewoo firefighter show

can everyone pls pls pls take a deep breath and stop yelling at each other for one single second

my loves fandom is about love and community if you see something you don’t like you can disengage. now apologise to ur sister or u will have to be put in time out

[byemambo]

Casting ATEEZ in a BL: A Deep Dive

Came across @thirstkanaphan and their Casting ATEEZ in a BL post, I'd love to share my own interpretations but keep the ones that I agree with! I haven't watched everything rip to Bad Buddy like baby, I promise I'll get to you one day! but these are the ones that immediately come to mind hehe.

Seonghwa - Top Form

Seonghwa to be over the years has always stuck out as a performer from their stages, but I've also been able to see him share his vulnerabilities throughout the years of being an ATINY. Known as an idol whose beauty is unmatched and beyond gorgeous, I always seem to relate to his solace and personal growth when uprooting obsolete frameworks of mind, which for a good amount of his youth had prevented him from progressing into a more self loved and confidently accepting person he is towards himself that we see today. Although the Thai adaptation of Top Form is my only frame of reference to the source material, there is something so beautiful yet rooted in devastation that I feel towards Akin. His impact in an entertainment industry that operates on "out the old and in the new," an industry that praises the ethereal with no regard for the person behind such presence, a commodity and an experience, the sun that shines brightly but will burn you once you get close enough to touch it. But rather than being viewed as the sun, he's more like a flame, easily diminished from a strong breeze that results in burning embers. But once he comes across one that knows how to kindle the flame, he is bright, passionate, and his warmth comforting those willing to occupy his space.

Honorable Mention: Moonlight Chicken

I'd love to see him take on a character like Jim, the breadwinner and glue that holds the family together. Although he's more playful with the members (I believe due to being the baby of his own immediate family), I can imagine that his serious side aligns with how Jim conducts himself and his justifications for laying low, resisting the idea of entertaining a lifestyle where he doesn't have to sacrifice his own happiness and personal fulfillment. Sometimes when we experience hardships that result in traumas and crippling mental health, resilience is born, but it easily spirals into restriction and resistance to novelty, and more likely than not, sustainable ownership of life issues over short term solution. We see this when Wen comes into the picture, someone who craved novelty of his own that leads him to peace and comfort, someone that does their best to make a house a home, even if the home is barely held together. Jim's character to me feels similar to how I used to operate in my youth, fixated on surviving without making room to simply live. Feeling as though there's no possibility in making room for more, mistaken our deficit for excess or even straight up denial and worthlessness. When someone lives life with their head barely above water, they don't even realize they've been paddling to keep themselves from drowning in shallow waters. But all it takes is for one person to show them recognition of their own worthiness and consideration, that all it takes sometimes is to stand up on their own two feet and claim what has always been theirs: their value.

Hongjoong - I Told Sunset About You

I'd love to see Hongjoong play in a coming of age series, especially one with a character like Teh that spends the last moments of his youth understanding his interpretation of love along with the unpredictability of the future. Hongjoong has always been experimental and innately explorative, so I can only imagine what his youth consisted of when it came to youthful love and self actualization. Figuring out his passions and dreams, sharing such vulnerabilities with a trusted person you found companionship in despite being pitted together within the competitive nature of university admissions. The unstable pursuit of dreams and roads less taken, and yet coming out the other end a more experienced and braver person that you weren't before. Hongjoong to me is a risk taker, is a expressionist, is a natural born leader that is unafraid of earning more battle scars. Because with any person who takes ownership in paving their own path in this life, no one ever comes out unscathed.

Honorable Mention: Love in the Big City

Because of his being the captain of the team, we obviously have many instances of his leadership and presence within the team: I'd love to see more moments of play and pure silliness with a kind and big heart. Gyuho is one of my favorite BL characters of all time, someone who exhibited both innocence and maturity but still staying true to his emotions when being met with walls and opposition. Hongjoong to me strikes a great balance between his child like nature which truly comes out when he's creating, but still maintaining a level headed composure that earns respect in any room he occupies. It takes a special kind of person who becomes someone's rock without letting distance and traumatic emotional responses send him right out the door to never return again. Gyuho is loyal, Gyuho is optimistic, Gyuho is love in all its beauty and flaws.

Yunho - Living with Him

The series that inspired this post because I'm currently introducing it to my best friend @jupitersdirection so we can both sob over these angels. Although Yunho has played the second lead who unfortunately deals with a one sided love finally now it's my time, at least in Kazuhito's case, he ends up winning over his crush's heart. Yunho to me is someone who's reserved in love that requires loads of patience, but I feel like he would be the type of person that merely being in proximity to the person he loves with admiration and affirmation would be enough to sustain himself for the rest of his days. Kazuhito is someone who remains loyal to his love, even reserving such experiences and intimacy for the day they potentially return their feelings even if it's not guaranteed. I believe someone like Yunho takes union and romantic partnership seriously, which enhances the moments where domesticity and pure intentional love take center stage.

Honorable Mention: Secret Relationships

On the flip side after seeing many clips and moments of Yunho's temper or upset attitude (we see this most with competitions and games), many ATINYs hope that we'll be able to see Yunho portray an antagonist in a story, which is why I believe he would do wonder taking on the complex nature of Jaemin. Despite all his efforts that caused great harm to those around Daon, Jaemin craves Daon's eternal love and adoration through unjust means and without consent. If anything, Daon's distress and fear potentially excited Jaemin, having hopes that one day he will have ownership over Daon. After all, he believes that no one else can be by his side, therefore, I'd love to see Yunho take on such a role one day.

