#mha205

[thequietmanno1]

Thelreads, MHA 205, Replies Part 1

1) “oh right, Shoto was about to absolutely murder his enemy in cold blood. Erm, hot blood.“-  Shoto is like a volcanic eruption bubbling under the artic. Break through the icy exterior, and he’ll subject you to the full force of his raging passion- and given the amount of family drama and emotional baggage e’s already carrying, that outpouring is all the more wild and unrestrained in its release. Granted that does mean Shoto is very much lacking in the way of finesse in using his heat side at high temperature, but when you’re reaching steel-melting temperatures, you don’t need much control beyond skirting the edge of permanent damage from overstepping your heating limit.

2) “Oh boy, can’t wait to see the tears… or not, since they’ll probably just evaporate :)”-Perhaps that’s why Midoria was the first one to crack Shoto’s anti-friend façade- the power of his own torrential tears allow him to withstand the heat long enough to get through to Shoto where it mattered most.

3) “As in, both of them will get hurt, and a lot. And I’m not emotionally ready to see my babies getting hurt, got it?”- ‘sees comment from the future, starts nonchalantly whistling, “o’ what a beautiful morning”.

4) “It’s interesting that in this point he’s a lot like Midoriya was, he also has trouble adjusting the power output of his quirk, what can make him ending up getting hurt, or hurt others”- It’s the same problem from a different angle- Midoria had trouble adjusting to his quirk because he literally gained one only a few hours before undergoing UA’s steep learning curve, and is finally at an acceptable level to the rest of his class that he can begin fine-tuning his control of his immense power in gradual increases, barring any children getting threatened by villains nearby, which is always guaranteed to make him 100% slap a bitch. Shoto, meanwhile, intentionally neglected his fire half beyond the basic ability of counterbalancing his freezing effects, so when it comes to using its more nuanced and finer aspects of control, he’s struggling both because he hasn’t done anything like that before, and also because he’s reluctant to seek advice from the one guy that could supercharge his development in handling his quirk.

5) “oh lord the heat is distorting the image, quite a nice effect, adds a depth to how terrifyingly hot this place if right now, and how bad the situation is.”-Time for prince Shoto to utilise the full force of the dancing dragon style of firebending against this metalbender, and show him how a pro handles the heat… but honestly, I’ve always loved how Horikoshi’s able to draw motion and movement in these still images- I can literally see shoto’s eye warping and distorting in the haze with barely any imagination.

6)“To me it looks like Shoto is only using his fire side, he doesn’t seem to be maintaining the temperature with the ice side, which mean he’ll be out cold in a minute or two tops.”-Actually, given how both halves of Shoto’s hair are being blown upward by the chunky updraft of his blazing heat, plus the swirling mist off to his right, it seems Shoto ‘is’ using his ice half at the same time to try and maintain his temperature, and is creating steam from the collision of his two diametrically opposing halves. It’s just that the sheer intensity of his hellfire-temperature flames, coupled with the fact he has to hold back on the ice to avoid losing his high-tier flames, means his fire’s the more prominent of his two powers being demonstrated, but he’s using both to avoid succumbing to heatstroke from maintaining fire on a similar level to endeavour. I think endeavour being able to use that level of heat without a cooling aspect for any length of time came about from his relentless self-training, possibly at a later point in his life after he’d graduated and was working as a fulltime hero, and is only possible because his endurance levels are secondary only to his stubbornness. Shoto being able to use that level of fire whilst still in school is testament to endeavour’s statements about him being the superior successor, but all that power’s not doing Shoto any good against the one member of the school both stubborn and stupid enough to keep going even when his own defences are in danger of literally boiling off his skin (I remember during the forest lodge that tetsu’s armour cracked and peeled off under mustard’s gunfire, yet here it’s implied that he’s literally made of metal both inside and out, given how he understands that Todoroki can’t keep the heat up from his own experiences accumulating heat within his body for chintestsu, which I guess means that he’s gone a step further in improving his own defensive abilities, but unlike kirishiema, the changes are internal, rather than external)

