#ofa wielders

[commander-revan]

I'm billing Horikoshi for my therapy.

[mishy-mashy]

Just looking at how All For One failed to steal One For All from Banjo

So Banjo says to Midoriya the below, right

And we see in the flashbacks of the previous users that All For One actually managed to try stealing One For All from Banjo. But his eyes go to his hand, which he then grabs

This is probably where he realized he couldn't steal One For All so easily. Why didn't it work? He touched Banjo, used his Quirk; why didn't his brother come back into his possession?

He grabbed his own hand because he realized something was wrong here.

All For One couldn't steal OFA from Banjo because he didn't have enough emotion to override their wills. This also happened with En, even though we don't see it.

The above is a volume extra. Banjo and En were the current wielders of One For All when they encountered him. One For All escaped him twice when he faced the current wielder (Banjo and En) directly. The others, except Midoriya/Ninth, had been the leftover power after already passing it on.

All For One failed with Banjo because he couldn't override One For All's will. Though it's not shown as much, he also failed with En, but the volume extra hints that All For One actually got ahold of him too.

Trying to steal One For All from Banjo is probably where All For One realized it takes more than the usual touch-and-go to steal it.

[decarbry]

Hello =B

I just wanted to let you know that this past weekend I was riding in a car, going to my best friend's wedding and then suddenly I was thinking about Yabuzawa and how you mentioned he won't be living long because of the extra quirks and oh boy.... Can't my boys get a break?! D=

Mic does not deserve the pain of outliving him, man... X.x

I'm both sorry and flattered that these thoughts hit you at a random time in your day x"D

In case anyone didn't see me mention it on twitter a while back, I pointed out that like the users of OFA with more than one quirk in their body, Yabuzawa's lifespan is gonna be greatly shortened. Four quirks means he's got, like. 20 years left. You're welcome

[mettywiththenotes]

He’s just a little guy

[ignitionxbomb]

Me: Banjo is such a chaotic man.... and I love him.

Banjo:

Also Me: no.... bad bri.... you don't need him as a muse. stahp this nonsense right now. >.<

[tomatorabbitsticker]

GIVE👏 US👏 HIS👏 INNER👏 MONOLOGUE👏

I would also like to think that Banjo was like “oh shit. How do we make sure he stays in control now?”

izuku didn’t just have to see katsuki’s dead body, he also had to see the fucking all might card right next to him. physical proof that katsuki always had a tender spot in his heart for izuku and their childhood together. evidence that katsuki fucking LOVED HIM THIS WHOLE TIME and now it’s TOO LATE. it’s actually so devastatingly romantic and fucking tragic. izuku really only finds out katsuki loved him all along when he thinks he’s lost him forever.

[bibibbon]

Need to get something off my chest

People in the fandom blaming Nana for causing Shigaraki to be abused and all the suffering the Shimura family went through as well as calling her decision to abandon Kotaro stupid is if someone blamed all the abuse and horrible actions of Enji that the Todoroki family had to suffer through on Enji's deceased father.

Specifically people appear to zone in on Nana's call to not have All Might or Gran Torino check in with her family when it makes sense. She knows AFO has eyes and ears everywhere and will use that to kill those closest to her and those around her as we know since Nana's husband is dead by the time Kotaro is given up for adoption and All Might leaves Japan for the US in order to avoid AFO for that same reason. There is also no way for Nana to know that her successor would wind up as the strongest wielder of One For All and would be the first person to take down All For One.

I'm not sure if you were in the mha critical side of tumblr, but this is a very common opinion here. Nana deserved better, and none of the nana hate honestly made sense.

People shouldn't blame nana for doing what she could to protect her child. She explicitly said that she had done it to protect him, and she didn't willingly want to give up her child. The act wasn't done out of malice but was done out of love. Her husband was dead, and all for one was on her tail. She had to train all Might, and there was no safe choice to keep kotaro. It was a hundred times safer to make a distance between her and kotaro so he could live without the burden of his mother's duties on top of him caring or threatening to cause him constant harm.

Nana tried her best as a mother, and we didn't talk enough about it. She, at the beginning, was probably the breadwinner of the family, her job making it so that she had limited time with her son, yet from the flashbacks we see that kotaro loved his mother dearly. He loved her that child him simply cried and cried when she was about to leave, he loved her to the point that he kept her picture acknowledging that she was his mother yet despising that she left him all alone. His hatred of nana stems mainly from feelings of sadness and betrayal, which only exist because he loved his mother and felt safe when she was near.

I suppose we don't talk about the fact that after nana's husband died and she became a widow she had to juggle all the responsibilities of being a weirder of OFA, a mother who had to be constantly active in her child's life and a hero who had to save others while also ensuring that she earned enough money to keep her son comfortable.

I headcanon that at the time nana was never a good cook and that it was her husband that usually cooked for the family but when he died she had to take on the cooking duties which was a struggle but we see her actively trying even including her son in the process.

Giving up kotaro was the most logical circumstance, and I stand by that. I think to a certain extent, kotaro realises that too, and it's exactly why he doesn't blame his mother but blames her job he blames the hero, not his mother. To me, it evidently seems like kotaro separates nana into two different versions : the hero and his mother.

If we follow that belief, it's exactly why the only photo that kotaro has with his mother is so painful. Every time he sees that photo he in a way, is forced to acknowledge that both versions of nana are his mother. The photo shows his mother, but it shows her in her hero attire she is the 7th weirder of ofa in that picture not his mother but the mannerisms, the way she smiles and looks at him is that of a mother's look.

A haunting picture for kotaro. A picture of a mother's love.

Comparisons between enji and nana fall on deaf ears especially when you look at the circumstances and situations that both characters are faced with.

Enji DOESN'T love his children, his actions were out of malice, greed and desire to be great. He sacrificed family for greatness.

Nana LOVED her child. Her actions had a desire to protect, love, and care for her only family, her only offspring. A beautiful light in the world that she doesn't want destroyed by AFO. She had no choosing as I bet if she truly had the choice. She would do anything to love, protect, and be with her child. In a dreadful situation, nana chose the only way to guarantee kotaros safety.

[chickentnders]

I Think Katsuki is Going to Give Izuku His Quirk in the End

(rewritten here)

There are only two chapters left, so who knows, I haven't seen leaks, but I think there's some compelling evidence supporting the possibility that Katsuki will end up quirkless and Izuku will be given his quirk. And I felt like talking about it. Hi.

*Manga spoilers through chapter 428, Vigilantes, and the Heroes Rising movie*

In chapter 304, Izuku finds out that he's likely the last person who will ever hold One For All, since it can only be transferred to a quirkless person now. Izuku is the 9th, and final, user of OFA.

Except, the thing is, this isn't true.

I'd been going with the understanding that OFA can't be passed on again, but that's not quite what it says in the manga. They say he might be the last wielder and that it can't go to an ordinary person anymore.

This is true, in order to hold the power of OFA, one has to be quirkless, because it eats away at one's life force to have multiple quirks added to their own (as we see with the 4th user).

And this also isn't true, because of the Heroes Rising movie.

The really crazy thing I realized is that this contradiction, doesn't actually contradict what's been established in manga canon.

So, what counts as canon?

Everything, apparently.

In Heroes Rising, there are two little kids at the center of things, Katsuma and Mahoro.

In chapter 384 of the manga, those same two little kids showed up. Then they show up again in chapter 405.

Meaning, the events of that movie… happened?

And that means that there aren't nine OFA users; there are ten.

All Might Vestige

In chapter 362, Katsuki dies. R.I.P. Kacchan, who has now also died in the anime.

But near death, the person he sees in his final moments is All Might. Not Izuku, not his family, not his friends, his teacher. And not just All Might, All Might's non-verbal glowing vestige.

Why this version of All Might, instead of the man?

I have an idea, and it has to do with Heroes Rising.

I thought Vestige-Might was just a stylistic choice on Horikoshi-sensei's part. All Might symbolizes Katsuki's dream, he's the person he idolized his whole life, and he's thinking about things he regrets in his final moments; an autograph from his hero, such a simple thing he never got to ask for.

But then Katsuki stopped being dead and all of a sudden Mahoro and Katsuma showed up in the manga, twice, and I had to reevaluate my perception of MHA canon and what qualifies.