Yeosang - A Man Who Defies the World of BL

Rewriting my paragraphs because tumblr didn't autosave my draft you mother—Mob is easily one of my favorite BL characters because I rewatch A Man Who Defies the World of BL religiously. I know we tend to see Yeosang as this ethereal beauty or someone who defies the odds of reality, but Yeosang to me is one of the funniest and wholesome members once you really take in his personality and composure. I feel like even if he tries not to due to his wallflower and observant tendencies, he draws you in, which is also Mob's dilemma until he has to come to terms with his bigger than life presence in the grand scheme of things. Although he spends so much time avoiding the spotlight and desire to lay low, he finally comes to terms with how significant his role is in the lives of others, and I find that beautiful (even if the series itself is unserious in nature haha).

Honorable Mention: Gelboys

However, if we steer in the direction of letting Yeosang's unique qualities take on the center, I'd love him to play as Bua. While writing this up, I was debating between Baabin and Bua, but what I love about Bua is that we don't notice how hard he's trying to earn love and devotion from the person that matters most until we see the lengths he's willing to go in diminishing his authentic self to be loved. I feel like so many idols and those who desire a life of influence and fame all crave validation and attention, which isn't innately bad until you reevaluate the reasons for seeking such means. When your own cup feels empty, you crave the contents from others to ease fulfillment in your life, through love, money, fame, etc. Until you have someone come along to show you that the lack of content isn't the problem, but the cup itself: switch cups. Rather than altering the person you are, practice the courage you must have in living as the person you are in its entirety, because you will one day come across someone who will love you for your uniqueness, your flaws, and your beauty that had always existed for yourself and yourself alone.

San - See Your Love

Jin Yun did such an amazing job portraying Shaopeng, and his story is so lovely and remarkable. When I think of San, I think of resilience. Coming from a small town into the big city chasing after a dream that for many, feels so silly and out of reach, San displays character that I believe many influential people should possess: the ability to adapt to your own circumstances and to never give up your goals and aspirations. Shaopeng is someone who realizes his circumstances that the world treats as a setback or a flaw, but once he's met with someone like Zixiang that doesn't treat his circumstances as a flaw, but as another layer of beauty that creates the picture that is Shaopeng, we truly witness the phrase "to be loved is to be seen" in its essence.

Honorable Mention: Never Let Me Go

I haven't watched Never Let Me Go in forever, but Palm has always held a soft spot in my heart. Imagine not being able to see your father that spends most of his years present and employed to another family, while eventually having to sacrifice your own safety and livelihood for a bratty son from a prestigious family at the beginning at least. I'd love to see San in a character that we see in HALAZIA and Ice on My Teeth, someone that is self sacrificing and resourceful, someone who adapts to the circumstances and will do anything to protect the people he loves.

Mingi - My Stand In

I completely agreed with Mingi as Ming lol from My Stand In. We know that Mingi is someone who has his "on" and "off" personas, but imagining his charisma and attitude portrayed in Ming would be so interesting and almost frightening. I can see Mingi in a position where his desire and craving leads him to a possessive love, especially with Joe pushing back despite knowing that deep down, he still loves Ming even if he knows he shouldn't. I think the character we've seen Mingi portray in Don't Stop iykyk would be perfect to fulfill the angst and obsession Ming displays in My Stand In.

Honorable Mention: The Sign

On the flip side, if we cater to Mingi's emotional vulnerabilities, I'd love to see him play as Phaya. Despite being one of the most capable and excelling of the teammates, his own nightmares (literally and figurative cause if I had a Dr. Chalothon in my life haunting me, I'd be pissed off, too) backs into a corner and prevent him from chasing after what he desires most: his soulmate. I also still think about Mingi's acting in BOUNCY with the gun, phenomenal work and we need more in the next comebacks!

Wooyoung - KinnPorsche

When I saw Wooyoung being assigned to Porsche, I immediately knew I needed to write my own post because I 100% agree. Wooyoung's playful and witty nature would fit perfectly with Porsche, someone who speaks his mind no matter who he's addressing. I also appreciate that Porsche is territorial over the people he cares about, and willing to challenge those who approach with ill intent and harm. With the whole Vata situation blowing up again, we can see that ATEEZ as a whole takes no prisoners, but Wooyoung especially demonstrating where people stand in his life is something that I always find so admirable in him as a person.

Honorable Mention: The Heart Killers

Bison to me would be Wooyoung portraying Porsche if they leaned more into the babygirlism, which I'm all for. I feel like Bison and Porsche sit at the same table but at different points of maturity. Both characters are still playful and protective, but Bison's emotions being unregulated would land him in unfavorable situations if he doesn't tighten up. Since Bison is the younger brother while Porsche is the older brother, and Wooyoung perfectly sandwiched in between his two brothers, I feel like he has an advantage leaning into one dynamic and the other.

Jongho - Love for Love's Sake

I would love to see Jongho as a Myungha without a doubt as you can see, I'm very passionate about this topic. Because we primarily see Jongho as the "baby" that he can't seem to escape because we saw him as Hyuk in Imitation, people tend to forget that Jongho is the oldest son in his own family. This side comes out of him more when he's around idols his age or when he's able to take on the older person role in a dynamic. I've always noticed his assertive nature ever since predebut as he's someone who takes care of others despite being surrounded by members who are constantly taking care of him, I'd love for us to witness Jongho operating in that dynamic that he's used to predebut. Myungha is a character dear to me as someone who relates to his struggles, someone who stands up for what he believes in but hesitates to stand up for himself.

