#mha ending critical

[bibibbon]

I just finished mha but I'm not sure I understand the message it tried to send We should reach out to individuals who need our help But all the villains are fucking dead?? Let alone a wife beater got little to no pushback aside from his son who's also slowing dieing

Imma be honest MHA finished and I still don't even know what the messaging was supposed to be. I know I have already talked about MHA's mixed messaging before the manga ended but I didn't think that we could go worse with the messages but we did?!?!

We literally did!!?!? Like look at the final chapter and tell me that chapter wasn't full of history rhyming itself or repeating. I get that the last chapter was supposed to be a foil to the first chapter of MHA but it just turned out to be the same nothing flipping changed. Actually, if you think about it with kids reaching the quirk singularity and more powerful quirks that means more people prone to become victims to a society that hasn't changed at all.

This is probably unintentional by horikoshi but dam it could of been good IF THAT WAS THE POINT OF THE STORY but nope the story tries to end on a happy ending that doesn't feel happy.

Heck Hori messed up with the messaging so bad that even the Japanese fandom are complaining about the lack of criticism when it comes to enjis character and how the todoroki arc was handled!!!

The todoroki families ending was just cruel.

Rei is stuck with taking care of her abuser.

Dabi is stripped of any freedom as he is slowly and painfully dying while not being able to have some peace without his father visiting and saying that he will dance in hell with him (even though enji doesn't understand or hasn't experienced just how much his son went through)

Fuyumi lost her job and had to get another because of enjis reputation

Shoto literally debuted as a hero and was known as enjis son it's literally took him 8 years for people to start looking at him more than just enjis son!!!

Natsou is the only one who got a decent ending here

[dogwaterdish]

I've elected to ignore 430 & midoriya losing OFA for good, the ending did not do my favorites justice so I am pretending it didnt happen forever - only thing I'll accept is midoriya becoming a teacher

[thr0wnawayy]

I am so confused, he's adding more stuff!?

MHA's already a cluster fuck. This is either going to be needless exposition or an attempt wrangle everything together.

Either or, I don't see how this is going to add to MHA in any meaningful way.

He’s gonna add in Touya funeral just to be mean to us LOV stans one last time

[villainsandvictimsalliance]

A reminder that Spinner canonically compares himself to Dabi and feels inferior to the rest of the League of Villains.

Part of the reason he allowed AFO to manipulate him is because he wanted to be reliable, as in he wanted to be stronger to be of use to Tomura. So again, he's canonically kinda jealous not only of Dabi's quirk, but of him as a person.

[whateverthought]

My Hero Academia/Boku no Hero Academia is funny cause like,

the show makes a Big Deal about being a hero despite your weaknesses and shortcomings, perceived or otherwise, and rising above it all. It stars a character with no special abilities and very real feelings and views and ideas and the way they take that first step... is by getting a Special Ability. The Specialest Ability of All even. And it ends with this character losing said Ability while not being able to save their Foil, a victim of the world Just Like Them, and only becoming a hero again, not from their Own Hand but by someone else buying them a suit. Once again, only becoming a hero thanks to another's actions

[super-paper]

definitely the most *mumblemumble* story of all time, I reckon.

[thr0wnawayy]

Is it really safe when we know things are to inevitably repeat?

The truth is Bakugo was never going to thrive in a society that places so much emphasis on keeping the bottom line.

Had he been born a generation earlier, the Commission would have just sent Nagant to elimate him.

The world would carry on without asking the important question of how soneone like Bakugo was allowed to go so far.

Sure All Might wasn't great, but at least he had his own codes and his "career" was essentially 'doing good because he has was able to do so'.

Mirio is a soldier, a weapon that can be trained on anyone considered "a risk" by SC. Everyone smiles and nods, either because they're ignorant or they are afraid.

He lacks any real conviction of his own, instead listening to every word Nighteye dribbled out to the letter while he was alive.

Who's to say he won't do the same for whomever is truly running the HPSC behind the throne.