Let's rewind a bit to chapter 254, before the PLF raid so I can make a quick point (for others like me who are used to supplementary material not being acknowledged in, or as, canon).

When Eraserhead and Present Mic are talking to Kurogiri and trying to coax Shirakumo out of him, Eraserhead talks about Shirakumo saving a cat, after Aizawa had left it behind.

For like four years I wondered why the story kept trying to make me care so much about Shirakumo and his friendship with the other two, with so little information given, only to find out not long ago that the entire backstory is covered in Vigilantes.

Which means Vigilantes is canon.

Which means, with the inclusion of movie characters in the main manga… it's all canon. Searching the subreddit and wiki also confirmed this for me.

So if Heroes Rising is canon, that drastically changes the context and potential meaning of Vestige-Might appearing to near death Katsuki.

Because in Heroes Rising, Izuku transfers OFA to Katsuki to defeat Nine.

When it's over, OFA doesn't stay with Katsuki; it goes back to Izuku and Katsuki has no memory of this ever happening. But Katsuki does hold OFA for a short time.

That means that Katsuki is the 10th OFA holder.

Like I said, there aren't nine, there are ten holders.

Like, did it bother anyone else that nine was such an awkward number for OFA holders? It feels incomplete, right?

Considering the events of the manga, this is a potentially huge deal with some interesting implications.

In the final battle in the manga, Deku passed OFA to Shigaraki, one quirk at a time. OFA, the quirk, is officially dead and gone; only the embers remain in Izuku and Izuku is quirkless again.

But like I said… since the movies are canon, then it's also possible that a small ember is also in Katsuki. He didn't hold it long enough to have his own vestige like All Might, but he was still a holder.

So, what if Katsuki was seeing Vestige-Might within the OFA vestige world and that really was All Might? Glow-Might couldn't speak, just like how we see him in Izuku's vestige space; and iirc, he can't speak, because All Might is still alive.

Now, Katuski only saw All Might, not any of the other holders, but that also makes sense. They have no emotional investment in Katsuki, he barely held the quirk, and he doesn't know who they are aside from what he read in All Might's notes. But All Might does care about him, so it makes sense that the piece of himself that exists within OFA would appear in his student's final moments, through the ember of OFA inside Katsuki.

As I was looking to find chapter numbers for this, I ended up flipping through the All Might vs. AFO fight by happenstance and realized something else:

This is from chapter 403. It looks like All Might is about to die and as he thinks this is the end for him, his life flashes before his eyes and he looks back at the path he walked and notices these balls of light on the ground. He thinks, "And what I saw… seemed so very significant."

Hey. You notice anything about this bright ball of light in the center of the panel?

At the end of the chapter, we see Katsuki and Izuku holding those balls of light, with All Might watching from the background, holding his own ball of light. I thought this represented him being their teacher, pushing them forward to become great heroes, a passing of the torch to the next generation of heroes. He never had kids, so this is how he passes on his legacy, through the aspirations of all the children who looked up to him.

Or.

Or it is a passing of the torch, but literally.

Dynamight's Final Fight

I don't know if anyone noticed this, it might not be significant, their costumes get destroyed all the time, but…

In his fight with Shigaraki, as ShigAFO tells him he'll never be anything more than Deku's hanger on, Katsuki's costume is destroyed. Going back a few chapters from 362 (R.I.P. Kacchan), visually, it feels like we're being shown his dream of becoming a pro hero get destroyed bit by bit. His arm gets crushed and twisted, his gauntlets are shattered, his mask gets torn off, he gets an upgrade to his costume and it's barely effective, and it seems from the narration that his quirk was damaging his body from the inside out (like how OFA would do to Izuku).

That fight looks like the end for him, his heart literally explodes (or gets pierced, idk), but he gets back up, saves All Might, and has a grand finale against AFO. The last thing we see him do is propel Izuku the final step to deal that last punch and end things. It's Izuku's story, so of course he lands the final blow, but the point is, Katsuki the one to support him then, because it could never be him.

When we see him in the hospital after it's all over in ch. 424, not only is he told his arm possibly never going to regain normal function, let alone enough to use his quirk like he did before, but his heart is also damaged. We already know that he uses support items to store up his sweat, and I imagine in the MHA world a prosthesis could function similarly in hero work, yet he wants to do the long and painful rehabilitation, despite possibly never regaining function. This is not to criticize his choice to keep his arm at all, I just thought it was interesting, considering how similar he's shown to be to Mirko and how he chose the opposite of what she did.

This feels like a very important choice, because of the support item aspect.

But the most interesting thing in this scene was that he mentions that Izuku never had a quirk to begin with, right before he finds out that Izuku is quirkless again.

(side note: Both Izuku and All Might fought quirkless in the final battle and I love that for them? Like Izuku was technically quirkless when he dealt that final weather changing blow, incredible.)

How Does OFA Actually Work?

Once All Might gave OFA to Izuku, he no longer had the quirk, just the embers. He couldn't pass on the ember that was left inside him and those embers couldn't be stolen. Izuku can't pass on what he has left either. The actual OFA quirk is gone from the previous holder once it's transferred.

But I think another reason that All Might or Izuku couldn't pass anything on again after giving it away, is that they were both quirkless. In the absence of the quirk-passing quirk, there's nothing left of their own quirk factors to pass on, because they never had one. And all of the other holders died/were killed so it wasn't tested as a possibility.

If you think about it… didn't Nana still have Float once she passed OFA onto All Might? All Might never unlocked the other users' quirks (he never had Float) so there's no test he could have done for this either. As far as all the other holders knew, OFA was just lifetimes of built up strength passed on, none of them made true contact with the vestiges to learn about its true power. There would have been no reason to assume that their quirk was forfeit once OFA was passed on, because they didn't know that the actual unique quirk factor was stored.

But if she still had Float after transfer, I would imagine that means that only a copy of the quirk, a small piece, is what's passed on in OFA and that the original stays with the person. One For All isn't eight quirks, it's a single quirk with the abilities of the predecessors. Otherwise, if Shinomori died of old age at a very young age, All Might living as long as he did while holding onto it for longer makes no sense.

If OFA gives, while AFO takes, it also makes sense that OFA doesn't take the person's original quirk.

So what does that mean for canon right now?

If Katsuki is the 10th OFA holder and if a small bit of OFA lives inside him, it was unused, and therefore undiminished, because he never knew it was there—he doesn't remember the events of the movie. He hasn't been using OFA like All Might used it until it was barely a flicker, so the piece that could be inside him is still burning brightly.

He can't pass on OFA anymore, just like All Might and Izuku; the actual OFA quirk is gone.

But Katsuki isn't quirkless.

OFA is a quirk meant to pass power from one person to another. If Izuku and All Might could still make use of OFA's strength, who's to say that it's transfer ability couldn't also be used via the embers? Remember, they didn't have their own quirks to try this out and everyone before them had died early.

Katsuki would be the only person left who could possibly use it pass on a quirk again, because he actually has his own quirk. And while Izuku was the last person who could hold it as a quirkless person (a rarity in his generation), as a quirkless person once more, he's also the perfect vessel to receive a quirk using the last remaining bits of OFA.

So how does this not contradict manga canon?

Well, like I mentioned, the vestiges tell him that he might be the last wielder of OFA, because now it can only go to someone quirkless, and there are fewer and fewer quirkless people born in the world.

Yet, in Heroes Rising, Izuku transfers it to Katsuki, who is not a quirkless individual.

At the end of the movie, once Nine is defeated, Katsuki can't hold onto it and it goes back to Izuku. This aligns exactly with what the vestiges told him. Katsuki just got a taste of the super strength aspect of the quirk, but it didn't stay with him. All Might posits that it's because he passed out before the transfer finished, but changes his mind into thinking it was a miracle granted by the predecessors (since OFA has been shown to have a will).

But what if he was wrong, and it went back to Izuku, because Katsuki literally couldn't hold onto it, as it was too much for his body?

In Heroes Rising, Nine (whose name feels very significant now), was given the ability to hold nine quirks and use eight, and it was too much for him, he had to be genetically modified by Garaki. And even then, he was trying to steal Katsuma's Cell Activation quirk, because his body was breaking down the more he used them. I could be mistaken of course, but I think we're given a villain like this to show what multiple quirks do to the body and the movie ended the way it did, not breaking canon rules for OFA, because we're seeing that it was always impossible for Katsuki to hold onto it. Nobody but Izuku, a quirkless person, can.

