#mhav meta

[welovethecloudboytoomuch]

I just finished a Vig reread (again (again)) and something I noticed is that All Night's catchphrase is "I Am Here" while Koichi and Knuckleduster say "I'm Here". A more informal, personal variation.

Man, I got a lot to say about “I am here” (MHA) vs “I'm here” (MHAV) so thanks for this excuse!

In MHA, “I am here” is both a reassurance to people in need and a warning to villains. It reads: "Have no fear! I am here to help you!" While at the same time meaning: "I am here to stop you villains and save the day!" It is the catchphrase of All Might: The Number One Hero and it has that kind of hero marketability that we expect out of Pro-heroes.

The first time we hear “I’m here” in MHAV we need to remember the words preceding it. The full phrase is, “Well, All Might ain’t coming, but… I’m here!” And we need to remember that this phrasing is implicit every time we hear “I’m here” throughout Vigilantes.

When Knuckleduster is beating up on common criminals it’s: “Well, All Might doesn’t have time for you, but I’m here.” When Knuckleduster is holding the hand of his daughter in the hospital it’s: “Well, All Might may not have been able to save you, but I’m here.”

So, in truth “I’m here” in Vigilantes means: “I may not have the same power as All Might. I may not be as strong or as fast. I may not be the perfect hero he is, but I’m here and I’m going to try.”

“I’m here” in Vigilantes continually puts All Might up onto a pedestal. As do many other things in Vigilantes, for example, Koichi maintaining that only official All Might hoodies contain the divine Hero Blessing™️. All Might is used as the epitome of what a hero should be.

That’s why All Might initially wants Izuku to use the phrase "I am here" too. To tell the world that: “He is here!” and pronounce that Deku will be the next Symbol of Peace just as Toshinori was as All Might.

And all of this is especially interesting considering what both All Might’s and Knuckleduster’s apprentices do with their inherited phrases.

For my money, “I am here” in MHA is 1) corrupted by All for One and 2) not adopted by Deku.

During the Kamino battle All for One uses the phrase "I am here" to mock All Might. Spitting the catchphrase right back at him while he beats the tar out of All Might and the city. This eventually culminates into the "I am NOT here" sign worn by the All Might statue. The phrase is turned on it's head and used to demonstrate All Might's failure. Because he is "not here" the world has fallen into Chaos.

but he seems to be attempting to reclaim this phrase in recent chapters so we'll see where this all leads soon

(Just want to note that I'm speaking about this from an English-language perspective, cause I know that translations of this are not exact.)

Deku for his part, does not take up the phrase in the way All Might wanted him to. Demonstrating, I think, his desire to be his own hero and find his own words.

Koichi, however does something different. Instead of taking the phrase "I'm here" from his master Koichi iterates on it until it becomes: "For some reason, I'm still here. I'm still here with you." Koichi's "I'm here" version demonstrates a level of care for the person he is fighting, something that no other version of the phrase has.

In full it says, "I am not All Might, and I really shouldn't be here. But because I chose too, and because I have the will, I choose to be here for you."

And I love that all of that can come out of those little phrases. Thanks for the ask!

[linkspooky]

Powerless Aizawa

Aizawa Shota is introduced to us as an overly harsh and strict teacher, who pushes his students to their absolute limits and seems to prefer sink or swim mentor styles. This is however an outward personality he projects, to appear strong, to appear in control of things. We know now that Aizawa is one of the most deeply caring charaters in the series, so why does he feel the need to act so aloof and unemotionless, strictly rational at all times? 

We learn a lot of his backstory in My Hero Academia: Vigilantes, the canon prequel and it informs a lot of his behavior in the main story. MORE ANALYSIS UNDER THE CUT. 

1. Aizawa Appears to be in Control

Aizawa is introducted to us as an incredibly strict teacher. One that forgoes the policies of the school and expells students on a whim if they do not meet his own personal standards. Aizawa’s soft side is known to us now, but it’s also important to remember that he still even now embodies the philosophy “cruel to be kind.” He almost never lets his soft side show around his students, and he prefers to appear as a harsh teacher in front of them at all times. This is still his main way of engaging with the world. 