Honorable Mention: FC Soldout

This series was literally too funny because I'm a big believer if you're always consuming media with this mindset that it has to be "ground breaking" or "high quality," you miss out on being able to laugh with the content you consume and interact with by relying on comparison. Jiwoo is such a funny and cute character, I love his closeted fanboy energy alongside his charisma towards his sport and for his dreams. I also appreciate how dynamic Jiwoo is, from being someone who enables himself to be wholesome and honest about his admiration for his idol, but also standing up for what he believes in even if that means stepping on people's toes and making space for himself. I'd love to see Jongho take on such a duality because he's definitely capable of both.

Now the real question: if ATEEZ starred in the same BL, which one would it be?

For me: Perfect 10 Liners or Only Friends :)

[mintytrifecta]

Still thinking about stormchaser!Gladstone

[polysyndetonaddictsupportgroup]

did every hero really follow endeavor's plan during the jail break? I've never watched bnha, but I always figured there were more heros then Japan knew what do with. Was endeavor really just that worried about how the fight again AFO would go? and did AFO have the league with him? or other prison escapees? Given eraserhead was so entrenched?

As a preliminary matter--yes, it was way more than AfO. The League basically did what they did during the USJ arc and subcontracted their violent attacks. They needed a big force to first get AfO and everyone else out of Tartarus, and then they made it very clear (via loudspeaker and also fucking tweet) that they would all be very peacefully retreating while all those criminally insane and violent motherfuckers went that other direction. Ball's in your court as to how you want to tackle it.

AfO was the biggest threat, by fucking far, but it was far from isolated to him. It was the entire League of Villains + Their Very Special Friends. It was the kind of force that would be required to make the entirety of Tartarus fall for the first time in history. So the heroes had plenty to keep them busy.

And as to whether Endeavor was that scared about the next fight with AfO... Yeah.

I think bnha does a good job at establishing that All Might and AfO just exist at entirely different levels than every other person alive. Their fight leveled a decent chunk of Kamino. And I think that's kind of power and devastation is hard to conceptualize as like, people in a world where we don't have to worry about superhero fights. (as a side note--Sukuna's Big Fight in the Shibuya arc from JJK did better than any other fight in media to really capture the sheer cosmic horror of being caught as a bystander in one of those fights).

But endeavor saw it. He was there for AfO’s and All Might’s last fight. The gods were fighting. Everyone else was just an ant.

He is facing the villain that ultimately took down All Might. All Might won Kamino, sure. But he didn't get up again after. He was permanently and irreversibly taken out of play. And Endeavor has spent the last year feeling like he was struggling to be even half of what All Might was with two hours of productivity a day. He was so consistently voted to not be able to compare to All Might that he bought a wife and had four kids about it, all of whom hate him actively.

He does not think he is winning this fight. He is Japan's number one hero. The responsibility is going to fall to Midoriya Izuku to him. He is the best they have left, and the fight that would be coming was one that already nearly killed All Might, the one guy he has never ever been able to compare to. And when he really looked himself in the mirror and asked if he could stop AfO, the answer was no.

And it wouldn't just be AfO if he came back to power. It would be his followers--and he was liable to get more than just the current League of Villains roster. It would mean more Nomus. They could barely handle one Nomu--how could they possibly handle the Nomus, and the LoV, and AfO?

And the answer that he came to was that they couldn't. Not without All Might.

He thought he was sacrificing Yokohama for every single other city AfO was going to level if he had time to grow in strength again. He thought that if they threw absolutely everything they had at him while he was weak, then maybe they could contain him and the League before entire cities fell.

So. That's why he came to that decision. Why did every hero fall into line?

So what’s key to what happened here was it was this complete structural breakdown at exactly the wrong time.

Structural Flaw #1: Transportation

Was it every hero in Japan that responded to Endeavor’s order? No. But not every hero in Japan was available. Any heroes out of the immediate area were too far away to do shit.

But it's a massive crisis. Heroes would commute from all over if they could--but it's not about desire, it's about time and resources. With how imminently emergent the threat was, a lot of far-away heroes would need something like a jet to even conceivably get there in time.

Who is sending the jet?

Let's pin down what heroes could, conceivably, get there in time. Very few heroes are in walking distance. How do heroes typically get from Point A to Point B?

Hero society in bnha is an agency model. There is no communal pool of resources--you have what your agency has. You have a jet to transport you if your agency has the money for one, and I’m pretty sure only all might had that (he has since had it dismantled and the parts repurposed for the sake of the environment. He only had it to begin with so he could quickly respond to imminent threats. All Might thinks there's more than one way to save the world and saving the environment is part of it). Like. We even saw Endeavor flying fucking commercial.

But let's just assume, arguendo, that some agencies have jets. It would have to be the very top agencies to possibly afford it.

All of whom are shown in canon to mostly operate out of the same area. So they're going to have to send the jet somewhere else to get more heroes. Now any travel time is doubled. If they do send it out, how many people are they realistically getting? Are these heroes in multiple different cities? That's more travel time then. Maybe we just land the plane in Kyoto and whoever gets on in the twenty minute period while they're refueling is who is coming back. We'll hand them parachutes and kick them out the plane door over Yokohama. Okay. Good plan. Go team.

Who is sending the jet?

Like, who is physically making the call to send the jet? Who do they call? Do they just start ringing around their buddies and seeing if they have other plans? The city is on fucking fire and we need people fighting now, so the big name heroes don't have time to organize transport with other agencies. They’re not even thinking of that right now. Make it a sidekick's job.