We already know Izuku was the 9th holder, but I actually just realized, Izuku was holding onto and could use eight quirks. But if Katsuki was the 10th user, that means he was also possibly holding onto nine while being able to use eight, just like Nine. If I'm mistaken, someone please correct me, but look:

Yoichi's original quirk to pass on power

Power Stocking Quirk gifted by AFO

Gear Shift

Fa Jin

Danger Sense

Black Whip

Smokescreen

Float

(and a copy of Katsuki's Explosion could have been in there, never unlocked or known about since he doesn't have a vestige)

Possible coincidence? Absolutely. But, I mean—

And as for how Katsuki would even know that he has OFA if he doesn't remember: He saw Vestige-Might specifically and All Might was there after the battle with Nine.

Katsuki knows about the vestiges from Izuku. He figured out that All Might was the one who gave Izuku his quirk, despite having no reason to believe that quirk transfer was possible aside from Izuku telling him he got his quirk from someone else. Katsuki is smart enough to figure out that Vestige-Might appearing to him could possibly mean something OFA related.

As For Why Katsuki Might (Possibly) (Probably) (Maybe?) Give Up His Quirk

Because he didn't get the prosthesis. And because of his final fight.

I already mentioned this, but to me, it feels like he's resigning himself to a decision. As if he wants to keep both of his hands as a reminder of what he used to be able to do with them and there's no need for a support item like prosthesis, if he's not going to be using his quirk anymore. If he's giving it up.

Of course, he doesn't yet know that Izuku is quirkless at that point, but the author knows and that's who controls the character's actions.

We've learned a lot about Katsuki throughout the story. We know Katsuki has changed from the punk he was at the beginning. We know he's been paying as much attention to Izuku as Izuku has to him. We know he's sorry and wants to make things up to him. He apologized in front of their entire class and didn't expect forgiveness or for things to change between them. He can't undo years of bullying, there's no way to take that back, the past can't be undone, but he's trying to atone. He wants to atone.

We know he cares about Izuku, we know he would literally die for Izuku, and we also know that Katsuki was devastated at the news that Izuku is quirkless again. He's actually cried a lot in the story, but I think that was the first time he cried for someone else's sake. They were his first tears that weren't from frustration, and his thoughts in that moment were "what did I do to you?"

We also know that Katsuki wanted to be the strongest hero, and honestly… he kind of already achieved his goal.

From chapter one he's gotten a ton of media attention—the sludge villain, winning the sports festival, the kidnapping and rescue (coinciding with All Might's end), defeating a villain with Shouto after they got their provisional licenses. He's literally famous. People have taken notice of him with everything he's done the entire story, for good and bad, and then the entire world saw him defeat AFO and help Deku make it to Shigaraki to land that final punch. After a rocky start and being painted as villainous, he showed he could be a great hero and it was acknowledged by the entire world. There isn't really anywhere else for his story to naturally go as a hero.

It's literally physically impossible for a single human to surpass All Might without OFA, which was Katsuki's goal at the beginning. And at the end, he just wanted him and Izuku to keep chasing after each other, always trying to catch up forever, but now they can't.

It's also why Endeavor's story is so tragic. Can you imagine being Endeavor when he found out about OFA and that the game had been rigged against him from the start? He spent his entire life trying to be the strongest, not number one, but the strongest. He put all his energy into surpassing All Might, abused and neglected his family in pursuit of that goal, cast aside everything else, and then he finds out his entire life had been pointless, because All Might was using a cheat code. Endeavor never stood a chance to begin with. He could have spent that time getting to know his kids, or marrying someone out of love, or making one (1) single friend, but instead he was the number two hero for twenty-six straight years and went nowhere. His ambition meant nothing.

It's been reiterated time and again in the story that Katsuki and Endeavor are parallels. Shigaraki was right that Katsuki would never catch up to Deku, it's impossible. He would have lived his entire life like Endeavor in a meaningless pursuit. And if we look at Endeavor's conclusion, well...

Endeavor had planned to give up hero work and spend the rest of his life looking at Touya and atoning to his family. He ended up being forced to by his injuries, but he had still planned to give up the thing in his life that had given him the most meaning and pride (when it should have been his family). Hero work was the thing he valued most, and so Endeavor gave it up for what really mattered.

For Katsuki, the thing that gave him the most meaning and pride in his life was his quirk. And striving to be the best, just like Endeavor. He valued that over his friendship with Izuku, the thing that really mattered. It's kind of undeniable at this point, leaving shipping completely out of the equation, that Izuku is Katsuki's most important person.

So with Endeavor's conclusion, and how the manga is currently going… I can't help but wonder if that final fight against OFA was supposed to be Katsuki's big send off. A huge spectacle with everyone in the world watching, because that was the end of the road for him; his last big battle, not just in the story, but ever.

What if that was the end of his journey to becoming a pro hero?

What if we got to see his quirk evolve one last time and take down the baddest bad guy, because it was the last time he was ever going to be physically able to use his quirk?

Is the logical conclusion to his story for him to give up that thing he valued over what was important to him, just like Endeavor did in the end? Would him giving that up symbolize him not following in Endeavor's footsteps of obsessive drive that eclipses everything else in his life?

Is Katsuki is going to give Izuku his Explosion quirk, using that last bit of OFA?

And what if Katsuki is going to end the story quirkless and was always intended to from the very beginning?

And here's where I get back to those lights.

Because I think it (possibly) confirms what I was saying in the beginning.

There are nine One For All users, according to the manga. We've established that that's not actually true if the movies are canon, and they are. There are ten OFA users.

These are the full two panels previously mentioned of what All Might was thinking at the start of 403 when he looked back at his path.

He thinks, "As for what I've done? I just happened to glance back at my path. And what I saw… seemed so very significant."

Let's see how many lights there are as he looks back at his path:

There are ten (10) lights [insert TNG joke here], not nine. And the big one, smack dab in the center, is shown with Katsuki's explosions around it.

I thought for a moment that these were possibly just the stored quirk factors, but Izuku and All Might are quirkless, so there wouldn't be ten lights if that were the case.

I think it's showing us that these lights represent the holders of OFA.

Katsuki is that tenth center light, confirming that he's the 10th OFA user.

This panel right here of the child Katsuki and Izuku with their balls of light? This is on the last page before Izuku sees Katsuki alive again after finding him dead and losing his mind. Please note All Might in the background, also holding his own ball of light.

And remember this from chapter 362 (R.I.P. Kacchan)?

It's the same image as Katsuki's final thoughts. The balls of light are the trading cards they got that day, but wait for it—

In 403, right before the panel of them as children holding the balls of light, we see that same center ball of light on the ground of All Might's path again, then a panel of Katsuki holding his All Might trading card beneath it. Almost as if the story is trying to tell us something about what that trading card represents and what Katsuki holding it really means.

Right before we see their expressions as they lock eyes, as Izuku realizes Katsuki isn't dead, it shows the two of them as little kids, happy to have both gotten All Might trading cards.

I don't think the trading cards we see here are really trading cards.

This whole chapter, the last two pages especially, was completely re-contextualized for me after noticing there are ten lights.

Like I said earlier, All Might didn't just pass the torch metaphorically, I think he passed it literally.

OFA is always represented as flame, as embers, etc... Those trading cards don't just symbolize their friendship, or their dreams, or their admiration, I think Horikoshi-sensei is showing us that they both have the same trading card, because they both have the same thing inside of them. Something passed onto them from All Might, because All Might is also shown with his own ball of light.

Why would All Might have his own All Might trading card…?

The trading cards aren't trading cards, they're One For All. Katsuki and Izuku hold the embers that All Might passed down to both of them.

Remember, the scene in 362 and 403 are exactly the same. They're Katsuki's memories. How is All Might's near death vision showing him memories that aren't his? Well, if they're connected through One For All, it makes sense that he sees that, because that's literally impossible otherwise. He could see them as high schoolers, as middle schoolers when he first me them, but not as small children in a very real scene that actually happened.

And if OFA is still alive inside Katsuki, I think that means he can transfer Explosion, because he has his own quirk factor.

If Izuku and All Might could still use everything that made OFA what it was, despite not having it anymore, there is nothing saying that the transfer ability wouldn't also work.