(You can't tell me Hawks isn't a puppet president)

We saw how he left Eri to die at the hands of a known villain because of "Nighteye's Orders", so is he gonna create the next Touya or Rei because he couldn't be bothered to think critically for two seconds.

How many people are going to get screwed over just because Mirio can't look past his painfully naive world view. The problem with Miro is he never follows up.

He rescues them, but that's it!

Eri's the best example. A concert isn't going to fix years of intense trauma and internalized behaviors. Just because she smiled doesn't mean your job is done.

Rescuing and Saving are not the same thing.

Anyone can rescue another person, it just takes a thought, a spark, an action.

It takes understanding someone and working with them, to save them.

Mirio judges things on a surface level. It's precisely the reason he lost his quirk in the first place.

The most likely scenario is that Eri is immune to her own bullets, because they're made from her own DNA.

Sen could have been aiming to kill, but that's unlikely given Eri's value to the Yakuza and Overhauls plan.

Their first meeting is also an example:

He didn't even think of the danger he put everyone in by agreeing to follow Kai into that alleyway, despite knowing Kai was dangerous and knowing his quirk beforehand

(hence a closed off, cramped alleyway may not be the best place to fight or even just follow someone with matter manipulation as a quirk)

I just don't trust Mirio to be a good hero, let alone another Symbol for society to mindlessly follow.

These are the very same concepts that caused society to get as bad as it is in the first place.

Part of me is glad that Mirio became the #1 instead of Bakugou. But the other part is wondering what the fuck was the point of claiming everyone would be the #1 then putting one person who wasn't even part of that group at the top

[reineydraws]

had to draw this to understand the way i feel about him now that the manga's ended. 🥲 on that note: if you like hawks and his ending, maybe don't read my tags lol. it's not bashing (imo) but they're not v nice. 😅

bg + unobstructed pose under the cut!

his expression's a lil different 'cuz i only changed the merged layer, all the lighting effects already flattened onto it. 💀 alas.

[nutzgunray-lvt]

I knew I wasn't going to like the ending, but I wasn't expecting it to be so underwhelming and just ugh.

- Izuku and 1A fell out of contact once they graduated... but the "Deku Squad" goes and makes their own hero team while Izuku's over here talking about how LONELY it is that he's not a hero while everyone else around him is. Then when he gets to be Iron Izuku, they get back in touch. Yeah, found family my ass.

- The hero ranking system hasn't changed at all, despite it causing so many problems in the story. In fact, it's even WORSE now that heroics is solely concentrated on those with strong Quirks due to the low crime rate. Again, anyone can be a hero, but only if they have not just A Quirk, but a strong one at that. Eventually, another AFO or Shigaraki will rise up, and they're back to square one.

- Bakugou dropping in the ranks due to his aggression and attitude is both surprising and welcomed. I'd been dreading him being #1, but again, it shows that he's received NO character development in 8 fucking years. He'd be in his twenties at that point. Grow the fuck up.

- I guess Aizawa's "apology" to Izuku amounted to absolutely nothing, and Midnight might as well have never been Mic and Aizawa's friend, given how they don't acknowledge her death.

This series had so much potential and a lot of things that I liked about it, but I'm glad it's been put out of its misery. I just wish it could have been told by a better author.

[vivika-ka]

Some instances that I feel show how some messages in MHA are detrimental, especially on how victims react to their abuser, can be gauged by responses that tend to be highly prevalent in the fandom.

(Definitely not every fan, but a great majority).

Endeavor is a great example. Whenever you post criticizing his approach to atonement (and ultimately criticizing Horikoshi’s writing), you get BOMBARDED by people either belittling you for not liking his character or essentially forcing you to like his character by frantically writing “at least he tried” arguments.

If I have the CHOICE whether to forgive his character or not, especially given he goes through an atonement arc and not a redemption arc, why is any form of criticism about his abusive behavior and essentially his abuse of power practically ignored by the story unacceptable?