Aizawa believes niceties, showing compassion, all of those things are secondary to raw technical merit in hero work. Which is ironic because Aizawa’s shown a lot of compassion, especially for those younger than him who lean on him for emotional support. But the person who he really is, and the person he presents in front of his students are two different people, as different as night and day.  He even repeats this bevaior in the light novels. SCHOOL BRIEFS. Vol 1. 

Shota Aizawa made a point of living his life rationally. In other words, cutting out all that was unneessarey, extraneous, or wasteful. Accordingly, he had no preferences when it came to food or clothing, because time spent fussing over such things was time wasted. His hair was long and unkempt, and his otufits were all identical, or at the very least indistinguishable from one another. In his eyes, the only point of eating was to nourish oneself, so he mostly subsisted on nutrient jelly. Clothing and living spaces that emphasized form over function and comfrot were absurd, cooking elaborate meals and caring where the ingedients were grown or processed was nonsensical. 

For Aizawa everything other than raw technical merit is unnecessary. He breaks people down to what they are capable of and tends to see them as that first. In a way Aizawa while aware himself of the flaws of the hero system that he was also once excluded from, sometimes repeats those same flaws. He almost expels Deku for having a quirk that’s not compatible with his body on the first day, rather than you know, trying to help him or teach him better ways of using his quirk. 

Since he reduces everything to raw merit and achievement, he tends to reduce students down to their potential and doesn’t even bother to teach those he sees no potential in. Its an elitist and flawed metho of teaching. Teachers are supposed to you know, teach, not let the students fall through the cracks intentionally. 

Especially since Aizawa is already aware they exist in a flawed system that lets people like Midoriya fall in the first place, and at the start of the manga it seems his policy is to just let them fall and put all the responsibility on their shoulders for not being good enough. That’s a sign of poor teaching, because as I said, those students were going to fall anyway. Not bothering to try, letting the weak fall, and paying all attention to the strong, that’s just reinforcing a broken status quo instead of trying to improve the students like a teacher ought to. Aizawa is the first and only person to notice, and lecture Deku for how self destructive his actions are but at the same time he doesn’t do anything substantial about trying to dissuade him from that. It’s something that could be solved with like, a personal talk, telling Deku that actively harming himself over and over again is something that will destroy his chances of being a hero, but Aizawa just lets Deku fall flat on his face because he emphasizes learning it on his own so much. 

Aizawa’s method of teaching is sink or swim. He lets them fall entirely on their own and doesn’t himself seem to care if they drown. He’s as harsh as possible and treats first day students as if they have the same do or die consequences as professional heroes. Even though a necessary part of learning is making mistakes. 

Aizawa calls this his kindness, but once again Aizawa only ever allows himself to show that kindness in indirect ways. He only ever allows himself to be strict, because anything else is unnecessary. 

In other words, the way he teaches is so that his students will be prepared for everything. He expects them to be in control at all times, and overcome any circumstances. And his way to teach themt his is to not adequately prepare them, and throw them headifrst into things so they will learn to adapt to almost anything. He doesn’t warn them aduquately ahead of time, because Aizawa believes the world to operate that way. 

The world is not logical, it is illogical. Heroes are not working under controlled circumstances like in a classroom, they are entirely uncontrolled. Aizawa himself believes that since it’s impossible to control everything he has to send his students into these situations as blindly as possible so that they can learn to survive basically in the wild. The strong will survive, and the weak won’t, and because of that he believes that those who are going to be crushed like this are better off being crushed. 

He doesn’t prepare them, because he thinks they’ll never be prepared enough. So they have to learn to survive unprepared. Aizawa is like this with all things, projecting the harshest personality possible, removing the extraneous, acting in the quickest most efficient ways. Because he believes his mistakes get other people killed, and there’s no recovery once he’s made a mistake. You can see this even in the way he deals with villains, he jumps straight to torture in about ten seconds. Aizawa is completely brutal. 