They are all on fucking strike.

Fuck it. Fine. Make it an admin's job. There has to be some kind of office staff who can work a telephone who's available.

Who is thinking to send the jet?

Admins are not making strategic calls about where the company jets go. There would have to be some kind of protocol in place or someone with the authority to send the jet would have to think of it in the moment. And I guarantee you this would not be the case.

Because this is a society where they have canonically semi-privatized public safety and put people in direct competition with each other over it.

ASIDE: The Economic Structure of Heroics and Why It Sucks

I have an economic structure. You must listen to it. I promise it is relevant. This is why it takes me forever to do things it's because i get too deep into the weeds and have to explain the fucking economic structures underpinning the analysis for my nonsense to make sense.

How the fuck do heroes get paid?

I have no idea if canon ever tells us because to be so for real with you guys I have not watched this show in years. I haven’t cared about canon since the Shie Hassaikai arc. The fucking YouTuber arc broke me. I literally never watched it again. If they ever explain to us how heroes get paid I do not know and I do not care. I refuse to go back to canon. Everything I found out about canon after the Shie Hassaikai arc, I learned against my will. The ending to this story was so fucking stupid and I only have a scattered knowledge of the details but I’m still right. If canon ever tries to explain it then please do not tell me, I refuse to learn more things about this show.

But I still like poking around the potential economic structures based on the part of canon that doesn’t cause me psychic damage. So here’s the thought process for the economic underpinnings of hero society in the pez universe.

From canon, we know it can be an enormously lucrative profession, we know that it involves some degree of private interests (re: merch lines), and we know that there are some people who cannot have merch lines (Underground Heroes, e.g. Eraserhead), so there also must be some kind of public funding aspect to it as well. So. Who the fuck signs your paycheck?

Sources of Funding

a. Public Funding

There must be some kind of official governmental budget for heroics. Like. They are very much a public service. There would be no way to have a fully private heroics force without government funding. What else are you supposed to do, fucking Venmo heroes after they save you? Do they put your kitten back in the tree if you don’t have enough.

In my mind, there's public funds allocated to heroes as part of a city's budget. That funding is allotted based on the number of employees in a given entity balanced against the confirmed acts of heroics of that same given entity. There’s a base salary level and that can be increased based on how successful you are, but salary isn’t exclusively what this fund is for. The heroic entity (an individual hero or an Agency) is effectively receiving grant money from the government to run their agency. You put it into salaries, gear, office space, everything. The government is basically investing in heroes, and it’s investing more in heroes who are shown to have a greater positive impact on society.

It involves overly complex calculations regarding the scaled difficulty of a given bust/rescue/act and ranking of the villain (if there is one) and the overall public benefit for the service rendered. You get bonuses for having a lower average property damage, for contributing to community building projects, that kind of thing. It is Complex. There is a lot of paperwork that has to be submitted to strange and vaguely threatening government accountants. When Mirio and Izuku start their agency, they will burst into tears multiple times trying to figure it out once filing season rolls around, bundle all the paperwork in a Massive Tears And Shame Package, mail it off to the shadowy powers at be, and then get a perfunctory notice that they are getting a ludicrous amount of the city budget allotted to their dinky little agency for the upcoming fiscal year because they are Big Fucking Heroes and enormously good at what they do and it reflects in their stats. They will then lay on the ground of their haunted fucking office and stare at the ceiling for a very long period of time.

But this puts the heroes in competition with each other. Your public funding is chained to your stats under this model. There's only so many criminals out there--you've got to get the right numbers or it cuts into how much of a slush fund the agency is working with.

It's sort of an insane model for a public servant position, but I think it matches with what canon shows us. Imagine having firefighters pitted against each other. like, having a competitive model for public safety raises extreme concerns about how it incentivizes public servants to act.

But this isn't canon's model. It's my guess as to how canon works based on the hints i can remember and my own mental illness. So why do I think canon suggests a model like this?

It's because 1) canon does establish that heroes are in competition with one another and 2) this kind of model would likely be necessary due to the level of autonomy that heroes have.

The literal first fight we see involves heroes in competition with each other. Kamui Woods is doing a big Ultimate Move, and Mount Lady rushes in and steals the show. Like. that is crazy behavior if we are looking at this through the lens of a typical public servant. Imagine you're trying to get directions from a park ranger and a different park ranger kick flips in with a map and a desperate need for you to get your directions from them instead. You call poison control and they’re beating each other in the head over who gets to tell you you’re dying.

Still, on its own, the competition isn’t dispositive, because the private income streams (we'll get there) would incentivize competition even if public funding wasn't based on it. But the level of autonomy that hero offices exhibit also suggest some kind of competition model.

Heroics agencies are not run like a typical police force or fire station. With most entities that function as first responders, they respond to some kind of centralized force (like 911 call centers) and they have highly regulated resource distribution. Like, police forces are restricted to a specific jurisdiction. Within that jurisdiction they have multiple districts and officers typically stay in their district. They're not going to a different fucking city because they think the crime is cooler there.

But Endeavor does exactly that. He's like "hello, son who hates me. Let's go to Hosu because I want to fuck with the hero killer for street cred. won't you come along. It is non-optional" and todoroki says "i hate you father and will abandon you on our father son trip to set a serial killer on fire with my mind. it will be for mildly gay reasons."

