#plf arrests

[stillness-in-green]

More and More on Mina, Machia and the MLA

For my readers other than @randomvongenerico, please have this peremptory list of this very lengthy post's contents to help gauge your interest:

Some more discussion on what is or isn’t, would or wouldn’t be blameworthy about various characters’ actions (or hypothetical actions) during the war arcs.   

More discussion about Mina, chiefly about how (and why) her acid powers are handled compared to all the male characters with fire powers, and the way her plot points are poorly set up by the narrative, with the result of shortchanging her development.   

Yet More Complaining About How The Story Is Handling Heteromorphobia, this time featuring a compare and contrast on quirk-based bias as it might affect Mina, Bakugou and Tokoyami, as well as a dissection of Shouji’s contention that the only possible way to know about the violent bigotry in the rural areas of the country is to be from them.   

Some fairly extensive spitballing in response to questions about how I would have handled the scene at Machia’s prison compound if I were writing it, as well as why I have trouble conceiving of anything Hero Society could do to Hose Face for killing Midnight that would actually feel like justice.   

A little bit of basic talk about Tumblr, its functionality and some relevant slang.   

Buried at the very bottom, I stand up in front of God and everyone and explain in brief why Kaminari is a worse character than Mineta, with some particular focus on Kaminari as emblematic of the conflict between what the series tells us versus what it shows us about the legality of quirk use in careers other than heroism.

Hi again, rvg.  Because it's been forever since our last post exchange, let me say again that I appreciate the apology and want to thank you for being such a good sport about it.  Last time I had something like your initial response, that person told me straight out that they’d been condescending and antagonistic on purpose, though they regretted having done so after my reply.  I appreciated the regret, but would have preferred they take a day or two to cool off in the first place!  That’s the experience I was bringing to your comments, but I’ll keep in mind what you said about lack of experience with initiating chats and Tumblr in general.

For what it’s worth, yeah, there is a character limit on both asks and replies, so that’s the trouble you were running into there!  You might also consider using a cut next time before a really long post, though if you’re on mobile, I recall that being a difficult-if-not-impossible feature to find, and it’s not as important as it used to be ever since Tumblr’s started adding default Expand drop-downs on long posts.  That aside, welcome (belatedly) to Tumblr!  I hope you find some good people to chat fandom with; I’m always open to some back and forth about things I know well enough to talk about, though I’m, er, decidedly unprompt with replies.  And, as noted, definitely more of a villain fan, so probably not the most fun person for discussions on the kids.

That said, to your replies!  Other readers should note that, while I wrote all this roughly in response-order to rvg’s points, I reorganized everything after the fact to group together the broad topics.  I’ve tried to provide some bare minimum context for anything that would otherwise be too much of a zero-context non-sequitur, but if anyone wants to see rvg’s comments in their intended order and context, their reblog can be found here.  Otherwise, hit the jump!

  

Would You Have Held It Against ___?

But would you hold it against Mina if she had actually done more substancial damage to Machia? Let’s say, not the face, but Machia’s fingers instead of his claws. Machia still doens’t feel any pain. Would you chastise Mina for it? Even though she’s actively saving Mt Lady by doing that?

It’s hard to say for sure, since I imagine that if Mina’s acid had hit Machia’s fingers instead of his claws, we probably would just have seen them abraded and singed, like how Dabi’s fire damage was drawn on Hawks, not with chunks of skin melting off and exposing naked bone.  Physical damage in BNHA just doesn’t work like that, at least not against named characters.  If Mina were doing realistic damage, I imagine everyone else would be too, and then I’d be criticizing all of them, because, holy shit, that is not okay to do to people, any people, and especially not when you’re acting as an agent of the state.

But hypothetically, no, I think I would be more lenient even if she did do concrete and permanent damage to Machia’s hands, and it’s because she’d be doing it to save Mount Lady.  Shinsou could have taken control of Machia and then just had him lie still while whoever was in charge of this facility redrugged him,[1] and that would have been fine by me—disappointing, sure, but only because Machia’s interesting and I’d like to get more on him than we do, not because I’d be critiquing Shinsou’s actions.