Aizawa himself even realizes it at times. By raising his students as efficiently as possible, sometimes he neglects the fact that they are kids, because he’s raising them primarily by strengthening their quirks. He even admits that nobody thought Bakugo after being kidnapped for several days and having his kidnapping made national news and All Might getting hurt as a result of it might need a few days of guidance. Aizawa is a part of a system that reduces kids down to their quirks and their strength, and sometimes he reinforces that system even when he’s aware of its flaws. 

Because Aizawa as a flawed character, is still shaking off the flaws of the system he was raised in as well. He’s still learning from his students in the same way he is teaching them. 

Even though Aizawa’s quirk is suited to teamwork, not only does Aizawa work entirely by himself alone at night as a hero, but he also teaches his students this as well. His methods which are basically sink or swim or survival of the fittest basically emphasize individual strength above all else, because he believes their greatest merit of a hero is their ability to survive every situation on their own, without making mistakes that could be costly. He believes out their in the wild, nobody is going to help you if you fall and all you can do is learn to overcome entirely on your own with sheer strength. 

That you as an individual have to be in control of everything, in order to be a hero. This isn’t what Aizawa actually believes though, it’s what he wants to project. He is essentially, an overly harsh control freak when it comes to his own life (hence why he devotes it to 100% hero work, teaching and literally nothing else) and that is all a response to his trauma. 

2. Aizawa is Afraid of Everything He Can’t Control

The reason Aizawa is so strict, and always employs sink or swim methods comes from his youth. Aizawa has dealt with feelings of powerlessness all his life, especially because his quirk is not suited to combat the way other heroes quirks were. 

Aizawa has an extremely low image of himself. Due to the fact that he’s not personally strong enough to save everyone, he therefore cannot save anyone. He fundamentally views himself as a weak person incapbale of saving others especially because his quirk is weak on its own and not suited for combat. 

Aizawa is extremely harsh, but he’s harshest on all on himself. To him the worst thing is failing to save someone, so therefore if he thinks he’s not prepared for the responsibility of saving someone he won’t even try. Part of the reason Aizawa does not reach out to others as much is this overhwleming sense of responsibility he has. If he gets involved he’s responsible for everything. If things go out of control, he will be the one responsible for not being strong enough to handle it on his own. The same can be applied to his students, if one of his students goes out into the field and dies because they were unprepared, it’s his fault for not teaching him properly. So he gives up on and doesn’t even bother to teach the ones he doesn’t want to take that responsibility for. 

In the flashback, Aizawa begins to change little by little when he sees someone who recklessly takes the leap and saves the cat anyway with no thought at all, whereas Aizawa himself is constantly held back from showing how much he cares by his own thoughts of inferiority. He’s kind but he never allows himself to be, because he believes he’s too weak to be kind, to be able to help others, so he only ever shows it in indirect ways. 

We see a lot of Aizawa reacting to the world around him. He can’t do anything on his own because of his quirk, and therefore he sees it as wrong for him to rely on others. He sees himself as weak because he needs others and doesn’t excel in individual strength. 

Aizawa’s goggles come from that same hero who he saw as able to take the reckless leap and save people instead of getting caught up in his own self doubt. HIs closest friend at the time. When he started to wear those goggles, to lean on him for assistance, Aizawa started to improve. There is no way he ever would have improved if not for that friendship, that thing which modern day Aizawa considers so extraneous. 

Shirakumo breaks through Aizawa’s beliefs that he has to do everything on his own and shows how strong he can be as a part of a team. What was wrong with Aizawa was not that his quirk was weak, but he was too isolated, unable to let anybody help him and therefore constantly stuck with his own self destructive thoughts, and far too aware of his own weaknesses. 