These agencies aren't a centralized public service. They are all just off doing their own thing. They're not responding to specific areas as allotted to them by the city--they just fuck off and do whatever. Like, there's probably some coordination between agencies as to who is covering what patrol, but it likely would be more out of courtesy than formal requirement. People wouldn't step on each other's toes nearly as much if there was more of a structure to this.

Typical public agencies who receive funding in accordance with staffing and budgetary needs have more structure and formality than is exhibited in canon. Heroics Agencies act like they're all independent contractors. They probably function like grant money recipients, where they're all fighting for the same pool of funds. You have to write in and show why you deserve that money when that's the case. They're in competition with each other.

Like, is this definitively the structure in canon? No, of course not. I have no fucking idea what, if anything, canon has going on. But it definitely fits with canon.

b. Private Income Streams

We know from canon that it can't just be public funding. Izuku alone probably paid for the Mighty Agency private jet with how much fucking all might merch he bought. Canonically, heroes have merchandise lines, branding deals, commercials, everything. All Might had fucking movies made about him. Those are all extremely lucrative income streams--and likely where the richest heroes get the biggest brunt of their income.

In order to get this kind of income, you are necessarily in competition with your fellow hero.

Public attention, spending money, screen time, all of it--it's a limited resource. You have to be the person who gets to the fight first, who does the big move, who saves the day. If it's someone else? Then that's another kid buying their action figure instead of yours. Heroics is heavily commoditized in canon, and that inherently invites competition.

2. Distribution of Funds

So now that we have a theory as to where the money comes from, how does it get paid out? Based on canon, it comes down to a structure of (a) Independent/Underground Heroes and (b) Agencies.

a. Independent/Underground Heroes

I can't actually remember if the word "independent" is said in canon or if I came up with it, but I think canon implies its existence. It's basically the same thing as being an underground hero, but you're still a Spotlight hero. I also cannot remember if the underground/spotlight thing is canon or fanon or what I’m sorry I haven’t watched this show in years.

Independents are spotlight heroes without the backing of an agency. They just go out every day with the clothes on their back and a dream. They have no support staff, no back up, and no one to help them if things go sideways.

It is not a popular employment option.

Part of it is because it's that much harder to fund being an independent. Like. Say you're just out of high school and you decide to strike out on your own as independent. You're still spotlight, so you can have a merchandise line, and that'd be a nice income stream while you're just starting out.

How the fuck do you start your own t-shirt line?

How do you make contracts with the manufacturers? How do you make and copyright the design? how do you sell the stupid things? Do you try and get them in Walmart? Do you start an Etsy? Your own website? do you call your mom and cry when you have 500 ugly t-shirts with your face on them that no one wants to buy and they're taking up all the space in your studio apartment.

Agencies have preexisting structures in place to help launch these kinds of options, which is one of the reasons why they're so attractive for baby heroes just starting out. The only reason why Mirio has merchandise is because he decided that he didn't care and didn't need to make merch and Izuku came after him with feverish crack addict energy because he cared and he needed Lemillion merch like. yesterday. All Might ended up getting his agency to start a lemillion line. Mirio gets the profits with a reasonable fee to the Mighty Agency. To this day he suspects that Izuku is 70% of his sales but Izuku denies this fervently, like a liar (he actually has a small but very devoted fanbase who rabidly support him and buy all of his merch. he would cry if he knew this. Still. Izuku is his biggest fan and buys literally every single piece of new merch in triplicate.).

Underground heroes are in the same boat as independents but they don't even have the option of a merch line. They exclusively get public funding unless they're backed by an agency, which none of them are because agencies have a tendency to fuck them and their busts for the sake of the spotlight. All underground heroes are bitter and culturally opposed to agencies.

On that note:

b. Agencies.

This is where by far the most heroes would end up. But an agency is like thirty dudes with the same joint bank account. How does the money get there and get distributed out?

i. Public Funding in an Agency Context

Take the above model. How do you attribute public funds based on personal statistics if there's no single person? Does everyone get their own check? But that wouldn't make sense--this isn't just for salaries, it's for funding the actual heroics itself.

Everyone under the same agency would be counted together for the purposes of funding allotment. If Sidekick A managed 300 busts last year and Sidekick B man managed 350 busts, then congratulations, The Big Hero Hero Agency made 650 busts last year, here's a check made out to the agency, figure out what you want to do with it.

But what about incidents that involve multiple heroes from the same agency? Let's say that The Big Hero Hero Agency is involved in a big bust. It is Sidekick A's baby. They have spent months doing this. This has been blood, sweat, and tears. When the day comes, they are joined by Sidekick B, Sidekick C, and Big Hero himself. Sidekick B has been helping Sidekick A for the past three weeks on this case. Sidekick C got called in the day-of to help.

Big Hero showed up for the last twenty minutes of the fight when they were mostly done with everything.

So. You're filling out the post-arrest paperwork. For funding and for public statistics, you need to make sure to properly account for who gets credit for the bust. It has to be one person--if you had everyone individually credit themselves for the bust, then it looks like you've resolved four incidents instead of one under this financial model. it's artificially inflating your numbers for public funding. that's fraud. Who should get the credit: Sidekick A, Sidekick B, Sidekick C, or Big Hero?

Well, there's nothing stopping Big Hero from writing their own name. So let's go with Big Hero. He helped.

This was one of the big sources of the sidekick strikes: a lot of agencies had an absolute policy of attributing successes to the name hero if they touched the case at all, because there was no rule against it. It was better for the agency, after all--unrealistically high numbers on the biggest name meant the agency as a whole appeared more successful.