The only thing stopping them from trying is having nothing to pass on, because they were quirkless. Katsuki does have something he can pass on, though.

And who better to receive Katsuki's Explosion quirk, than the person who'd spent his entire life watching him?? Izuku is the perfect person, and I imagine the only person Katsuki would deem worthy of receiving it. He knows Katsuki's moves almost as well as Katsuki himself.

At USJ when the Shigaraki attacks, Izuku puts on a brave face and fights just like Kacchan. When he learns from Gran Torino, he realizes that he has to be more loose and fluids with his movements, just like Kacchan. In [training exercise I can't remember] Katsuki notices that Izuku copied his moves. He knows how Katsuki's moves work without him even telling him.

What if the story came full circle and Izuku was constantly emulating Katsuki in the beginning, because it was foreshadowing that he was always supposed to end up with his Explosoin quirk?

Can you imagine how good that payoff could be?

All that paying attention to Kacchan, admiring him, copying his moves, trying to be like him, having him as his image of victory, knowing a frankly alarming amount about it, what if that was all 430 chapters of foreshadowing? This is why I asked if maybe Katsuki was always intended to end up quirkless.

What if the thing that caused the rift in their friendship is going to be the thing that heals it, as Bakugou's ultimate acknowledgement that quirkless nerd Izuku was always a hero and deserves to be one more than anyone else?

What if giving his quirk to Izuku, who is once again quirkless, is his ultimate atonement and the thing that Horikoshi-sensei said back in like 2022 (paraphrasing because I don't remember, please don't quote me) that he hoped would make Bakugou fans and haters alike both happy? Because I thought it was killing him (R.I.P. Kacchan), but this feels like it makes more sense.

I think swapping places from where they started would be the perfect conclusion for their friendship and Katsuki's journey. I don't know about the whole story, and I don't care to speculate about that, but for the two of them, this feels right to me.

That said, I am aware there are some

Potential Issues With This

1. Would Izuku accept the quirk? Probably not, but as we saw with Yoichi and Kudou, the recipient doesn't have to be aware in order to receive OFA; it's on the giver to will it to them. The recipient does not have to consent, all Katsuki has to do is spit in his food, really.

2. There's the issue of Izuku trying to give it right back. But All Might only managed to hold onto OFA's embers for a few months after nurturing it for 40 years. Izuku only held OFA for a little over a year, he probably won't have the embers very long and it's already been a while since the final battle. All Katsuki would have to do is wait a few weeks for the last embers of it to fade from Izuku before transferring it, ensuring he couldn't pass it back. Since Katsuki only held OFA for less than a day, that would probably use up the last embers of OFA for good.

3. The lack of acknowledgement of the events of Heroes Rising in the main manga is a MASSIVE writing issue. For me, this is the thing that makes the scenario most unlikely, because as of July 24, 2024, there are only two (2) chapters left to go and that's not much time to explain movie events in order to not have a quirk transfer seem like it came out of nowhere or breaks established canon.

3a. But, like I mentioned before, this was already done this with Vigilantes concerning Shirakumo's backstory. We're supposed to feel empathy and compassion for their long dead friend, but no real work was put into the main manga to establish how close their relationship was, we're just told that they were friends and classmates. We get some hints to the events in Vigilantes in the main manga, but they don't carry as much weight without the full context.

Meanwhile in Vigilantes, Shirakumo and Aizawa are very close and they're all friends, but tbh, Mic is basically a third wheel. The entire arc reads like a tragic story of lost love, Shirakumo's death changed everything for Aizawa. After Shirakumo's death, Aizawa goes off on his own, works himself to the bone, doesn't sleep because he's training all night (the origin story of the sleeping bag), is depressed, stops trying in classes, he's told his quirk is suited for working with others (which is true) yet he goes independent, basically abandons Mic and the plans the three of them had to start an agency together (he says they were going to be a duo or a trio and let me tell you, Mic was not included in the duo)—it's depressing.

No wonder Aizawa was the one who got so worked up at seeing Kurogiri; Shirakumo meant a lot to him, his entire world shifted when he died. And no wonder Mic was so uncharacteristically reserved and pissed about the whole situation; he'd had to watch Aizawa retreat into himself for years after Shirakumo died, and then his ghost showed back up as a villain. Aizawa's arc is pretty long in Vigilantes, I think it's an entire volume, so it would bring the plot to a grinding halt if it were all included in the main manga, but unfortunately, none of this information feels effectively communicated through subtext in the main manga.

In my opinion, Vigilantes is a necessary read to understand several things the main manga. I loved it, and I highly recommend it (despite some very questionable scenes); imo, Number 6 vs. The Crawler felt like it did a better job at what at least two final fights in MHA were going for. But I'm not a fan of writing that requires you to have read outside material to fill in gaps. That said, I've also seen this happen before in American comic books, so I think it kind of makes sense that that influence would carry over and he'd rely on supplementary material like Vigilantes and the movies.

So getting back to my point, if Katsuki does have OFA, like those lights and Vestige-Might seem to imply, I'm kind of thinking it will be the same sort of situation, where it's expected the reader will have watched Heroes Rising. Especially since Horikoshi-sensei drew so many illustrations with Mahoro and Katsuma.

The ten lights, the fact that Nana still had Float (afaik), Vestige-Might, the fact that Heroes Rising was acknowledged at least twice in the main manga, Endeavor's ending, the trading cards, etc… all make me think that this is the conclusion for Katsuki that Horikoshi-sensei was working towards: quirkless Katsuki and Izuku with Explosion. But I also know that just because something is set up and foreshadowed, doesn't mean that the author will actually go through with it, especially in a weekly manga where anything can interfere with the story at any moment. Maybe I'm close to right and maybe I'll be so far off it's not even funny.

But who knows. There are only two chapters left and some writing choices have been confusing to say the least. I just hope we get a satisfactory ending, no matter what it is. Thank you, Horikoshi-sensei for all your hard work.

What do you think?

Do you think Katsuki will give Explosion to Izuku?

Do you think Izuku will become the first quirkless pro hero instead?

Do you think Katsuki could become the first quirkless pro hero? How wild would that be!

Do you think they'll go to a fair and share a crepe and we'll finally get that holding hands scene and the quirk will be transferred via saliva and Izuku will have an oh shit bakudeku canon moment thinking back to his words to Toga? Unlikely with how many chapters are left, but I would scream.

I haven't seen anyone talk about this before, I really only look at ship tags, but this feels pretty bkdk and I'd imagine I would have seen it at some point if so, especially around the time 362 (R.I.P. Kacchan) and 424 dropped. I don't really read theories, as I generally don't care where the story goes and am just along for the ride, but if someone has said all this before me, sorry for being redundant!

I hope this wasn't too repetitive, thanks for reading ✌️Don't mind my blank blog, this is just a side blog on a side account, feel free to let me know if I've made any mistakes, I'm not an expert on the story by any means and welcome correction.

I haven't looked at leaks (if they're out, I don't check for that) so that would be wild if anything I mentioned here was in them, but tbh I doubt it, haha.

[filipinoizukuu]

what comes next though? (MHA ch. 413)

// major spoilers for mha ch. 413 since its leaks, so please stop reading if you arent quite caught up. i havent written one of these in a LONGGG while lmao.

ANYWAY, with all that being said.... this week's leaks huh?

We saw it coming a long time ago, we speculated it to hell and back, we made aus and fics, and now it's finally here. The conclusion we've reached and the one that's been hinted at since the release of Heroes Rising in 2019:

bnha is going to end with deku giving up one for all and becoming quirkless.

(LOTS of words under the cut -- youve been warned.)

For those who are a little lost; the basic premise of the ending we are hurtling towards is that Kudou (the 2nd user of ofa) has a plan to take down Shigaraki. With AfO dead and gone + Shigaraki becoming so powerful he is essentially invincible -- theres no other choice for the heroes other than destroying him inside out; the plan being the equivalent of charging a battery so much it explodes.

the way they're going to go about this is by essentially, feeding Shigaraki bits of One for All until he's given all of it -- then allowing the vestiges of the previous wielders to create a massive revolt similar to what SnS did until they can successfully tear him apart from inside the "quirk realm" and shut him out. Kudou volunteers to go next since danger sense has already been taken, and if Shigaraki uses gearshift again after Deku already used it twice, Tomura's body will likely shutdown and receive twice the backlash Deku does when he uses kudou's quirk.