Aizawa is still not able to do everything on his own, but he learns that if he relies on Shirakumo the two of them are stronger as a pair together. They don’t have to destroy their indiidual weaknesses, because both of them can cover for the others weaknesses. It’s not the strong surviving the weak, he’s in a situation where it’s okay for him to be weak and still make use of his quirk to the best of his ability. He doesn’t need to stand on raw combat ability and power alone. 

Being suited to teamwork instead of having a strong individual quirk isn’t presented as a bad thing at all. It’s at this point that Aizawa had the healthiest view of his own quirk, and the way heroes should operate in his life. He was close to breaking the status quo and overcoming the society that had made him feel bad about his own quirk all of his life.

But then we witness Aizawa’s point of trauma. 

His closest friend dies not to a heroic sacrifice, but just a random accident. Just rocks falling. Something Aizawa is completely out of control of. Something AIzawa did not expect at all. He didn’t even get the chance to fight back, it was sudden accident that took a human life.

Not only that but at the time Aizawa then had to fight the villain all by himself. Not only that, but he’s praised for being strong in that moment and taking the villain down alone rather than relying on other people. 

And that’s what broke Aizawa. He really did rely on people. He did work as a part of a team, and was emotionally open to other people around him. Relying on others and not his own strength, not being prepared for everything led to his friend dying by falling rocks. In a moment that was completely out of control, he lost his friend and was fored to fight entirely alone. 

And that is how we see the Aizawa of the current day. He works alone, he believes that people have to survive on their own or they won’t make it into the own, he believes that those who are just falling he should just let them fall because it’s kinder then sending them out into the world. Shirakumo died in a situation entirely out of his control, and now Aizawa seeks to control everything. 

Aizawa as an adult is a fully realized hero who works mostly on is own, who is strong enough to fight alone, and yet carrying Shirakumo’s death with him he still feels completely powerless. It’s those feelings he has to unlearn. The emotional connection with his students has taught him far more than lecturing them on quirks ever has. 

[multiversitycomics]

This Week in Shonen Jump: January 14, 2019

Ken takes our first look at My Hero Academia Vigilantes.

[image]http://multiversitystatic.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/02/WSJ-Banner-1.jpg[/image]

Welcome to This Week in Shonen Jump, our weekly check in on Viz’s various Shonen Jump series. Viz has recently changed their release format, but our format will mostly remain the same. We will still review the newest chapters of two titles a week, now with even more options at our disposal. The big change…

[welovethecloudboytoomuch]

If there’s one thing I can do for this manga before it ends it’s to document that we were here, and that there were fans trying to get the word about this amazing series out there.

Vigilantes to me, is one of those special stories. It’s a simple one, about how kindness and patience spreads, and returns back to you. That small dreams are good, and that persistance even though it’s hard, is how you get to where you want to be.

If MHA says that it only takes “one bad day” to make a villain, Vigilantes says that it just takes one person, and once chance to change that around. All Koichi wanted to do is help people, even if it was just picking up trash on the street, and he ended up being the hero to his whole community.

Vigilantes is about how the actions of an individual matters, that it is always worth it to chose good and kindness, and with this crazy world we live in today, it’s the message that we needed most.

[welovethecloudboytoomuch]

I think I’ve finally figured out the major difference between MHA and MHA Vigilantes.

Deku becomes a hero because of the world of MHA. Koichi becomes a hero in spite of it.

Despite being quirkless, Izuku is given the chance to be a hero because of the world of MHA and to be put on the same level-playing feild as the other hero candidates. He excels because of his intelligence and selfless nature, where every test or villain attack is an opportunity to grow, but none of that would have happened without the systems and institutions of the my hero world.

Koichi becomes a hero in spite of nearly everything in his life actively discouraging it. For example:

his mom making him forget how to use this quirk properly when he was a baby

not getting to take the entrance exam because he saved Pop

The fact that he initially refused Knuckedusters offer

Having a weak/weird/nonhero-like quirk in the first place

Ingenium asking for the card back

And it being illegal for him to use his quirk to help people

And yet he become a true hero in his own right despite these setbacks.