So there were a lot of heroes artificially inflating their stats with things that were more properly credited to their sidekicks. Which made it all the harder for sidekicks to leave because their stats were shit because their boss was taking credit for their work.

ii. Private Funding in an Agency Context

But that’s just public funding. How would agencies distribute private income streams?

Big Hero Agency is proud to announce its newest line of Big Hero Action Figures, featuring the Entire Big Hero Team, now retailing for $39.99. Get it now from a store near you.

So. An agency is selling an action figure line featuring Sidekicks A, B, and C, as well as Big Hero himself. We’ll round up to an even $40. How do we split up the cash?

You can’t give everyone each $10. You have to first pay the suppliers, the advertisers, the trucks that shipped the toys to the store, etc. Then you have to pay back into the agency to fund miscellaneous expenses—the stationary, the insurance, the coffee in the fucking break room. Everything. By the end, there’s only $4 of profit left over. Not great, but hey—they’re selling a lot of toys. So if they each get a $1, then it should add up quick.

Right. But. If you think about it, people are only really buying it for Big Hero. He’s the best hero of all of them—his name is on the agency, and just look at how much higher his stats are. So it’s only fair that he gets $3.70 a toy and the rest of them can get $.10 apiece. Don’t worry, it’ll add up quick.

Not all agencies would have been like this. But a lot of them would be. Money is a hell if an incentive to screw people.

END OF ASIDE.

With all that in mind—why would they feasibly have a structure to fly in help from other heroes far away? That’s their fucking competition. Sure, we have team ups, but they’re all either well in advance or in the heat of a moment. If they are in the heat of a moment, half the time the heroes resent it because they just stole their fight. They’re gonna what—pay the exorbitant jet fees to fly in someone who’s just going to steal their hard work in the eyes of the public?

Okay, but what about situations like this? Massive emergencies where you need more people?

Those haven’t ever happened before. They had All Might.

So. The heroes on the ground calling in help are out. What about the heroes who are close enough to make it there by ground transport? No one calls them, they just show up out of public need. How are they getting there?

Trains are out. All the trains into the area are shut the fuck down. We are not giving the freshly escaped villains a bullet train to the rest of the country. Same thing for buses. No fucking bus driver is making their regular route into a fucking battleground.

Private transportation it is. Anything more than a few hours out of the area is completely out of the question. Like, good ol’ Manuel from Hosu City and all his buddies? Not making it. The wild wild pussycats? Watched this on TV from their mountain home. Gran Torino? On FaceTime with All Might, who is watching the fight with Midoriya Inko’s hand gripped in his left and Bakugou Mitsuki’s hand gripped in his right. Gang Orca? Twelve hours away and on a fucking island so he needs a boat AND a car to get there. Or he just fucking swims.

But there has to be at least some hero that saw this happening and heroically climbed in their Mazda sedan to make the three hour car trip. Why didn’t they go to the fight in Yokohama instead of the one against AfO?

Frankly at that point those literal children were visibly doing way better than the actual heroes were faring and any heroes showing up went where they were most needed and uh. It wasn’t by the kids.

If we have the agency model as given to us by canon, then that means there is a decentralization of resources. If you want to utilize your public defense force in the case of emergencies, then you need a way to fucking get them to the emergency. Canon does not have that. This is a huge structural failing that only wasn’t a disaster sooner because most emergencies required one guy and he had his own private jet. So most heroes in the country never had to even consider if they would listen to Endeavor’s order because they were completely cut off and useless at the time.

So. Now the analysis has been narrowed from all of Japan’s heroes to just the ones in the immediate vicinity of the fight. That’s still a fuck ton of heroes. This is a heavily populated area with a bunch of heroes around. You can’t go outside without tripping over a hero.

Most of those guys were on fucking strike.

Structural Flaw #2: Over-Reliance on and Abuse of Sidekicks.

The vast majority of the workforce had to be sidekicks. Like, just from a business model perspective. Even the smallest agencies we saw had 2-3 sidekicks. Endeavor’s agency had at least double digits, and I think Idaten was at over a hundred or something. We were probably looking at, conservatively, a 1:10 ratio of heroes to sidekicks.

All those guys are on strike.

Okay. But not all of them, right? Idaten already settled and got their sidekicks back. That’s like a hundred guys.

Except the Strike was not isolated to the Tokyo/Mustufasa/Yokohama area. Idaten sent out a lot of their sidekicks to other regions to help alleviate some of the strains of the strike. (As a note, this was not the Idaten sidekicks crossing the picket line. Them picking up the slack for other sidekicks still striking would have helped minimize effects on the public. However, the agencies of the striking sidekicks would have reaped no benefit from this under the compensation structure outlined above. Idaten would have gotten the credit for everything their sidekicks did, so the other agencies would still be bleeding from this while risk to the public was slightly alleviated. Idaten’s entire function in this strike was to set an example for quick settlement and minimize public harm. There’s this entire sub-analysis on Idaten’s internal culture and how it intersects with broader heroics standards that I won’t get into now this is already way too long.)

Idaten is at 1/10 capacity. It has like, ten guys, all of whom have been working say, thirteen hour shifts (voluntarily—again, it was a decision made to try and minimize the public safety risks of the strike while still allowing their colleagues their best chance at improved conditions) daily for the past month.

All of those ten guys responded to Tartarus before Endeavor made the call.

To understand the exact nature of the breakdown, you really have to see the chaos of how exactly this unfolded.