(sidenote: funny as fuck that deku only understood once kudou equated the strategy to bkg throwing papers at him. bro stupid af.)

its a sensible(ish) idea. one that seems plausible given the context of the last hundred or so chapters with heroes like Hawks and SnS having their quirks revolt against both AfO and Shigaraki in a way that makes it clear that its not uniquely OfA that animates the souls of peoples quirks. Its inherent. Quote, Nana Shimura, "romantic" even.

(let it be known though that i think hori absolutely did not plan on delving into this plot point as much as he is now. ill explain in a bit, but heroes rising was 100% a major factor of why he moved in this direction.)

That being said, the conclusion of the plan (and subsequently, the major plot of bnha) is as follows: Deku gives up One for All to Shigaraki. One for All unites with All for One within Shigaraki and destroys it in one final clash between Yoichi and his brother. The break in the barrier of Shigaraki's hatred will part, letting him find the consciousness of Shimura Tenko behind it after years.

Shigaraki dies, taking OfA and AfO down with him,

and then Deku is quirkless once more.

Sad conclusion aside for now, I firmly believe that no matter what way you look at it; Deku was always meant to end the story without a quirk. Given some of the original drafts of bnha where Deku was never supposed to be given a quirk in the first place, this is clearly unsurprising. What's more is my favorite piece of information relative to katsuki and deku's character development:

the fact that heroes rising was (one of the) ideas for the original ending of bnha.

a refresher for some of you: heroes rising is about class 1a going to the isolated village of nabu island and defending it against an upcoming big bad villain named "nine" with a quirk that is essentially a scaled down version of all for one. katsuki and deku eventually resolve the conflict together via brute force by deku giving katsuki ofa, them rushing in while the quirk is transferring and both of them have it, and then ultimately defeating nine at the end. the movie then of course circles back on deku losing one for all, undoing that consequence by saying the transfer never completed bc ofa chose him over katsuki and they all move on to the endeavor agency arc with katsuki remembering absolutely nothing of the final battle.

many fans often misunderstand one of horikoshi's quotes about the movie in that it was, without a doubt, the original ending of bnha. for the sake of accuracy, that is not what horikoshi really said; what he ACTUALLY said was something closer and to the tune of of how it was "one OF the endings" he planned on using for bnha, but his original idea for how the story ends "has not changed one bit."

obviously disregarding the cop out where ofa sticks back to izuku in order for the series to continue as normal; this can only confirm that bnha was going to end with midoriya izuku quirkless whether katsuki was involved or not.

so what's different this time?

its hard to figure out how far horikoshi had planned the ending of bnha with heroes rising's prototype conclusion in mind. if heroes rising never pulled through and horikoshi had planned on bnha ending with the shared ofa transfer and katsuki continuing deku's legacy -- then that means katsuki wouldve died an early death because of all might's confirmation that only quirkless people can hold on to one for all without dying young, meaning he either intended on katsuki dying soon after the story ends or only planned that plot point after heroes rising was released.

the plot as well of heroes rising's conclusion cannot have been thought of all that early on because of ANOTHER tidbit of information that changes perspective of the entire series: in that,

bakugou katsuki was never supposed to be a major character to begin with. (keep an eye on this link; i reference this interview a LOT)

he was not supposed to have an arc. he was not supposed to become a major focal point of the series. he was not meant to be the hero he is in the story today. bakugou katsuki was not written with the intention of being a major narrative this late into the story -- instead originally only existing as a character that deku would surpass within the first few arcs.

but then katsuki cried, and deku apologized, and then opened his big fat mouth, and then told him a secret he didnt even tell his own mother -- and suddenly bakugou katsuki was not just another footnote in deku's story, but a legitimate character that grew and created one of the most loved (and hated) character turnarounds in shonen history. he started of as a literal EXTRA before snowballing into the very same character horikoshi decided would defeat all for one, the original scariest antagonist of the entire series. someone not even ALL MIGHT could defeat.

but circling back, yeah. heroes rising was definitely not the ending horikoshi thought of first, nor was it the ending he thought of last. ultimately, it was simply another route he couldve taken into wrapping up deku's fate into what it was (probably) always meant to be:

deku was gonna lose one for all no matter what.

it's kind of fitting, honestly -- for this to be the ultimate conclusion to the series. it makes the most sense, since what sent deku down this path so many years ago was his mother apologizing to deku for being quirkless; as if being quirkless meant he was born inferior to those who had quirks. people, after all according to deku's famous beginning monologue, are not born equal.

Even still, i thought to note: deku never stopped wanting to be a hero. we all know this, obviously. this was his driving force -- but then when you REALLY think about the implications, you have to ask. what the heck was deku even planning to do?!

he had ideas. he had hope. he wrote notebooks for the future and thought of his costume for being a hero -- but not once do i remember him writing about his hero experience as if he was suddenly going to develop a quirk. he was planning on saving people quirkless -- an extremely interesting motivation especially when he couldve so easily chosen to walk the path of being a doctor or engineer instead if he wanted to save people so badly. its a story about conviction, about doing the things you wanna do in the way you wanna do it no matter what ANYONE else says and hey wait a minute that sounds familiar

it doesnt quite read that way at first, especially because of how izuku almost listened to all might about "being realistic" when the first met and nearly gave up on becoming a hero entirely, but izuku is a lot similar to katsuki in the sense that no matter what gets in his way -- he is determined to achieve his dreams in the way HE CHOOSES, and not the way that is more "convenient".

even when you look at just his name, "deku" in the way that uraraka had interpreted it (dekiru -- "you can do it!") and the way deku reexplains it to katsuki in deku vs kacchan 1 ("the deku that doesn't give up!") you can so easily tell that deku from the very beginning has only ever needed the slightest push to pursue being a hero, quirk-or-not-be-damned. hell, we even see a glimpse of this possibility in the sports festival race when deku absolutely DECIMATES not just bakugou but also TODOROKI (as well as every single other damn student participating in the festival) with nothing but robot scraps and his balls of steel. it just so happens that until the promise of one for all, no such encouragement or push was ever given to deku in his pursuit of heroicism, most especially in comparison to katsuki who had been receiving praise and validation for his goals his whole life.

i'd argue that deku's conviction is even stronger than katsuki in a way no other person seems to recognize (except maybe katsuki himself). katsuki had received only positive feedback and zero competition for his goals growing up while deku received nothing but discouragement. both of them kept the conviction of being a hero for TEN YEARS; neither wavering til the day of the sludge incident.

that aside; what comes next?

we know the story after that. deku gets his quirk, he goes to school, he fights, he drops out, he fights some more, and now he's standing before shigaraki tomura with every quirk of one for all unlocked and over twice the power that all might had in his prime -- fully knowing he's about to lose EVERYTHING in order to defeat shigaraki.

this is deku we're talking about. he doesn't care. he knows the implications and what that will mean for his dream -- but his goal right now is in front of him. his goal is shigaraki, consumed by hatred, threatening to take down the world izuku loves most into a pit of misery and decay because society failed people like them. does he care? probably. will he refuse to give up his power if it means not saving the world and fulfilling one for all's purpose? absolutely not.

deku has made all might's quirk his own, but one for all does not belong to him. it belongs to yoichi. and kudou. and bruce and nana and all of the other users who built that quirk for generations in hopes that one day, someday, someone would be able to yield it all and bring down the monstrosity that created it in the first place. deku will not hesitate, but also deku knows what he will lose.

i have... a few things i dislike about this.

Admittedly, i do think that this is a better resolution than the simple brute strength approach of Heroes Rising. For one, while i do love heroes rising with my entire heart and soul, i firmly believe it would not have been a satisfying conclusion to the core lessons and teachings bnha tries to impart throughout the story. simply outnumbering and outpowering afo/shigaraki would not be enough to close yoichi's story and one for all -- much less the story of shigaraki himself as tenko, the boy consumed by hatred.

Still, this new ending that horikoshi has laid out leaves me with more questions; as well as large expectations for how izuku's character will close out. its complicated, because deku's evolution and development is subtle and intricate in a way i havent seen from other shonen protagonists and i worry about doing it justice.

but most of my problems have to do with bakugou katsuki.