And I think this is the main reason why these two clash when we compare them. They both struggled and fought, but while Deku fights against villains and exams, Koichi is fighting the whole system, including villains, heroes, and what it means to be a hero in this society.

[welovethecloudboytoomuch]

I am now shaking at the implications of the last chapter of vigilantes

Not only has Knuckleduster most likely already died ;-; but he appeared in Number 6’s consciousness to All For One and AFO reacted to his presence!

Knuckleduster has been quirkless for ~5 years at this point! It tells us that even if your quirk is separated from you, your conciousness will always be apart of that power! In this case, his quirk is acting more like a soul than anything else and that brings up a HELLUVA lot of questions about quirkless people because do they just- not have this???

Also remember, Iwao only became Knuckleduster (with the boots and the coat we see in this brief nomment) after he lost his quirk! And yet this version of himself retains the Knuckleduster persona! Somehow, that personality has transferred over to his quirk! And no, I don’t believe that this is happening because of Number 6 knowing who Knuckle is, and assigning that personality to him. 6 hasn’t even reacted to this, so this is all going on without his input.

And whether or not this is more like the “quirk ghosts” that All for One mentioned seeing, or a true vestige, this is still happening within Number 6 and not All for One!

All this also just drives me further in the direction of that theory that 6 posses a latent or inactive version of All for One. Before, we thought the vestige of O’clock was just 6’s way of conceptualizing his master. Then when it was revealed that it was indeed actually AFO, we lost a reason for why he would be able to appear in Number 6’s consciousness. So, it’s either that AFO is able to enter the consciousness of everyone he has even given quirks to, or it can only happen with people who also posses AFO.

I’m still debating with myself wether or not it’s the first case or the ladder. On one hand, we have him being able to interact with OFA, on the other, wouldn’t he have ultilized this to spy on people he has given quirks to, particularly Ayoama? It’s just something that doesn’t have a clear answer right now.

If it ends up that 6 does have a copy of AFO though, uh, holy shit. 👀

Even if he doesn’t this makes me question the fate of 6 again. What’s happening now is making it seem like this whole nightmare-night is going to go on for a little while longer. So, I’m not sure that 6 is just going to burn up into nothing like AFO has predicted. Although, we’ll see, he is just a flaming skeleton without organs at this point.

With the new info in this chapter, if he does die for good, that means knuckle’s consciousness also dies with him, but because they’re showing knuckle now I believe that this is going to significantly impact what ends up happening with Number 6.

Also I CANNOT wait to see the ghost of knuckleduster scare the absolute shit out of AFO next chapter. I never in a million years could have predicted that this is where vigilantes was headed when it began but I am ECSTATIC it has.

[welovethecloudboytoomuch]

Cloud’s Top 5 MHA Vigilantes Chapters

In order to commemorate the ending of Vigilantes tomorrow I have come up with a list of my top 5 favorite chapters! I found it really hard to narrow it down to my favorite individual chapters because when I think of Vig, I think of the overall story and the arcs rather than the chapters by themselves. Nonetheless, I have attempted to compile my favorites here! Spoilers also!!!!

5. Chapter 1 - “I’m here.”

Yep! Had to put the very first chapter on this list for two main reasons. The first is because it works very well as an introduction to the Vigilantes series. It quickly explains the premise of our story and introduces us to our main characters, while also showing how it differs from mainline MHA by diving straight into the darker themes.

The second reason is because this first chapter IS the whole of the vigilantes series because of how everything ties back to it. The line of “Well, All Might ain’t coming, but l’m here!” is the central theme of Vigilantes. “We can’t expect anyone to come to save us, so we’ll be here to do what we can.” is exemplified by the recurring use of “I’m here!”. So, when our characters say it, it always ties us back to this first chapter and usage. Then there’s other stuff like Koichi remarking on the qualities of what makes a good hero, all of which are boxes he himself has checked off by the end of the series, and the fact that Koichi’s first words to Pop are “Hey it’s the cops!”

True romance right there.

