#mha 298

[myheromedia]

Reflection

[codenamesazanka]

We got along… more than I thought… bonded over games and stuff…

[class1akids]

So this is a genuine question that I hope comes across alright…

As a meta writer, what makes you so confident in knowing the themes of the manga and analyzing it? If you were to look at other analysis that are the opposite and show a different opinion, would you agree with it or now? So when it comes to the MHA ending, with what HK shows and how so many people expected the villains to die, which in the end they did, what made you so fixated on believing that HK was intending for them to live in the end only for him to switch it up. What if it was HK’s intention in the end?

I was on the side of believing the villains would live after seeing the meta blogs on Tumblr that have me hope. So my heart hurts to see what happened. The worst part is previously, I thought they would die but then became confident after reading so many analysis. Unfortunately turns out they did 😭

To be honest, the themes of a manga like BNHA are not that difficult, since Horikoshi is very "loud" about his set-ups. It's not subtle at all - he tends to emphasize his set-up panels and also repeat them several times.

I feel like the "saving villains" storyline was clearly set up with the following moments:

Hawks' attempt and failure at saving Twice

Toga asking "who are saved by heroes / are villains people too"?

Deku's line in 295 - "you looked like you needed saving"

Shoto's line in 298 - "he is me"

Deku in 305 "OFA is meant to save not to kill, I want to save that boy" - which becomes his "win condition"

a whole arc about understanding villains (supposedly)

Ch 342 - weirdo discussion and udon scene

Now, the ending tries to tell you that the villains were "saved" - at least their souls - but ask yourself the questions:

Are you convinced that the villains are truly saved?

Do you feel that there was a satisfying pay-off for the saving themes?

Do you feel like Deku delivered on the "greatest hero" promise?

Do you feel like the new generation did something profoundly different than the previous one and did it believably transform society?

If the pay-off just doesn't seem good enough, it's not because the meta writers did bad analysis, but it's because the writing fell apart in the 3rd act.

When you are in mid-story, it's hard to tell if the narrative is truly off the rails, or it just takes twists and turns. Up until Ch 422, there were ways for a pay-off with the LoV trio and there was a possibility for them to be truly saved. The way 423 ended so abruptly and the whole fandom was like "huh? this was the big finale?" shows that the themes were not implemented convincingly.

And the way Deku became the target of endless memes also shows that the readership did not feel convinced that he surpassed All Might in any meaningful way.

(fwiw, I stopped writing meta towards the end, when it became clear that Hori has failed to deliver the themes he set-up. There is no way to make good predictions on a narrative that has abandoned its themes).

[obsessive-dumpling]

I've taken a couple days to ruminate on episode 128 in comparison to chapter 298. Mainly because episode 128 has given me such mixed signals when it comes to studio Bones current objective.

In season four and five we saw a lot of bkdk scenes robbed completely or at least misportrayed in comparison to it's manga counter parts. And though I just made a whole post recently regarding the new found hope I had based on how Bones handled Katsuki Bakugo: Rising, the handling of this episode is beyond what I was anticipating.

Not only did they not cut bkdk scenes but they ADDED to them. In chapter 298, Bakugo does not wake up and whisper "Deku" and Sero does not put an emphasis on him remaining calm when hearing the news of Deku's condition. These are not completely off base, but they are /heavily emphasized/!

So what does this mean? We knew Bones was playing a long game when it came to season 4 and 5... But were they playing a longer game before that? With the existence of the new opening sequence AND these additional bkdk scenes at the same time, it makes me wonder...are they in on it? Is their lack of commentary on the bkdk dialogue NOT a dodge against bkdks but instead a dodge against mainstream? I've never considered this... But maybe it's time that we do.

[niks-minion]

Bakugou: where’s Deku?

Class 1a: mmm well, he’s still unconscious and...

Bakugou, rushing to his room while still in great pain probably: fucking nerd, I almost died for this?! I’ll kill him myself.

[slwtawn]

redraw bc holy shit

[minorheroics]

— "he's me. the me from before that day."

[hemijep]

Japan : hero's being overwhelmed by a large scale attack and a whole ass prison break in one day

The Rest of the World :

[seraphicghost]

rip 

[dabidabidahh]

I believe it

[tekuo]

momo's red-rimmed eyes i-

[collisiondiscourse]

“if you die, i’ll kill you bastard.”

-

made this right after seeing ch 298. im absolutely broken. shattered. cant wait to have more pain thrown in my face right after this <3 ALSO THIS IS MY FIRST ANIMATION-ISH PLS DONT YELL AT ME IF IT SUCKS

(reblogs>likes) DO NOT REPOST

[balaroo]

"He doesn't care about Izuku!!!" Okay babe, next excuse pls 💅

[frozs]

[niks-minion]

[thedevilsfamiliar]

It’s true and they should say it