(aint that the truth)

i know i mentioned that bakugou was never intended to be a major character, but i want it to be known that that was only in the beginning. season 1, maybe even season 2 -- but horikoshi had said it best himself in that bakugou katsuki, against his permission, had gained a life of his own and inserted himself into the very grain of mha's story. you cannot deny this.

he is the series deuteroganist inarguably. one of the most beloved characters and one of the most attentively-written development arcs in the whole series. katsuki in and of himself embodies major themes in bnha that make it so that ditching his development and impact last minute after defeating all for one would reflect poorly upon the conclusion of the story itself. he and deku are intertwined in arcs -- even if they do have separate paths at the end of the day. katsuki is the one izuku told about the quirk. the one who followed izuku during the paranormal liberation arc. the one who understands one for all and is determined to learn about it more than anyone else barring all might and deku himself. the one who is closer to izuku than anyone else.

it can't be over for their arc, no matter what way you see it. friends? rivals? hero partners? what comes next, when the smoke clears? what comes next when izuku gives shigaraki hell, like katsuki told him to?

katsuki's atoned. we accept that, have known it since chapter 285 and have continued to know it until the iconic apology in the rain. that's not where katsuki stops however, because we know that its not all about begging for izuku's forgiveness nor atoning for himself. its about catching up to izuku -- the last words he uttered before shigaraki crushed his heard say it all.

"can i still catch up to you, izuku?"

since the moment katsuki died, we've been given a metric ton of material to read through what he and izuku have become in the story. firstly, the point of katsuki being the person closest to izuku. what does this mean? what does that say about katsuki? is he supposedly the person izuku loves the most? the person izuku believes in the most? i'd argue these two criterion would easily fit his mother or all might a lot better -- not his childhood friend turned bully turned rival turned barely-friend. katsuki sure as hell didn't believe he was the person closest to izuku before shigaraki brought it up as evidenced by the fact that he let IIDA bring deku back to UA -- and neither does izuku as far as i bet. what was shigaraki's intention?

katsuki heard that statement. he hasnt said anything, but he definitely heard it. its an open end that is left entirely unanswered PRECISELY because katsuki fought afo on his own and izuku is about to tackle shigaraki without katsuki by his side. if it was heroes rising's ending wherein they would both fight shigaraki and take him down together -- then that statement would easily be answered by how their strength and bond is the one thing that gave them an upper hand in the final battle. other than that... i'm not entirely sure how they're going to have katsuki and izuku acknowledge katsuki's brief "death" and Tomura's reasons thereof.

But fine, lets ignore that for the time being and move on to what happened when Katsuki came back.

katsuki answered izuku's cry for help. he came back to life in the last moment to save all might when izuku was too busy fighting tooth and nail to win. they are the penultimate example of two sides of a hero; the win and save. not one without the other. every single parallel thus far between izuku and katsuki have always been to draw attention over and over to each of their stubborn convictions to win and save under all might's tutelage.

katsuki has chosen to prioritize winning and fighting over saving and rescuing over. and over. and over. and over again. at every single opportunity from the very beginning of the series. in usj, in sports festival, in the final exam, every choice he's made up until --

chapter 285 - bakugou katsuki: rising.

he chooses to save izuku in this instant. as he says, his body moved on its own -- or in other words, he felt like how izuku has always did since the sludge villain incident. this is bakugou katsuki catching up to midoriya izuku. its katsuki realizing that he needs to save so deku can win, and actually being okay with that for once. it's a major turning point in his character that clearly tells even horikoshi that there's absolutely no way katsuki can go back to being a side character within the plot of bnha after a development like this.

and then, after this instance, we notice it happen again and again. katsuki choosing to save to win instead of winning to save. katsuki protecting best jeanist against the nomu. katsuki coming to chase after izuku when he runs away from UA. katsuki (in a way) saving aoyama when its revealed he's the traitor. hell, katsuki saving ALL MIGHT as soon as izuku -- the savior -- begs someone to save his idol when he can't because he's too focused on trying to win.

so what changed?

what changed since the moment of chapter 285 was katsuki accepting his fears and anxieties. katsuki letting go of his aversity to working with deku. the reason katsuki started accepting the path of saving to win was because he TRUSTED deku to win where he couldnt.

this is katsuki accepting that him and izuku already surpassed all might together.

but katsuki said it himself. it's not over. he accepts that him and izuku are finally on equal footing -- hell, he admits he's the one who needs to play catch up. it's not about katsuki conceding to weakness, but katsuki being able to trust in izuku to finish the job. the point is that they both will break and break until they win the way they choose to, and the other will be there to win while they save and save while they win. moreso, katsuki still wants to be number 1. he still wants to catch up and surpass deku. he wants to fight by deku's side. but ... as we've established:

deku will be quirkless soon.

my problem (or, i guess, curiosity?) with the path horikoshi seems to be going down for the end of this story is what happens to this end? what happens to the wonder duo? i believe in a quirkless deku plot as much as the next person -- but any reader would find it easy to see that once deku loses one for all, he will not be nearly as efficient nor quick nor capable of a hero as he once was. especially not against a developed katsuki with mastery over cluster explosions.

he will lose one for all and he won't ever be the pro-hero he was going to be before the final war arc. katsuki will get number 1 surely, but will he be happy about this resolution? i don't think so. All Might himself had said it when Katsuki spoke to him about his relationship to Izuku; that the twin stars reminded All Might very much of his own rivalry with Endeavor and the bitter feelings it created.

endeavor expressed regret and a bitter end to their rivalry; the acknowledgement of the bitter truth that the only reason he was the number one hero is because all might lost his own quirk. he knew he didn't deserve the mantle all might had held for a long time before him. he knew that he was still only just playing catch up with the wisdom and understanding of heroicism that all might had in his heart from the beginning. endeavor will likely retire from being a pro-hero unsatisfied with this truth and his own victory at becoming the no.1 at the very end -- never feeling like he truly surpassed all might of his own accord. both enji and toshinori -- victims of their destiny.

is this the fate that will befall katsuki once izuku is quirkless for good?

There are many questions I have in wake of the recent chapter. The end of the series is here, and that's a whole can of worms i haven't touched in and of itself. We all saw this coming; some of us know that this was always going to be Izuku's fate since the beginning of the series. But now that it's more than just izuku's character involved in his dreams of being a hero -- i dont know how this series is going to conclude and if it will be satisfying to any means. there's a lot of questions i still have; bakugous arc feeling incomplete ever since he came back to life, the conclusion of all might and one for all's dreams now that they will disappear altogether. where does deku go after this? where does bakugou go? where do any of them?

i guess i gotta wait and see lol

[delawaredetroit]

Hey! I was looking through your blog (which is really awesome btw) and read your response to another anon thing about Izuku's arms and was curious:

What do you mean about the pregnancy metaphors?

Thanks

As for what I mean about pregnancy metaphors, the AFO/OFA plotline especially is full of them

In the fight in Kamino, All for One calls himself the father of One for All. The scene where All for One forces the stockpile quirk on Yoichi visually parallels a certain Endeavor and Rei scene immediately before Natsuo and Shouto are shown as newborns.

When One for All starts to expand in Izuku around the Joint Training Arc, the language used is that the quirk is beginning to kick (apparently the same word used for a fetus kicking). Izuku is the ninth wielder of One for All and the one to complete the quirk. A full term pregnancy is complete after 9 months.

I’ve spoken about the yonic goblet imagery for One for All before.

Izuku’s name contains a character that can be read as to be born. All for One basically dies by being unborn. Shigaraki, whose creation was facilitated by All for One, has been shown breaking through All for One’s abdomen.

A lot of the birth/rebirth theme isn't even metaphor. For a war arc, the most recent arc sure has a lot of panels of newborn babies. The birth themes concerning the Todorokis and Yoichi and All for One's mother are about as literal as it gets.

And that was just what I could think of off the top of my head

[justheretoposttrash]

day 4 of being incredibly normal about hawks and endeavor (but mostly talking about manga spoilers in general):

mha is a story incredibly interested in exploring generational support, generational abuse, and what people pass on to each other (alongside hand motifs and showing the childhoods of different characters). you pretty much can't get through any arc without running facefirst into a plethora of examples, but ofa and afo are fun (and perhaps appropriate) places to start!

horikoshi features doomed siblings almost as much as he features terrible fathers, and these two are no exceptions. alongside those versatile hand motifs, afo literally uses his hands to take from others, while anything he has to "give" goes to those younger than him, and it's pretty much always a direct vehicle for trauma. it works well that he's lived for such a long time, literally sustaining his own life thanks to hoarding more and more power and resources for himself, while also giving him that age hegemony over all other characters we meet. he thusly kinda becomes the mustache-twirly Evil Dad² in a metaphorical sense, ruining the futures of others as he attempts to write his own narrative exactly how he wants it (storytelling is also a big theme in mha, go figure. when i consider that one definition of trauma--as something that disrupts the narrative one has of themself--and how AFO hands out trauma also as a way of commanding power and controlling the narrative, it really all comes together).