The LoV and their merry band of criminals hit Tartarus. The heroes do not realize at this time that they intend to let everyone out, give them transportation, and point them straight towards the mainland. They think that they’re just there for AfO. That’s still a huge crisis that needs to be shut down immediately, so they call out all of their best. Endeavor responds. Hawks responds. Eraserhead responds. Mt. Lady, Kamui Woods, Miruko—everyone in the vicinity who could conceivably respond show up. For a second, it looks like it’s going to end here.

Once the LoV get AfO out of his cell, the entire tide of the battle turns against the heroes. Now everyone’s out. All of those horrible, terrible villains. Tartarus has fallen. They have to make hard decisions. The high ranking, very powerful heroes who are most likely to break the line on Endeavor’s decision? They’re already at the fight by the time he has to make it. It is chaos and something they cannot easily leave.

The LoV’s picked right now because they knew that the heroes were operating at less than a tenth of their regular capacity. They picked right now because they knew the system had structural faults, and if they hit them just right, it would all come down on the heroes’ heads.

But the sidekicks broke strike lines to respond, right? Why do they all go to endeavor’s side?

For one thing, it wasn’t all of them who showed up—maybe a third of them were not even in the area any more. It wasn’t malicious, or intentional, or anything like that—they were off visiting their families for the first time in a long time or taking vacation. All of them had spent the past few years being completely overworked and abused by their jobs. They just weren’t there.

So now we’re down to 2/3rds of them who can even try to show up.

A lot of it wasn’t actually made as a reasoned choice. For many of them, they ended up where they did because of all the chaos.

So you’re a sidekick. You’re on strike. The entire world has gone to shit. How do you normally find out about the world going to shit?

This is a competition model streamed through individual entities. There’s no central command structure. Your agency calls you.

Well, your agency either fucking fired you or they cut you off completely during strike negotiations. This time, you find out through the news when the story breaks. Now what?

You frantically try to get in touch with your (ex) agency. Who is picking up the phones?

No one. That was your fucking job before you went on strike.

I used to work at a government public-service type deal, and let me tell you, they abuse the fuck out of non-unionized workers. You are doing everyone’s job. No one ask why we don’t get more support staff because they have unions. Like. I had a law degree. I was hired to be a lawyer in that office. They had us all doing the jobs of four people, and by that I mean it would be the literal entire job description of another fucking position in that office and we were all expected to just do it too.

Unions incentivize treating workers right. The absence of them opens the door to the opposite.

Why the fuck would agencies hire more people to lighten the load on the sidekicks and let them focus on actual heroics? Just make the sidekicks do everything. What are they going do, complain? They’re a dime a dozen. Hire more of those fresh faced kids with no standards just out of school.

You know when you had a job where you’re like. This fucking place is going to fall apart without me. But they treat you as disposable and easily replaceable and you’re like “okay bet” and so you leave and you find out from the people left behind that it actually fucking fell apart without you and you’re just like :o

Yeah. So that happened.

There has been a massive break down in the function of heroics offices for the past month and change because the sidekicks were not there. They were the ones who actually did most of the day to day handling of the office. They were the ones coordinating transport and figuring out the actual mechanics of who would be deployed where in a crisis. All those things that would be super helpful now? Yeah, those guys aren’t there, and they’re locked out of the fucking offices and can’t get in to un-strike for the sake of societal crisis.

But they know where the fight is. It’s on the news. Why don’t they just show up?

Where’s their gear?

Who owns it?

Heroics support gear must be an enormously expensive thing. It would have to be provided by the agency itself. Literally the only reason why Mirio has gear is because 1) all might would NEVER let his pseudo step son run around without proper support so the man would have bankrolled it himself if needs must and 2) the UA support class has a stipend each year where they can make support gear for active heroes and those heroes get it for free in exchange for free advertising for the students trying to kick start their careers, so he is decked out in THE most experimental bullshit from Hatsume Mei Industries (I have this entire side plot where the support class this class year low key became a sort of religious cult haha not really it’s just a joke it’s not really a joke and power loader is afraid every single day when he comes to work he is afraid under the iron clad rule of Hatsume Mei’s weird girl energy and they all decided Mirio was the Tabula Rasa, a figure of prophecy, and I just cannot get into that right now it’s too long it’s too long already. But it’s so fun).

All those sidekicks on strike lost valuable time trying to get back into their agencies so they weren’t showing up to an S-class villain fight in their fucking jammies. Then, when some poor admins figured out what was going on and let some of them in, everyone was frantically gearing up and getting in whatever transport van they were pointed at. Some of them didn’t know they werent reporting to Yokohama until they were already at the other fight. There’s was so much chaos and confusion that very few people had a clear idea of what was happening.

With the sidekicks, some of them never made it, some of them just got in a van and went wherever it took them, and some of them chose to obey Endeavor’s orders. Some agreed with the decision. Some disagreed but deferred to his experience. With how the Sidekick Strike had left their infrastructure, very few sidekicks were able to respond fast enough to make any real difference.

Now for the last possible demographic: the heroes that weren’t on strike and weren’t initially deployed to the Tartarus Prison Break. Why didn’t any of them go to Yokohama?

Structural Flaw #3: All Might was that one kid doing the entire group project for like forty years and some of these people are having to be heroes for the very first time and realizing that they don’t actually want to risk their lives to save people they just sort of liked the idea of this job.

It may be a bit too specific to be a structural flaw but I’m counting it anyway.