It’s specifically Shinsou and the rest choosing to weaponize Machia against AFO that I object to.  Mina harming Machia would be taking that action herself, to protect someone that’s right in front of her, risking no one’s life but her own in doing so.  Shinsou throwing Machia up against AFO—which he’d made the decision to do before hearing Machia’s angry grumbling—is risking Machia’s life, without Machia’s consent.  And it’s not even for the sake of saving anyone, at least not anyone that’s right there in that moment—AFO is fleeing.

Sure, he still presents a huge threat to lots of people, but given that we’d just seen proof that AFO did not know about Shinsou’s power,[2] they could also have used Machia to, for example, rapidly transport the heroes to some place they could set up a second ambush to trick AFO into responding to Shinsou.  I mean, good god, AFO’s the chattiest villain in the comic; Hawks lured him into at least two extended conversations even after he’d resolved that he needed to leave.  He’s a Demon Lord and thus categorically incapable of shutting up.  And that would have been that, really.  Take control and let the clock run out; end of problem.

It would have been anticlimactic as hell, so obviously that was never going to happen, but there’s no reason the heroes couldn’t try for it, you know?  Instead of the bone-headed decision to just hand AFO his most loyal soldier on a silver platter on the thin chances that they could either prevent the brainwashing from being broken at all or that Machia’s upset would translate to both the capability and willingness to attack his master.

I’ve observed this problem in a few different areas, that Horikoshi sometimes writes the heroes, particularly Hawks, as not taking actions or drawing conclusions that, from their perspective, should seem sensible, well-reasoned, and with solid chances of success; instead, they simply disregard possibilities they should logically be considering but which the reader knows are dead ends, or they benefit from things they could not have known at the time they acted.  That hurts immersion because it gives the heroes victories, both tactical and moral, that they simply haven’t earned.  Shinsou’s control of Machia is a particularly egregious example.

  

Speaking of Monoma. Since we were talking about the morality of Shinso’s Quirk. Would you say Monoma using his Quirk to copy a villain’s Quirk and use it on him and his allies, would also qualify as something that should be criticized? I’m curious.

Nah, I don’t think so.  Taking an opponent’s weapon and using it to subdue him is a perfectly valid tactic, especially since Monoma’s method doesn’t actually deprive his opponent of their weapon, just replicates it for his own use.  It really all does boil down to Shinsou’s method forcing people to fight and hurt their own allies.  Mina causing Machia physical harm, Monoma using a villain’s own weapon against them, even the heroes’ surprise attack: none of those are remotely on the same “holy shit that is a literal war crime” level as what the heroes planned in advance to have Shinsou do to Machia, and what he willingly agreed to do well before he found out that Machia was not as opposed as the heroes thought.

  

I mean, I get what you’re getting at. I’m just wondering. If the heroes hadn’t launched a suprise attack, and had left the villains do the first move and come to them, would you then be criticizing them for being irresponsible and incompetent instead? Sorry for going on a tangent, it’s just something I’ve noticed when it comes to readers criticizing the heroes. It’s either people complaining that the heroes are too ruthless, or that they’re too nice, naive or not pragmatic enough.

(This is in response to some discussion of the heroes' actions in the first war arc's raid on the villa+hospital lab, not the second war's divide and conquer plan.)

I actually don’t really have a huge problem with the surprise attack in principle—I might criticize Cementoss ripping the building in half when there could well have been people on those upper floors, but otherwise, it’s hard to imagine what else the heroes could generally have done to deal with the numbers they were dealing with.  I mean, it’s basically just a scaled-up version of the attack on the Hassaikai base, and I don’t have any moral quibbles with the way the heroes and police handled that.

Rather, my problem with the raid is that I thought the heroes were too effective given the way their forces and those of the PLF had been set up.  It’s not the tactic itself that’s the problem (though individual acts of worse violence within the attack, like Hawks killing Twice or the attempts to outright murder Shigaraki in the tube, are still an issue), it’s the finality, the totality, of how effective the attack was.