Yoichi is, of course, opposite in so many ways, centered around giving instead of taking. the inception of ofa began as a (very, uh, heterosexual i'm sure) act of granting freedom and sacrifice.

the ofa wielders don't just give their powers to the stockpiling quirk; they also give their lives, through combat or through cutting their lifespans or both. opposite to afo's Big Mean Father² lifespan, the lifespans of the ofa wielders are very short. they sacrifice their own futures to make the futures of others brighter. and of course, through the act of passing on the quirk, ofa necessitates an act of giving from one user to the next. it's a hand-off of counsel, support, and duty that helps shape each receiver into the best kind of hero they can be. afo passes down trauma, and ofa passes down tools for one's betterment. pretty standard parallels to how a bad caretaker/good caretaker can, even through a single act, shape an entire existence younger than them. relatable! trauma nation rise up!! 💪💪💪

with these themes in mind, then, it's a no-brainer as to why mha features so many godawful fathers (also i'd bet a hundred bucks horikoshi has daddy issues. a thousand. a trillion, honestly. gimme money). though relationships that fall outside the clear-cut power-dynamic of a parent to their child still carry these themes well. peer-to-peer,

sibling-to-sibling, etc., the list of other examples goes on and on!

endeavor's character certainly straddles a lot of these ideas, perpetuating a lot of column A (bad) and a bit of column B (good). he receives trauma from his father in the form of spiraling thoughts about failure and mortality (and maybe those two things are totally equivalent, right?) ((they're not)). his response to that trauma then goes far in the other direction, an obsession with herodom and invulnerability (especially avoiding or punishing emotional vulnerability) that passes the trauma right down to his family. in all his desperation to avoid the tragedy of his father's death, he ends up causing the tragedy to repeat itself, this time with touya's (apparent) death. it's even a direct result of the quirk he gave to touya. every intangible and tangible thing touya inherited from his father would only go on to hurt him, and the worst thing that could possibly have happened does indeed happen. instead of coming to terms with the fact that he gave touya the wrong things---trauma and a fire to burn himself with---he gives more of the same to shoto. surely the same tragedy won't repeat a third time. surely what he passes down to his youngest will make him come out of everything gloriously successful and *alive* (and those two things are totally, definitely equivalent) ((and again, they're not)).

what blows my mind is just how close the todoroki family was to witnessing yet another repeat of the tragedy--that they might have watched endeavor die while failing to save someone, just as endeavor had watched his own father do the same---and that they nearly had to bury touya a second time.

similarly, when it comes to the past transferring to the future, childhoods are the foundations upon which peoples's futures are built. characters are not only shown in a state of emotional vulnerability when in Baby Form, but are also responding to and trying to find answers to each others's traumas and core drives.

in a sense, they don't just inherit their worldviews from the prior generations, but from themselves. when we see endeavor confront his younger self, he isn't only killing off who he used to be, but also all the conclusions he had drawn from his own childhood--a rejection of what his trauma response got wrong. most people have to learn to stop being cruel to their inner child, whereas his inner child is the cruelest voice within.

anyway, for all the Bad Shit endeavor has passed on to the next generation, the future and hope he provides for hawks is something else. despite all white-knuckled efforts, he doesn't end up saving his family, nor himself, and certainly not touya, but he saves hawks, and that one instance contributes to the entire idea of ofa and the question of what different people can give to each other.

as invested as hawks is in the future, he initially keeps himself pretty distant when it comes to those younger than him. there isn't much explicitly given as to why, but it's pretty natural to assume that he really doesn't have the tools to pass on anything healthy--not after what he's been given by others. the one good thing he knows how to give is the one good thing he's received, which is the act of saving itself. being a pro is the only language he has for the longest time, and once his back's to the wall and he has to give tokoyami whatever he can, we see how readily he assumes that what he has to offer just isn't good enough.

(not only did his parents pass trauma onto him, but in valuing or devaluing his wings and thereby making his worth always conditional, they also affected what he could then pass on to others ((or at least, how he conceived of what he could give)).)

in my view, hawks gives tokoyami flight and endeavor support, and from tokoyami he receives the idea that he's someone worth looking up to and fighting beside despite his shortcomings, while from endeavor he not only got saved as a child but also receives a proof-of-concept of the ability to radically change, to wind up in a morally/emotionally better place than where one started. (he not only contrasts himself against shoto for the kid's ability to forgive/work with his parents, but notably contrasts himself against endeavor due to the latter's willingness to engage with his past, which he views as a vulnerability but also as something admirable.)

given keigo's middling age in the main cast of characters and the interesting space he occupies, it's fitting that he would ultimately act as a sort of channel between the generations of heroes as of the finale, retaining some of the value from what came previously while also helping guide what comes in the future.

[mishy-mashy]

Something I made in a post that I think'll be lost in the texts + expanded a bit more

These panels are chronological events following AFO's pursuit of Yoichi's Factor.

AFO could tell if people were related through a Quirk. AFO and OFA also are connected to each other. In Kamino, AFO could confidently tell All Might that OFA had been passed on, so all that All Might had left were leftover embers.

When AFO killed Kudo, he asked where Yoichi was. He knew Kudo wasn't the holder of Yoichi's Factor at that time. He also realized when looking at Yoichi's hand that Yoichi's natural Factor was so weak he hadn't registered its existence. This implies AFO could sense Factors since he was young, and Yoichi's natural Factor never stood out to him.

Below are three panels of Bruce (right to left). Bruce fought, AFO killed him, and looked away in disinterest.

When he beat down Bruce, he already had a sense that Bruce didn't hold the Factor anymore. That's why, rather than yell in his face to figure out where it is and interrogate for a long time, he pulled up his corpse to inspect him better.

Bruce's corpse isn't resisting anything. Look at his feet; AFO literally dragged him. Bruce is already dead. Yet he's looking for something from him.

Bruce doesn't have anything for him. Nothing AFO wants.

When he looks away, he's dismissing Bruce, because Bruce doesn't hold Yoichi. AFO is wondering where Yoichi is, because he knows now that he's out there somewhere. Thus the pensive look to the wind.

After Bruce is killed, AFO and Garaki meet for the first time. Shinomori has Yoichi at this time, and AFO never comes close to him, so AFO is lost. He doesn't have any leads, and Yoichi has vanished.

Now that he knows Yoichi can transfer, it's possible for Yoichi to be kept out of his reach for the rest of his life. So meeting Garaki and having access to Life Force gives AFO more time to search.

Yoichi is still missing for 18 years though, because Shinomori is in hiding. AFO couldn't find him during the Fourth's turn.

This is why, when he encounters Banjo, the Fifth and active wielder of OFA [Yoichi], AFO is smiling.

It's been a long time, but Yoichi's in reach again. He knows where he is now. And this is the first time he's encountered the current holder.

Thus his shock.

[Yet... you never behave as I wish.]

It was the first time a Quirk wouldn't let itself be stolen. This was AFO's first encounter with this wall: it doesn't transfer without the holder's consent, and requires willpower stronger than all the holders combined to override that.

The holder is never going to give him that consent. To override the collective willpower, he's going to need something greater.

Meanwhile, look at Banjo's arms. Shinomori is the catalyst to tip OFA over the edge, that an unprepared vessel will be destroyed by how strong the Quirk is.

Banjo's arms are both messed up below the shoulder, just like Midoriya used to be. And like Midoriya uses Blackwhip to reinforce himself and stay standing, Banjo uses Blackwhip to hold his fist / arm together. His hand is being wrapped to stay in a fist.

(What I think is) The reason the limbs turn red, and then purple, from breakage, is a matter of blood vessels. Small, itty bitty, fragile things.