The message was detrimental because people operate on the notion that for victims to be good people, they must forgive and even help their abusers. MHA presents people who choose not to forgive him as either a monster (Toya) or inconvenient (Natsuo). And if they are still unforgiving, they must admire the abuser for doing the bare minimum (taking responsibility; this is also about Natsuo).

Essentially, they are considered "imperfect victims" because they weren't merciful in their approach to their abuser.

The majority of the fandom tends to ignore the lack of actual consequences for Endeavor's actions because he vows to talk to Toya every day. Insisting that doing the bare minimum, which is recognizing his son's existence and suffering, became his "hell" is a wildly fucked up message, in my opinion.

It harps on the issue mentioned above that if a victim isn't receptive to forgiveness or doesn't act "demure," they are seen as an inconvenience—which is how the Todoroki family ultimately views Toya.

On a less critical note, I'll vent, so if you don't like this, just ignore it.

I'm so fucking tired of stories depicting imperfect victims as people who deserve death and torture. Plus, having to be on the brunt of so many people acting like you're morally fucked because you're not impressed with how a writer handled abuse. Horikoshi is not the first writer to try to atone a character who is an abuser (and he isn't the first to fail at that, either).

I'm not about to dick-ride every decision every author makes. Especially if the message convinces some audience members that victims are inherently broken if they can't bring themselves to forgive and/or admire someone who hurt them.

[plusultraetc]

the way I still can't be normal about "final season"

[bibibbon]

Hi, there are people defending the ending of mha and some good points can be made like Izu never cared for fame...and how Izu working as a teacher is in character, I agree.

I told the op how my gripe is not Izu not having bitches, its how he is not happy, he is not being appreciated.

And like op doesnt have a real answer aside "he is happy, adult life is hard as adults dont have time to see each other all the time" and look, I get it, we are all adult here.

But come on, in a country where we have more heroes than villains...no one had the time to catch up with Izu? They can open agencies but cant ask Izu if he wants to join them ?

Not saying they all should make Izu their god and priority...but no one had time to be there for Izu? REALLLY?

Again, its not about Izu getting no harem or mansions....its him getting no glory after going through all that.

A1 didn´t chip in to buy the damn suit...and even if they did (saw some people saying A1 did help too) why the fuck they kept as a secret?)

Btw, Izumei is the best ship.

Hi @mikeellee 👋

The ending even though I do view it in a negative light has a few good points like you mentioned above. While I do like izuku becoming a teacher I do wish that izuku got a career that involved his analytical abilities. A career where he works with mei and Melissa makes sense and would be interesting to see in my opinion.

I have brought up the point that it's the fact that the manga doesn't show us 1A interacting with eachother outside of heroics or hero costumes which to me can be interpreted that they really aren't close and also further emphasises the point that the 1A found family thing doesn't cannonically exist. In my opinion it's not difficult for Hori to make it so that izuku says yeah they don't meet much anymore but we still see izuku hanging out with some 1A members or we see his phone that has some messages from a 1A GC. This would of helped a lot in my opinion.

I don't really care about canon ships and Iam glad that none have been confirmed but the fact that the fandom has made it a gag that izuku somehow fumbled and the fact that this gag also sexualises and paints ochako in a bad light is disgusting in my opinion. I hate it.

I would like to correct you that the official manga translation does state that 1A did chip in to help fund the suit while Melissa and mei where the creators of the suit. I suppose they wanted to make it a little suprise thing for izuku but it's a shame and weird that we don't see them reveal it to him?!?!

I love izumei as much as the next girlie but even if it was canon it would of been done dirty

[thr0wnawayy]

Imo the League of Villains should have never existed from the main story of MHA. They were utterly unbalanced and were so flawed that no attempt of fixing could fix them.

I get where your coming from. I

I honestly believe the LOV really needed was time to grow away from the spotlight.

Think of the LOV as leftover pizza (I know, just stick with me for a minute)

Too long in the microwave/oven/pan and it tastes like hardback, too little and it becomes soggy muddled. There's a very specific way you need to do things and that's by not overthinking it.