To be brief about it (because I’ve talked about this at length elsewhere), I don’t think the heroes should have known where all the PLF bases were, I don’t think they should have been as effective in disordered mass combat as the PLF, I think the advisors should have put up a better fight in all cases, and I think there should have been enough members of the PLF in significant positions of influence or power that the HPSC couldn’t uncover them all, leading to complications when those members realized their organization was under attack.

As it is, the heroes handily win every fight they have with the sole exception of Gigantomachia and Shigaraki.  The PLF is neatly swept off the table save for a few “remnants,” with no attention given to the practical difficulties of detaining tens of thousands of combatants with no motivation to let themselves be quietly arrested, much less how the justice system is going to handle trying and sentencing them all.  That has repercussions going forward, as well: heroes clearing the board of all the (named) PLF members save Skeptic leaves the bulk of villain forces in the subsequent arcs to be prison escapees, and man, if the PLF’s moral nuance has been squandered, the depiction of the prison escapees is even worse.

The raid is, of course, only the first of two big surprise attacks the heroes manage.  I have significantly more issues with the second one, but most of that boils down to the fact that the divide and conquer/Tempt and Trap plan feels crueler, meaner, and much more openly aimed at extrajudicial murder.  And like, that would all be fine and in-character for Hero Society in general and Hawks, the main planner, specifically, but with Deku, Shouto and Uraraka all starting to think Save Villains thoughts, and fresh off the traitor reveal, the kids should never have been as collectively okay with the second war’s tactics as the story has presented them as being.  To echo an older complaint, good god, what universe is Horikoshi living in that he thinks the people that converted a place of learning into an arena they call a “coffin in the sky” are the heroes?

  

I was under the impression Midnight was off to the side from where the MLA minions were passing by, and the Skull Mask guy took a detour to kill her.

I’m not sure from this if you’re explaining how you read Hose Face’s attack on Midnight at the time, or if you’re maintaining that that’s an accurate read, so just to clarify, here are the panels in question:

As you can see, the PLF guys’ path through the woods has them coming in from directly behind Midnight.  Hose Face calls out that he’ll take care of her once they get close enough for the reader to make out who they are, at which point he gets out in front of Scarecrow and hits Midnight from the same direction as their initial approach: directly behind.  He most certainly doesn’t take a detour of any kind, but rather chooses the action that is going to get his group through the obstacle with the least amount of time and effort possible—entirely his prerogative as the highest-ranked member of the Guerilla Warfare regiment on-scene.

  

But if we classify this entire conflict as a war, wouldn’t that mean that both sides are free to use whatever tacticts and methods they feel like as long as it’s not a war crime?

If we classify it as war is irrelevant if the side aligned with the current ruling authority hasn’t done so themselves.  I imagine the Japanese government is in no hurry to validate the terrorists on an international stage by acknowledging that they’re numerous and dangerous enough to declare actual, formal war against!  Calling it a war drags in a whole pile of wartime conventions Japan has signed numerous treaties about; it grants the opposing side some legitimacy as a cohesive, organized force that will need to be negotiated with down the line.  As long as you’re calling it a police action, you don’t have to negotiate shit until you get to the plea deals!  Team Hero never declared war here, so yeah, I still expect them to carry out their plans and actions accordingly.

Also, in the thematic/meta sense, I expect the heroes to either conduct themselves as heroes—admirable, upright, heroic—or face the narrative consequences when they fail to live up to that ideal.  The hyper-encapsulated version of this conundrum is the recurring idea that attacking Shigaraki never actually prevents Shigaraki from coming back worse and more dangerous next time; the heroes are never going to achieve a different result by attacking him again but harder this time, and that’s why Deku is set up to finally try something different.[3]  I would just like it if what’s true on the micro-level could even be attempted on the macro-level.  Or, in other words, if the narrative is going to tell us that saving villains is the correct path, it can’t only demonstrate that for the villains with known-to-the-heroes sympathetic backstories.

  

General Mina Points

Regarding your analysis about Mina’s acid being underpowered because it’s harder/less believable to downplay the effects of acid than fire/explosions/etc. in Shounen Damage Logic, I think we’ll have to agree to disagree.  I don’t see anything wrong with just showing the Nebulous Abrasion Damage that’s the ubiquitous, default mode of illustrating nonspecific injury in this comic for Mina’s acid the same way we get it for the boys.