Using OFA breaks the whole area, from bones to blood vessels, causing internal bleeding. Thus the redness. But breaking those vessels again in a second go turns the area purple, because it causes instantaneous internal bruising.

But En wasn't ripped apart by using OFA. There's a cut on his thumb that lines up with the path of destruction; AFO sliced him in half. Otherwise, he wouldn't have that cut if it were just OFA.

It's hidden by the text in [... you never behave as I wish], but depending on where you see this chapter, you can see he got cut on the thumb. It's clearer where we see Nana take his hair from him, in [I only want... to make you mine!]

I have a post in drafts about En being cut in half rather than it being because of OFA, but I also hit an image limit, so I'm gonna end here. Ta.

[mamashenanigans]

AU Fanfiction Poll

I have some ideas a brewing for AU fics.

Here’s a breakdown of the ones on my brain right now. I want to know which y’all think I should focus on.

1. Urges Chapter 2.

Set during AFO and Yoichi’s adult years, this AU explores what would happen if Yoichi never showed his brother the integral Captain Hero comics. AFO never took on the persona of the Demon King and never became All for One. But is this reality truly better? A dark fic that explores AFO and Yoichi’s interdependency and the effect of their Quirk Factor urges on their lives. Second chapter to feature Yoichi/Kudo(2nd user). Also, fat!AFO because I can.

Snippet about AFO reminiscing on his past

2. No-Quirks CEO AFO AU

Yagi Toshinori, otherwise once known as All Might for his fantastic work as an investigator, takes Izuku, his #1 fan, under his wing. His goal is to finally lock up the reclusive CEO of All for One Industries, Daiki Shigaraki, for his shady business dealings and connections to multiple murders. He tasks Izuku with infiltrating Shigaraki’s servant staff to find out information, but ends up giving the command for the young man to steal an ivory box always kept close to the CEO. Unbeknownst to Izuku, this box contains the ashes of Shigaraki’s cherished twin, Yoichi. Yagi plans to use it to force Shigaraki to admit to his crimes. Once Izuku finds out, will he side with his hero or decide to give back the only thing the CEO cares about…besides his beloved niece, the spitting image of her father.

Read more about this AU idea here.

Read a very rough snippet featuring Kudo and Bruce here.

3. Time Travel AFO Fix It AU

AFO hears about an incredible Quirk that allows the wielder to go back in time. Using other Quirks, he’s able to supercharge it to send himself back into a body of his in the past with all his memories (and possibly Quirks) to change the timeline so his twin, Yoichi, never leaves him. However, a side effect from him using the Quirk is that anyone within a certain radius of him will keep their memories of the old timeline. It just so happens that Izuku, Bakugo, Uraraka, and maybe others, were about to hit him when he went back in time. Now, these few from Class 1-A have to find a way to fix the timeline or, at least, destroy the empire AFO has built over 200 years. Oh, and Yoichi is still alive and with his brother…of course.

4. Yoichi Controls AFO AU

How OFA came to be is shrouded in mystery, but all the users up to Izuku believe it is to defeat the evil AFO. However, it is soon revealed that Yoichi, the first user, is very much alive and the actual mastermind behind everything in his attempt to make the world into his image. The small, frail twin always gets what he wants from his big brother—even the world.

[greenhappyseed]

The debate over translations is missing the HUGE shifts in this chapter:

AFO finally recognizes that “a willful resolve” can “cross[] time and space” like bloodlines. (Except willpower doesn’t require any physical anchor.) AFO spent a hundred years chasing his brother, eliminating the bloodline of each OFA wielder….and it’s only in the last ten years that he’s realized how strong willpower can be against quirk power.

AFO’s warp is neutralized because he doesn’t have any allies nearby. The only people he knows, and who are within range, are All Might and Tomura, and they’re both against him. Yep, the man who bragged about having excess “friends,” and how he would win because of his many paths to victory, is suddenly finding his options are collapsing.

All Might may be injured, but he’s following the fight and still trying to help the heroes win (just like Bakugo did back in 360). All Might instantly recognizes AFO’s desperation and is screaming for Bakugo to dodge and stay alive. NOT sacrifice himself. That implies All Might is banking on Tomura’s ability to fend off AFO one more time, leaving AFO as “just” a baby so Izuku and Bakugo can both handle Tomura, assuming he’s thinking that far ahead tactically. Then again, I think he might just be trying to stop Bakugo from sacrificing again, showing the character growth for both of them.

[featherstorm2004]

my reaction to the latest chapter leaks

I was not prepared!!!!!!!!!!! I was not prepared for the rabbit hole to go this deep omg omg OMG!!!!!!! AFO has known Tenko since birth!!! Tenko was not born quirk less he did in fact have an og quirk! OMG OMG OMG.

Now I'm just curious, like maybe I missed something but this plan is just so insidious like how the hell did AFO plan so far ahead that he played a part in Tenko's birth! I always assumed that he simply chose Tenko because of his coincidental resemblance to his brother but that's clearly out the window so like why? Why Tenko, why keep the Shimura family alive for so long why did he know Tenko was his perfect vessel I mean he's been trying at this vessel thing for years how did he know that Tenko was the one? I'm so lost XD

At least baby Tenko is cute, but I definitely think I'll need to see the full chapter before I draw any conclusions about how I feel about this twist.

But other than that this reveal dose back up the fact that AFO is completely obsessed with families, I mean he spent years becoming a family friend to the Shimura's, he played house with them for years to the point he was trusted to watch their child alone. And this is the family of his enemy so like, this was always going to end badly but I don't understand why he kept it up so long way before Tenko was even conceived other than the fact he enjoyed it on some level. Which somehow makes things worse like ugghhhh my mind is so scrambled I'll have to come back to this later. (Edit)

Ok so he convinced Kotaro to have another kid because Hanna was to old like ok, but that still doesn't explain to me why AFO was so sure about Tenko being the right vessel was it because he could control him since birth, was it because he saw it as the ultimate revenge against the OFA wielders. As in "you stole my only family so I'm going to steals yours" kinda thing, which to be fair is on brand for AFO, but still something feels off like were missing a final piece to the puzzle because AFO is way to invested into Tenko/Shigaraki I feel like there has to be an emotional element to it idk.

And I thought that initial investment was his resemblance to Yoichi but that's clearly not what started it so like why- wait is it because he sees Tenko/Shigaraki as his because he helped make him, like how he saw Yoichi as his because he was his only family...that might actually be it.

[bakugo-softski]

Thinking about how Hori plans to wrap it all up in the next three chapters…

I take your..

“Shigaraki lives”

and raise you..

“One for all is a quirk of the soul-and Deku is still alive-and tethered to his.”

Sure, its a long shot but one can dream.

What if he gets it back? Or at least some version of it. What if Tenko really did die, and OFA bounces back to the soul of the last surviving wielder? What if it..resets?

Sure, it would probably break Izuku’s heart to know his last-ditch effort to save Tenko was in vain-a lie, but…

The Todoroki’s didn’t get their perfect happy ending, either. They all have to live with their trauma for the rest of their lives.

It would certainly rub salt in the wound. It would also give Izuku the rest of his life to…atone for the society Tenko and the league were subjected to, to ensure he has a part in the making of the new society that doesn’t let all the little Tenko’s of the world down. (Born of the hope that Kacchan gets one good thing, please, he’s been nothing but tortured and tormented since like the third chapter, let that boy get the rest of his life he dreamed of, let him have something, fuck)

And on that vein…

What if he doesn’t get it back? And is given the same treatment as Hawks? A place on the commission, working in tandem with Hawks to ensure that,

1. What happened to Hawks and Lady Nagant(and I’ll even go so far as to say Bakugo) doesn’t happen to any more baby prospective heroes. And,

2. What happened to Tenko, and others with “villainous” quirks, or no quirks at all, aren’t left behind in the new society.

Just a thought…what if he gets to start, with the rehabilitation of his father-fresh out of tartarus.

I mean, it could be Tenko reincarnated. But Hori did say we’d meet Izuku’s dad eventually.

I just really, really don’t think that character is Tenko.

I think it’s Izuku’s father who escaped Tartarus with the rest of the jail-breakers only to see his son, with a quirk, getting his fkn arms ripped off and being the greatest hero alive. It would explain the thing covering his mouth(fire breathing quirk), it would explain the sobbing and look of grief…

Just a thought. Or, rather, many thoughts.

I really hope the ending is good.