Hori kept the microwave on too long and the LOV's potential evaporated.

From what I can tell, MHA worked best when it had a 'Villain of the week's type of thing going on.

This was most prominent and best set up with Stain, Stain's character/arc not only expanded the world of MHA but also brought up deeper questions about Hero society

What's most important here is that Stain didn't overstay his welcome. He rolled in, made every panel count and then went out like a champ. Affecting the protagonist and those around him.

He had an impact that's felt throughout the rest of the series (There is no Internship Arc in Ba Sing Se) not inspite of his short lived presence but because of it.

At some point, Hori lost this concept and the plot went with it.

I think the main problem with the LOV started after Kamino. Before this, every member has solid, or at least tangible ideals.

The Vanguard Action Squad was the LOV at it's most raw, not perfect but functional. They felt like people, when Spinner stops Magne from pursuing Midoriya, it feels real for the world.

Simply put the LOV (much like 1A) worked best as individuals, differing worldviews and all.

So when Hori robbed the LOV of their autonomy by practically wrangling them to Shigaraki, it in turn killed the LOV, because now nothing was individual about them.

If you want an example, how about Magne's death. Her last words are the very last time anyone in the LOV asserts any belief besides Shigaraki's own.

After this the LOV barely give any resistance to Shigaraki's plans no matter how short sighted or convoluted.

Kurogiri is outright sacrificed by the narrative so that Shigaraki finally has to step up.

Shigaraki's reaction to Toga's rage and grief follwing Magne's death can be amounted to: "Trust me bro, we're doing this for us bro, please believe me bro."

It's absurd.

As for being flawed, I'll assume you mean their motives.

What needs to be understood is that the LOV (Pre Kamino) and the PLF (Post Kamino) are not the same characters

Flanderisation is the phenomenon of a characters worst traits being exacerbated over a period of time until said character is unrecognizable from their original self.

This is what Hori did the LOV and he did this intentionally.

At some point he realized that the Villains actually had more of a point than the heroes, this likely occured after the MVA arc when fans began rooting for the LOV.

To counter this Hori sabotaged multiple characters and plots in a desperate attempt to justify his woolies and unfortunately for everyone who's isn't an abuser-stan (Enji and Bakuo). The rest of the cast and world suffered greatly.

What you ended up with are characters so detached from their origins that they might as well not even be the same characters at all.

There's an image somewhere that encapsulates this perfectly, it's a 4 panel comic with two stick figures (one black and one blue). If I ever find it or someone links it I'll be sure to upload it here

[lacunammmm]

The League Of Villains Is The Most Irrelevant Group Of Losers The World Has Ever Seen, And Nothing That Happened After The First War Had Any Stakes Because Of It

Hawks killing Twice was a mistake.

It went nowhere, no one learned anything from it.

And as we learned from the final war arc, the villains are pathetic and can't score a single fatality.

NO ONE on the hero team got killed. Only villains died!

Hawks' actions look WORSE on that day. "Oh, but Twice was a huge threat!" Actually, no, he wasn't. He's a weak little bitch just like all his friends are. He could have executed Hawks' nightmare scenario of him cloning an army of high end Nomu, Dabi, and Tomura, and the villains still would have found a way to fuck it up.

The narrative would never kill anyone that the audience could begin to give the slightest of fucks about. The only people who died in the first war are were a bunch of filler characters invented just to get killed, and people with no real backstory or development at all.

Do you think anyone cared when Native died? Or how about Majestic, a character invented entirely for the war arc and given the role of being Momo and Setsuna's mentor, despite the fact that he'd never been seen before in the manga at that point, just so he can die and they can pretend there are stakes?

Eel Boy? Funk Man? There were actual characters who don't appear again to do anything of value in the series in the range of Tomura's Decay wave, but the author wouldn't let anything happen to his precious pookies, so they all get saved and he invents a bunch of nothing characters to die in their places.