I can see your argument, but like, just for example, when Endeavor first encounters a Noumu, he bathes it in fire under the assumption that it’s a normal villain and then says he’s surprised it’s still up because he’s never seen anyone stay conscious after that attack.  Bathing someone in flames in real life is not a “knock them out” kind of attack; it’s a “severe burn ward for months” kind of attack.  If Endeavor’s been throwing that around at random criminals for thirty years, we are plainly very far away from realistic damage, and I’d be perfectly satisfied with treating Mina’s acid the same way.

If I had to take a guess as to why Horikoshi’s so staunchly avoided letting Mina cut loose—other than regressive gender politics—I’d say it’s that acid simply feels nastier or more morally dubious than fire.  Fire has positive as well as negative connotations; acid’s a lot more, shall we say, unilateral in the collective imagination, especially given what’s going to turn up if you run a web search for “acid attacks.”

To look at it in JRPG logic (and I don’t care if AFO’s admiration stems from a comic; that comic was clearly playing with Dragon Quest tropes), acid is pretty much the same thing as poison, and poison effects are chiefly the realm of enemy characters.  It smacks of underhandedness or cowardice in anything more cognizant than roving toxic plants or venomous beasts.  Certainly you see the occasional party member specialized for status effects who can inflict poison damage on enemies, but I can’t readily think of a main character that does.[4]

Perhaps, then, because readers are somewhat conditioned to think of acid as particularly dangerous and nasty compared to fire, and because there’s a limit to how morally dubious Horikoshi is willing to (consciously) write the students, especially the girls, Mina’s sharply limited in how she’s allowed to use her acid.

That said, I got a very hearty laugh from, “Just look at Dabi.  He can’t even kill himself with fire,” so thank you very much for that.

  

It’s as if Horikoshi only ever figures out what to do with Mina retroactively instead of in the moment (e.g. there were no interactions between Kirishima and Mina until AFTER Kirishima’s backstory, we never got any hint that would connect Mina’s and Midnight’s characters until AFTER Midnight died, when Mina speaks about not giving in to vengeance she references SHOJI’S WORDS which happened in HIS FLASHBACK, and then this whole chapter is technically a flashback too when you think about it).

That’s a big oof, all right.  I know about the Midnight non-connection and the issue of Mina’s anti-vengeance words having first been delivered by Shouji and relayed to the audience by Koda (it being his flashback, rather than Shouji’s), but I didn’t know there was no indication of Kiri-Mina connection until after his flashback.  Wowzers.

  

But also, in one of my comments I had left a link to a post analizing Kirishima’s and Mina’s characters and their dynamic. I don’t know if you checked it out or not, but it was a pretty interesting read. If you did read it, let me know your thoughts on it.

Apologies for not responding to that; I hadn't clicked it because I just wasn't terribly interested in the topic. Having checked it now, I can say that I'm unlikely to read it because I've encountered this person's meta before and, even at a glance, found it to be flawed for reasons I am not comfortable gabbing about in a public space. I'm sure they make some valid points, but I will have to respectfully bow out of reading and commenting on it here.

  

But what about Mina telling Kirishima that “now they’re even” though?

(This is re: my contention that Mina saves Shinsou, not Kirishima, from the Sludge Villain, and that Kirishima was never in any danger from the Sludge Villain.)

I mean, she can say it, but that doesn’t mean I have to believe that she/Horikoshi are accurately portraying the stakes involved.

  

Just for the record, you’re not saying that Mina not giving in to revenge isn’t noble in and of itself. What she does is indeed good.  You’re saying it doesn’t have any emotional weight because Mina has always been a morally good character, so you never thought she would ever give in to revenge in the first place. Correct?

Correct!  As I’ve said, Mina has perfectly healthy emotional regulation: when she experiences negative emotions like anger, guilt, or grief, she doesn’t dwell on them; she vents them to friends and finds healthy ways to channel them into bettering herself and the world and people around her.  She’s got a great head on her shoulders!  But all of that means that her giving into anger about Midnight’s death was never a remotely convincing threat to me.  Of course she wouldn’t; there’s never been a moment that foreshadowed that she was in the slightest danger of harboring that kind of obsessive, vindictive grudge.