So, just to give a bit of a recap: We consider every hero alive in Japan as a candidate for Endeavor’s order. The vast majority of them are too far away to do shit, and there’s no centralized transport network to get them there faster. Toss in those who are dealing with personal medical issues or are away on vacation or just can’t come for some reason or another, and you’ve lost most of the heroes in Japan as respondents. Probably ~80% of potential heroes are culled from this alone.

So we have, generously, 20% of Japan’s heroes left as potential people to respond. ~90% of those are sidekicks on strike. They’ve got hours before they make it to any fight, because of the aforementioned structural breakdowns.

Now we’re down to 2% of Japan’s total heroes.

Some of that 2% were first responders to the initial Tartarus prison break. All the big name heroes in the area. But there can’t be that many top heroes—so let’s say 0.2% of them were at the initial fight.

Now we only have the remaining 1.8% of heroes to analyze.

There have to be a percentage of those who agreed with Endeavor’s call as a tactical decision. If they show up to any fight, they’re going to be obeying his order.

So we only have the ones who disagreed with his call left to look at.

These are small-time heroes. All of the big names are already at the fight. So they are less likely to have flashy Quirks, be especially talented, or consider themselves to have an especially large effect in the grand scheme of things. They have likely spent their entire careers living in a world with All Might.

It has never actually been down to them.

Think of Uwabami. Momo did her work study with her.

Her hero outfit is a fucking evening gown. She spent the entire work study doing commercials and meeting with her fans. She explicitly invited the young heroes that she did because she thought they were cute enough to be in commercials with her.

Now, she’s had some good if minor moments helping rescue civilians. It’s not that she’s never saved anyone.

But all of the top heroes are already committed to the fight against AfO. The current Number One Hero just ordered all her colleagues to report there. And Yokohama has a lot of S-Class villains en route.

And what the fuck is she going to do to stop them? It’s just her. Half of those villains took All Might to stop the first time. She is not fucking all might.

Is this a hero likely to go to Yokohama completely on her own to fight *checks notes* literally the entire prison population minus one guy? The worst guy, albeit. But one guy.

These are all heroes who have never had to be the actual thing standing between society and destruction. There has always been someone more powerful or capable or heroic nearby. Until recently, there has always been all might.

This isn’t to malign them. A decent percentage of them are legitimately well meaning about being a hero. They do good. But when it came to the big, blowout fights, they have always, always, always been the heroes evacuating civilians in the background or performing rescue in the aftermath. It has never been them who had to stand up and do the fight itself.

Every single one of those villains represent a big, blowout fight. And this hero trying to decide if he’s going to obey Endeavor’s order? They are one guy. And they’re not sure if they could even beat one of those villains alone, let alone all.

The reason why no one disobeyed Endeavor’s order was because, frankly, at the end of the day, they did not want to die.

Endeavor’s order signaled to everyone that there was no guarantee anyone would show up to Yokohama. It actually put good odds to the opposite. If you decided “fuck that, I’m going to Yokohama” then you’d likely be doing it alone.

What Class 2-A did was considered a death sentence. People who didn’t know them and their bullshit were shocked that they all made it out alive. These were the worst villains their society had ever faced and it was all of them at once (minus that one guy).

The heroes who were in a position to disobey endeavor didn’t actually think it’d make a difference if they did. They’d just… lose.

Most if not all of these heroes made the decision to become heroes during all mights era of peace. Everything just had lower stakes. Crime was less frequent and less serious. The big fights always had someone there who could handle them, because All Might was there. They’d fight the odd mugger or purse snatcher and help put out fires and go home at the end of the night. They’re heroes. That doesn’t mean they’ve ever truly had to grapple with a life or death fight.

If they went to Yokohoma, they thought they’d die. So they might as well respond to a fight that has a chance. Even if they feel ashamed as they do it. Even if they think Endeavor made the wrong call and wanted to go to Yokohama instead. All Might wasn’t there anymore. And they were afraid.

But there is one thing that Class 2-A had going for them that gave them an advantage over these heroes. And that was the fact that they are all medically insane.

It’s that they were together.

It’s a decentralized heroics structure. If you have a large agency, you are necessarily a top hero because no one else would be able to get that many people to agree to work under them. So you’re already at Tartarus and this isn’t a decision you had to make.

Maybe you’re independent. Maybe you have a small agency with 2-3 people. There is no preexisting centralized line that you can use to try and gather more people to go to Yokohama with you. You’re stuck with your immediate colleagues and maybe a few other heroes you’re close enough with to have their number. You really don’t have time to try and ask around to see if anyone else wants to go to Yokohama instead—you need to pick a battle and get there yesterday.

What good is 2-3 people going to do in Yokohama? You’ll just get massacred and it won’t have made a difference. At least if you go to stop AfO, you’ll have a chance at doing something that mattered.

Maybe you disagree with Endeavor but you defer to his training and experience.

Maybe you don’t go at any fight at all. Maybe you’re afraid. Maybe you became a hero in a time where you had a symbol of peace, and you realize you can’t keep doing it in a time without one.

I think there’s a small subsection of heroes that quit in the aftermath of Yokohama. Because they wanted to disobey endeavor’s order, and they thought they’d just die and it wouldn’t matter, and then dawn came and a bunch of school kids had managed what they were too big of a coward to do. I think the fact that they fell into line when their hearts told them they shouldn’t made them seriously doubt whether they were good enough to be a hero.

But they were alone when Endeavor made the call. And it felt like certain death. And—yeah, it sort of felt that way to Class 2-A when they made the decision to respond. But they weren’t alone when they did it.

They were together. And they always felt braver when they were together. Together, they could make miracles happen.