X-Less entirely existed so he could die and deliver a Tetsuo style cape to Tomura. The man's life amounted to being a drip delivery boy.

The only reason Midnight died is because the author likes to mutilate and kill female characters. He realized that killing off a bunch of utter nothing characters wouldn't accomplish much and couldn't bear to kill Gran Torino after he drew Tomura turning him into a donut, so he picked Midnight, someone the audience could maybe care about but she only appeared in a handful of scenes and was there for Mineta's character development.

Notice how Kyoka lost an ear, but Deku's losing his arms got walked back in the next chapter, and the tease that Bakugo would lose his arm went nowhere?

There's no in universe reason for why the villains are so pathetic. They're garbage entirely because the author isn't willing to kill or harm his precious heroes, so he wraps them in mountains of bubble wrap.

Dabi couldn't even take out Hawks and Tokoyami when he had a type advantage against both of them, and flames that can melt steel in seconds. The guy bathed Hawks' back in blue fire, but only managed to damage his quirk a little.

I want to remind you that blue fire is hotter than lava. But instead of ending up requiring over 100 hours of surgery and having all of the nerves and flesh in his back obliterated, Hawks is just in some bandages for a bit and then he pulls through.

The guy doesn't even have to be rehabilitated. Nope.

The damage to his quirk is reversed by magical prosthetics that means he could enter into a battle with ALL FOR ONE with no apparent loss in power!

If the narrative has a character say "Oh, guys, I totally got weaker after my injury, trust!"

But then it has him fight the strongest villain in the series and the man who's slaughtered thousands by himself in a 2 vs 1 and the guy barely takes a scratch until AFO goes beast mode, why should we deny what's right in front of our eyes?

Hawks' damage was entirely cosmetic because the author likes him. And it means the villains are completely pathetic. This is a series where we're supposed to be worried that these bozos are going to kill everyone, while not letting them kill anyone.

It's a series where somehow, society had fallen to the point where it was total anarchy on the streets and THE MAJORITY of heroes quit…but coincidentally for the heroes, the League never attacks the specific places where their comrades are being held.

It sure is great for the heroes that All For one apparently couldn't be bothered to go spring all those PLF guys who certainly have…barely anyone guarding them because of how short staffed the country is at the moment.

In addition, as much as I like to harp on All For One's incredibly plot convenient "friends" who are apparently infinite in number and enable him to (ineffectually) have villains throw the entire planet into anarchy at his command all at once…

The heroes also get the incredible plot convenience of having infinite funding for all of their schemes, as well as infinite space and supplies for all the refugees who congregated in their school.

Would someone like to explain to me why and how UA high school is able to support most of the population of Japan and keep all of these people fed, watered, and sheltered? When NOBODY is going to work and everywhere is being evacuated? When they can't even get shipments from outside the country at the moment thanks to the state of emergency?

And they still have the supplies to manufacture all the stuff to:

-Make the entire school fly.

-Create the evacuation protocols for the refugees including the devices they were sending them off in.

-Supply their team with everything they could possibly need.

The author doesn't care to explain it and Momo's quirk is only used to create tiles to help fight "Tomura Shigaraki," not the rest of this stuff.

But I guess Nezu was preparing for a zombie apocalypse or something.

You know, Nezu. The guy who refused to entertain the idea that their school might have a spy and ignored the problem entirely.

Said spy was only caught because Hagakure happened to notice he was sneaking off to talk to his parents in the woods and he outed himself.

It sure is convenient for the heroes that AFO didn't keep both of Aoyama's parents as hostages, and that he had Aoyama out himself by having him attack Deku instead of just…waiting and having Aoyama open the doors of UA to them, or leak all their defenses.

It sure is convenient for the heroes that Shinso's quirk improved (off screen) enough to do exactly what the plot needed it to do and bypass AFO's lie detector abilities so he could summon his army into a trap that utterly destroyed them.

If we take the series at face value, everyone's terrified of Tomura, who has less than 100 kills. MOST of his kills were against MLA people who were attacking him. Something the heroes wouldn't actually know about.