That being the case, it feels unfair of Horikoshi to pin a big dramatic monologue on a desire for revenge which Mina was never shown to possess to any greater degree than any of her classmates.  She’s one of the last hero-aligned characters I’d have guessed if you’d asked me who was going to get a beat like that in the endgame.

(To anticipate the obvious question, Aizawa would have been my first guess; he’s even been written for it properly in the way he and Mic have responded to Shigaraki—clearly holding a grudge for something that would have happened to their classmate when Shigaraki was all of six years old.  Conversely, while plenty of the 1-A kids could have believably carried a “struggling with vengefulness” plot if they’d been written with it from earlier on, I don’t think there’s a single one of them who feels like a good match for it in their current incarnations.  Iida’s moved on from his Stain days too smoothly to buy it from him, Bakugou’s only real obsession is Deku, and Deku already had a whole arc of being obsessively negative and driven by dark desires to find and deal with a villain.  If any student was going to show up to the fight with bloody-minded revenge on the brain, it should have been Shishikura.)

  

But What About the Heteromorphobia, Tho’?

(Warning: Incoming off-topic harping about Shouji and the inane resolution of the hospital attack.)

I have even seen someone make a post on Reddit arguing that Shinso being discriminated for his Quirk makes no sense because it’s not villanous, and that it makes more sense for characters like Bakugo, Mina and Tokoyami to be discriminated because they have more villanous looking Quirks. I don’t really agree with everything that guy said. But he did bring up a good point. How come Mina doesn’t get side eyes from people due to her Quirk like Shinso does?

I will have to disagree with Reddit User That Guy that Shinsou’s quirk should be viewed as less villainous than Bakugou’s.  It sounds like he was conflating heteromorphobia with the bias against villains/"villainous" quirks, and while there is overlap, they’re still distinct categories.  Shinsou’s quirk inherently subordinates one’s physical body, allowing him to force his targets to act against their will, or potentially take the fall for things they didn’t willingly do.  Of course people are nervous about it or think it’s more villainous than heroic!

Conversely, the Number 2 Hero has been attacking criminals with fire for decades now, so I think the BNHA general public is more than ready to accept a hero whose quirk lets him fire off explosions.  The commonly accepted idea in the fandom is that “flashy and offensive quirks” are the ones most valued in heroes.  I think that’s a bit oversimplified—Crust was the Number 6 Hero and his quirk was neither—but it’s certainly true that purely elemental quirks (fire, lightning, wind, earth-shaping), no matter how damage-dealing they are, don’t tend to get treated as villainous in nature.  The real “villainous quirks” in the series tend to be the ones that are more creepy, dark, invasive, or impure.  Even Dabi’s fire is that ethereal blue, like spirit fires, instead of everyday orange-red!

Bakugou’s quirk is much closer to the “pure elemental” category than anything very villainous and, indeed, when he got kidnapped from the training camp and that one journalist was suggesting that he might have turned to villainy already, he based that suggestion on Bakugou’s behavior, his conduct during the Sports Festival.  Nothing was said about his quirk at all, but rather his recent public demonstrations of violence and “mental instability.”  That’s perfectly consistent, I think, with the biases we see elsewhere.[5]

Tokoyami has the potential to get hit by both the villainous quirk bias and the heteromorphobia, but I think Japan seeing ravens as emblematic of wisdom rather than death and rot would mean his bird head is less ill-seen there than it would be in the West.  I don’t think it would take much more than the proverbial One Bad Day to get him to a very bad place indeed, though—there’s a reason Mr. Compress judged him a good potential recruit!  Tokoyami was rescued before it became an issue, but if he hadn’t been, I’m sure we would have seen the same journalist mentioned above making similar statements about Tokoyami and his dark quirk/mien.

Mina’s an interesting case study in not experiencing a lot of the same sorts of discrimination others in similar situations do.  She has three distinct heteromorphic traits—her skin, her eyes, her horns—as well as having a potentially extremely deadly quirk which, as I discussed above, could easily attract judgmental side-eye because of the cultural view of acid.  So why doesn’t she seem to face discrimination?