7) “Tetsu is confident on his ability to survive whatever is thrown his way, no, actually, he’s just sure he’ll survive this while Shoto won’t.”-  TetsuTetsu, the one guy dumb and brash enough to try playing a game of chicken with a blast furnace. In all seriousness though, Tetsu doesn’t have a lot of smarts, but he does repeatedly demonstrate the ability to understand his limits and that of his foes- if there’s something he can do, he’ll do it full throttle, if there’s something he can’t do, he’ll trust his teammates to cover for him so his rashness becomes a boon rather than a burden, and if he’s facing somebody over a prolonged period of  fighting, he’ll get a sense of what their limitations are- usually whilst having the crap beaten out of him, but he’s not adverse to some hard-knocks learning. And whilst that makes him a poor hero on his own merits, in the heat of a team battle he’s an unbreakable rock the others can ground themselves agasitn whilst they work around his single-mindedness- thanks to him Shoto can’t focus his team-killing blows on any of his teammates, allowing them to choose and pick the fights that are most advantageous for them, whereas Shoto, who should be capable of ending the match in an instant, is constantly on the back foot against a guy who should be well below his league in terms of powers, but who’s bloody-minded enough to know that and make it work in his favour through sheer tenacity.

8) “neither will you you asshat, just end this bullshit before you two seriously get hurt. You are putting faith into your fire-resistance, but as Endeavor showed, even that has its limits, and he has decades of experience, and Tetsu there thinks that Metal is unmeltable, and he’ll just power through this.”- I’m pretty sure Shoto wasn’t planning on using his heat for long enough to breach his fire resistance, just long enough to force Tetsu to back away and give him some breathing room so he could recuperate and retaliate with some immobilising ice once he’d gotten enough distance- that drop of sweat on his face (impressive in these temperatures) shows he ‘really’ wasn’t counting on Tetsu continuing despite him upping the threat level of his flames and the danger to them both, and how his own pride and competiveness are driving shoto to keep going anyway, because he really doesn’t want to lose in a fight agasitn such a simple-minded and stupid method of fighting. Shoto’s gotten too wrapped up in their fight to think about anything else but using his fire to beat Tetsu, and at this point the consequences of overextending himself are the last things on his mind- he just wants to force Tetsu to stop, whereas Tetsu can sense his desperation and is counting on his somewhat effective defences- capable of handling his lower temperature flames- to outlast Shoto’s own natural resistance in the end and give him the victory. One of them is thinking of how best to win the fight, and one of them is just stubbornly doing the same thing again and again until he wins, and it’s getting harder and harder to tell which is which.

9) “Midoriya, please, can we have a talk? Its pretty quick, don’t worry, we just need to discuss about your influences on other kids, and how they suddenly lost their fear of death for the most trivial of things.”-Well, I dunno if tetsu was ever influenced by midoira’s suicidal recklessness- far as I can see the only time he’s seen Midoria actually fighting is from the sports festival, and I don’t think they’ve interacted enough for Tetsu to feel motivated in keeping Midoira’s crazy level’s of perseverance alive and well now that Izuku’s had some character development and the scars to go with it. And whilst he does make a lick of sense here, it’s pretty flimsy and wouldn’t hold up under deeper examination- pushing yourself to your limits in training is acceptable, risking your life so you can do the same IRL is not, and especially not in a friendly training spar- but Tetsu’s not a guy who’s big on the complicated stuff, so he just makes his choice and sticks to it, come hell or high water.

@thelreads

[thequietmanno1]

Thelreads, MHA 205, Replies Part 2

1) “The Eldritch students are trying to get away from the flames of death, but it seems like their legs won’t be able to save them for much longer”- Actually, pony’s improvised herself a land speeder out of three of her available horns to aid in her mobility and keep one step ahead of shoji, who’s not gonna be slowed down by her firing one measly horn off at him, and can end the fight just by grabbing her, so she needs some means of keeping herself mobile enough to evade the octo-arms. Actually, if pony increases the number of horns she can move, that would be an effective means of transporting injured civilians out of danger should the need arise, just by having 8 or so horns make the corners of a rectangular tarp the injured could line in and get ‘towed’ behind pony’s land speeder- I bet she’d dub it ‘the Pony Wagon’

2)“My Little Murder of here is going to take you to push you back to the fires of hell that both of you are trying to escape. “- I understand that some of the hero move names need to be dramatic and punchy, in order to psych up the user for maximum effectiveness, but since pony doesn’t have any electrical capabilities I feel that’s a waste of a badass name for what is effectively just ‘4-horn shove’- at least attach it to something like a combo move with kaminari to justify the ‘thunder’ part.