4. Chapters 106/107 - “Tag” & “The Days to Come”

But Cloud! I thought this was just supposed to be your top 5, You can’t group two chapters together!

Shhhh It’s my list I get to make the rules

The reason I have both of these chapters ranked together at number 4 is simply because they contain my two favorite panels of the entire series. The first is from chapter 106 and is the my favorite example of Koichi and 6’s pure SPEED. They are so fast you can’t even SEE THEM, only the path they traced as 6 tries to hit Koichi with one of his explosions. The second is from chapter 107 and is part of AFO’clock’s warning to 6 about how if this keeps up Koichi will grow to overcome him. Which is paid off in the later chapters when Koichi goes on the offensive and develops Knuckle-style. Just the imagery here of Koichi towering over him and 6’s face are my favorite parts about this one. All the praise to Betten for these chapters.

3. Chapter 64 - “Shouta”

Everybody knows that this chapter is utterly soul-crushing, so I don’t need to say that, but this chapter is the reason I read all of Vigilantes in the first place.

Furuhashi has the audacity to give us hope, to make us believe that Aizawa won and that Shirakumo is going to be okay, only to RIP IT AWAY in the most painful way possible. Its that kind of storytelling that drew me in and and kept me invested in Vigilantes. That AUDACITY to do whatever they wanted with the plot is what sets vigilantes apart for me.

This chapter also sets up the idea for later chapters that you can hallucinate your loved ones giving you encouragement if you are a) fighting for your life and b) they are on the brink of death themselves.

This is only one example of Furuhashi being a master of set-up and pay-off.

2. Chapter 116 - “In Darkness”

Okay now we’re just getting to the ones that make me cry. In 116 Koichi is on his last legs, he thinks he’s literally dying the whole time and it’s just a chapter of dialogue between him and Knuckleduster. The only real function of this chapter is to serve as a rallying cry for Koichi to get back into the fight, but the way it’s done is so understated and gentle.

Essentially this whole chapter is Knuckle telling Koichi “you don’t need me anymore, you can do this on your own” which is IMMENSELY PAINFUL for two reasons. One, while Koichi is on his last breath Knuckleduster is also dying at the same time, so we can see this as the their “spirts” reaching out to each other one last time before one of them dies. Or if you don’t believe that Knuckle is actually talking to him, it’s Koichi just imagining the image of his master and telling himself the things that he already knows. That he is capable, that he’s been a hero all this time, and that Knuckleduster would be proud of him.

And when he stands up at the end of the chapter, fully focused with his knuckles glowing with energy? Chills, every time.

1. Chapter 75 - “Letter”

This is the one that can get me to cry literally every time I read it.

This, like chapter 116 is just Knuckleduster talking to Koichi, but this is his confession to Koichi. He starts off the letter by apologizing to him and then moves on to explain what he thinks a true hero is, only for him to say that Koichi has been his hero the whole time.

The notion that Koichi, this nobody, this guy on the street, with a funny quirk, and a penchant for being absent-minded, has always been a true hero is awesome. He showed what a true hero was to a Pro Hero, someone who had been doing “hero work” for years, but when Koichi hands Knuckleduster a tissue for his bloody nose all the pomp and circumstance that makes a hero in this world falls away.

It doesn’t matter about his quirk. It’s doesn’t matter that he’s tried and failed at being the hero before. It just matters that Koichi has the iron will to make the impossible, possible, and that when there’s someone out there, waiting to be saved, there isn’t even a decision to be made.

More than anything else, Koichi wanted to help people, and did whatever that entailed. That’s what makes him a true hero.

[welovethecloudboytoomuch]

what do u think of the fact that whenever knuckleduster fights hes just hopped up on a steroid cocktail

We’ve known for a while that KD is on a bunch of drugs when he fights:

Giran even says that the drugs might be messing with his brain and be a factor for his- “The best strategy is always punch first” attitude.

But the main thing here is: Why does he need the Pain killers?