The new symbol of evil, everyone, who regularly gets foiled by high school kids and then was murdered by the combined might of a bunch of 15-16 year olds.

I want to iron in something that illustrates how utterly worthless the League is.

Stain killed and crippled more heroes than the entire League Of Villains has. He killed 17 and maimed 23 to the point where they could never be heroes again.

Excluding All For One, of course, who got most of his kills pre-canon.

All For One's endless funding, a villain army, scores of Nomu, the All For One quirk, the MLA's assets being added to the League, and the brute force of Gigantomachia.

All inferior to one deranged man with knives and swords.

[gayfortheplot]

Okay, I know I'm super late to this, I originally wasn't going to say anything, but I can't stew in my anger any longer.

"Keep that grief and misery from spreading any further"??? Really, Midoriya? Really?

Did you really keep the grief and misery from spreading? Will the League just not care that you killed their leader??? The guy they lived with, fought with, and loved for so long? Oh, well, I guess if they're sad about it, you should just kill them too, right? Spinner should die because he was sad you killed the guy he loved so, so much. The guy he dedicated his life to protecting. Dabi should die because you killed the only guy he would take orders from, one of the only people he respected and wanted to help, and the only person who gave him unconditional support. Toga should die because you killed the one guy who acknowledged her needs and wanted her to be happy. The one man who wanted to destroy the world, everything, but was willing to spare the things she loved. Compress should die because you killed the guy he entrusted his and his entire bloodline's goals to, who remembered an offhand comment he made months ago about wanting sushi and made sure he got some. Kurogiri (well, you probably already killed him, but regardless) should die because you killed his son, the boy he'd been raising for the past 15 years.

Never mind the fact that killing Spinner would probably upset a lot of the heteromorphs who saw Spinner as a symbol of their freedom from oppression. They all rioted and fought against heroes, so they're basically villains, right? Just kill them.

Never mind that killing Toga would upset Uraraka, who did so much and put her life on the line to save her. Uraraka has to die too, because she was sad about a villain.

Never mind the Todoroki family, who would be crushed if Dabi died after everything they did to bring their family back together. I guess all of them have to die, too.

And everyone else that might be saddened by their deaths? People that knew the League before, Aizawa, Present Mic, people that related to them and their suffering, people that wanted the better world the League promised? Kill all of them, too.

Wow, Midoriya! Look at all this sadness you've prevented! You really are the greatest hero! Oh, wait, you're sad because you murdered your friends because they were sad? I guess you gotta die, too. Can't have that grief and misery spreading any further! Roll credits!

[whateverthought]

I think, the craziest thing to me, about how people genuinely believe you can't be a Quirkless Pro-Hero in MHA/BNHA, is that having a Quirk doesn't mean you're invulnerable?

Eraserhead's Quirk only allows him to stop other people's powers, but the fighting? Thats him. The giant jump he does over the stairs? The way he throws people around with his capture weapon?

Endeavor makes hot flames, how did that help when Hood the Nomu bit through his arm? We see that his skin cuts like everyone else's, he gets his scar right before that. Hawks stabbing him in the back to make him go faster? Embedded enough to give him speed but not enough to pierce right through him? He goes toe to toe with the Nomu in the Stain Arc, that's all normal strength!

Stain's Paralysis doesn't make him faster, how was he dodging Iida's speed? How were his reflexes so good he moved past AfO Izuku's strikes?

Mandalay's telepathy, how did that help her agility? Sir Nighteye's Foresight, did it make him strong enough to throw those weights? Did Mirio's Permeation make him stronger even when he lost it and was still beating Overhaul's face in? Rock Lock's stop-motion? Ragdoll's Search?

How did Thirteen's Quirk help when almost murdered? Shouldn't she, as someone with a very strong ability just be faster? Bakugo's Explosion did jack when his heart exploded, right? Why wasn't his body just sturdier? Or do they have normal bodies, like a Quirkless person would have?