3)“Quite convenient, be able to see behind you, you’ll never be ambushed by people claiming its nothing personal.”-Thinking about it, shoji’s the one student in the school best suited to pulling of the ‘batman backhand’-multiple times even.

4)“Goddammit, even when Ojiro gets something right, he still gets obliterated out of orbit. Those words hurt more than Shoto’s little candle fires could ever hope to do.”- ‘boring, but practical’ may be ojiro’s entire gimmick, but that still doesn’t stop the words cutting him deeper than the drill-shaped wounds he’s still sporting when his more ‘interesting’ classmates criticise his blandness in spite of his effectiveness. On the other hand, it means that he’s a solid cornerstone they can rely on in a pinch when one of the others is in trouble, such as ambushing pony here to overcome her long-range advantage over him and shoji.

5) “piss off, you’re currently the creepiest bastard in the room.”- You are now hearing the jaws theme playing in the middle of a solid stone court, as you turn around trying to catch a glimpse of the hunting mudshark, only seeing the slowly solidifying ripples left behind from his passing, slowly circling nearer and nearer to you…

6)“Oh nice cut there, from the annual meeting of eldritch abominations ft. ojiro to satan and jesus having a fistfight on the depths of hell.” - So, what do you think will be the backing soundtrack once the anime gets to this fight? I’m thinking something like “disco inferno, the burning ring of fire, burn baby burn” or my favourite “hellfire”

7)“oh my god, I can’t believe I’m happy to see you, creppyass McMask, but the fact that you’re here to save your friend must mean that both ojiro and shoji are done for. “-another advantage of Juzo’s quirk is that it provides him a layer of insulation form hazardous effects that can make navigating an area life-threatening for somebody else- if he wasn’t swimming under the heat he’d have been baked alive, and as it stands he would’ve been only able to keep himself above ground for a few seconds at max if he hadn’t knocked shoto out with that pipe.

8)“No Todoroki, that wasn’t the heat, that was that huge-ass piece of metal that fell right into your fucking head. THAT is what’s making you lose conscious.”-Little of column A, little of column B- Shoto might have been able to shrug off that pipe hit if he was in better condition, but the toll using his fire half at that level took on him was too much, and he ended up succumbing to the arms of Morpheus- it’s not just the kids with defensive quirks that can take a hit and keep going in MHA- everybody’s built a little sturdier than normal.

9) “You shut up tetsu, you’re literally a light rain away from dying, just let him go and take care of the poor bastard with a massive skull fracture. “-Adding to what I said about everybody being a level or two tougher than usual, rather succumbing to death or the sweet oblivion of unconsciousness, Juzo manages to hang on long enough to set things up for their duel KO moment despite getting blindsided by getting a sledgehammer with a swing boosted by jet rockets straight to his head- he should have a major concussion at least, yet, he still manages to keep enough marbles together to think of a plan to counterattack even as he’s collapsing.

10)“This guy is losing his cool, quite funny considering the average room temperature at this place, and he decided that he won’t die without at least taking some bastards with him.”-It’s also a nice nod to what Tetsu said about putting his life on the line in training to be able to do it in the real world, showing how he’s not willing to go down without doing everything he can to let the ‘heroes’ he’s supporting win, showing how they’re not so dissimilar.

11) “That’s debatable to be honest. Ida certainly has a lot of broken bones, and maybe even a broken spine, since that thing being doesn’t mean it isn’t still absurdly heavy”- It looks more like iida got caught by the very lip of the tower as it fell and slashed out on top of him, so the full weight of the thing’s not on top of him, just a few pounds of melted rubble and steel that he can’t break free off because it’s harder and more dense to push through than solid earth, and also because his legs are facing the wrong way this time. It would have been a different story if it had actually fell on him at the midway point up it, but by then it’d be a coin flip between getting crushed or suffocated first, once the tower hardened.

12) “There was also something about the other members of the team, but it matters not, since they weren’t trying to actively kill each other. No wait, scratch that, ponygirl tried to backstab Shoji.”-Technically, pony’s entire fighting style comes down to stabbing her opponents into submission with a large number of pointy sticks she can create and control at will freely, so fighting her is only really a step down in comparison to drillboy, who can shred you wherever he touches you.

@thelreads