Is it just from being a hero for so long? Hero work is definitely not a good profession to be in if you want to avoid aches and pains, so it might be reasonable to assume that’s the cause here. But there are two other, more interesting options:

Either, he’s in pain because he lost his quirk or, he’s in pain because he got very very badly hurt by AFO when he lost his quirk.

For the first scenario, i’m thinking along the lines of- when AFO gives a quirk sometimes the bodies can’t handle them. That’s why 6 and Tomura had to go through extensive remodeling before they were given quirks. So, what’s to say that taking away a quirk couldn’t have the same effect?

The only other character in canon we’ve seen (so far) lose a quirk to AFO and live is Ragdoll and she was nearly catatonic when they found her. (Though this might be due to what they were doing to her at the Nomu factory and not just a result of losing her quirk.)

For the second, it’s a question of: Did knuckleduster escape AFO or was he left alive?

This one I think has a more obvious answer. AFO already stole his quirk so O’clock wouldn’t be a threat to him but still why did he let him live?

It’s one of the great unsolved mystery of vigilantes. You would think that AFO wouldn’t want anyone to know he was alive ESPECIALLY a hero who a direct line to the police and All Might himself! It might be a thing of: to make sure KD stayed quiet AFO kidnapped his wife and daughter and implanted the bees in them and because KD started to fight back his wife was killed/ put in that catatonic state, but we don’t really know for sure.

This got a bit long and off topic, still thanks for the ask!

[sparrowwings-trash-backyard]

AFO can (theoretically) enter the consciousness of anyone he has given a quirk to, since his consciousness was also imprinted in the quirk as its user

I am now shaking at the implications of the last chapter of vigilantes

Not only has Knuckleduster most likely already died ;-; but he appeared in Number 6’s consciousness to All For One and AFO reacted to his presence!

Knuckleduster has been quirkless for ~5 years at this point! It tells us that even if your quirk is separated from you, your conciousness will always be apart of that power! In this case, his quirk is acting more like a soul than anything else and that brings up a HELLUVA lot of questions about quirkless people because do they just- not have this???

Also remember, Iwao only became Knuckleduster (with the boots and the coat we see in this brief nomment) after he lost his quirk! And yet this version of himself retains the Knuckleduster persona! Somehow, that personality has transferred over to his quirk! And no, I don’t believe that this is happening because of Number 6 knowing who Knuckle is, and assigning that personality to him. 6 hasn’t even reacted to this, so this is all going on without his input.

And whether or not this is more like the “quirk ghosts” that All for One mentioned seeing, or a true vestige, this is still happening within Number 6 and not All for One!

All this also just drives me further in the direction of that theory that 6 posses a latent or inactive version of All for One. Before, we thought the vestige of O’clock was just 6’s way of conceptualizing his master. Then when it was revealed that it was indeed actually AFO, we lost a reason for why he would be able to appear in Number 6’s consciousness. So, it’s either that AFO is able to enter the consciousness of everyone he has even given quirks to, or it can only happen with people who also posses AFO.

I’m still debating with myself wether or not it’s the first case or the ladder. On one hand, we have him being able to interact with OFA, on the other, wouldn’t he have ultilized this to spy on people he has given quirks to, particularly Ayoama? It’s just something that doesn’t have a clear answer right now.

If it ends up that 6 does have a copy of AFO though, uh, holy shit. 👀

Even if he doesn’t this makes me question the fate of 6 again. What’s happening now is making it seem like this whole nightmare-night is going to go on for a little while longer. So, I’m not sure that 6 is just going to burn up into nothing like AFO has predicted. Although, we’ll see, he is just a flaming skeleton without organs at this point.

With the new info in this chapter, if he does die for good, that means knuckle’s consciousness also dies with him, but because they’re showing knuckle now I believe that this is going to significantly impact what ends up happening with Number 6.

Also I CANNOT wait to see the ghost of knuckleduster scare the absolute shit out of AFO next chapter. I never in a million years could have predicted that this is where vigilantes was headed when it began but I am ECSTATIC it has.