As I said in the post you’re replying to—and as you mentioned is a common headcanon—I think a lot of it boils down to her relentlessly chipper attitude.  If she had, for example, Mustard’s personality, or Muscular’s drive to violence, would people be quicker to say that her Acid is a “villain quirk”?  If she glared more, would people be more creeped out by her eyes?  It’s possible, I think, that we would actually see her facing some of this if we spent more time with her, but the narrative doesn’t make that time, at least not anywhere Kirishima can see it.

  

Well, if I had to guess, I’m sure you would say that would make her a more interesting character. You might get to be interested in her character, which then would probably mean you would be even more upset and disappointed with this chapter.

Ahaha, very fair.  Honestly, Class A would have benefited tremendously from more kids with bite to them.  A Mina whose competitiveness had some real fervor to it, or a Mina who had some heaviness in her backstory she was faking her way through dealing with, would have been a good contribution to that.

  

It really sucks that Horikoshi had to justify Shoji being the only one to experience prejudice by clarifying that heteromorph discrimination is only still prevalent in small villages. I feel like it robbed characters like Tsuyu, Mina, Tokoyami and Koda of being part of an actual narrative and get more depth and development.

Before I talk about this, let me clarify something: Shouji’s line about what his classmates know about heteromorphic discrimination is an example of very crucial nuance being wildly different between translations.

The fan scanlation suggested that Tokoyami and Koda, who grew up in cities, must feel like such violent heteromorphobia resembles something out of a textbook, with the implication that the textbook in question is a history book.  They’re presumed to think that blood-cleansing rituals and children with scars like Shouji are artifacts of a terrible past, not a modern-day concern.

The official Via release suggested that Tokoyami and Koda could know that stuff like this still happens in rural areas because they might have read about it in textbooks.  They’re presumed to know that such rituals and scarred children do exist as modern concerns, but only out in the boonies.

Those are completely different propositions!  Which one was accurate was far beyond my capability to judge, but the official translation did feel a little off to me, so, as I usually do in such situations, I brought it to my trusty Translator Sis.  For possibly the first time ever,[6] she told me that Viz had this one wrong—that Shouji’s implication, to her eye, was indeed that T&K would think such violence was limited to the past, not that it was limited to rural areas.

That established, I was actually talking about that line from Shouji with a friend the other day!  I was aggravated that the writing would portray city-born heteromorphs as so oblivious to the problems facing them in other parts of the country when that seems so counter to my (American) perception of the ways members of threatened groups communicate danger to one another.

My friend reminded me that silence is a much more common Japanese way of addressing (or attempting to address) minority discrimination: trying to make a problem go away by starving it of conversational oxygen, treating oppression like an infection that needs to be quarantined until it dies out on its own.  In that light, it’s entirely possible that Tokoyami and Koda might not know this stuff because no one around them thinks it would be helpful to tell them if it’s not a problem they’re directly dealing with.  A lot of people propose the same approach to burakumin issues in real life, for example.

Also, technically Shouji doesn’t say that Koda and Tokoyami don’t experience heteromorphobia at all, just that the idea of fear and hatred that extreme, that violent, must seem like something out of a textbook, rather than something that happens here and now in certain parts of the country.  Also too, Tokoyami and Koda are teenagers; I can forgive them not having much understanding of life outside their own circle of experience.

That all said, it still feels more than a little telling that Horikoshi thinks everyone in Shouji’s whole class, including and especially all the other heteromorphs, could never have heard in their entire lives about acts of bigotry-driven violence against heteromorphs being carried out in the here and now.

While it’s true that silence is a widely accepted way to address these sorts of issues in Japan, they’re hardly universal!  Activist groups are out there trying to raise awareness, trying to get their issues on the floor of the Diet in hopes of getting laws passed about them.  There’s not some kind of media blackout on talking about it, and, indeed, I’ve read any number of articles from Japanese publications online covering such topics.

In BNHA, however, silence does seem to be universal.[7]

No one but Shouji is from a remote enough place that they knew about violent heteromorphobia.  No one recognized it as a thing that e.g. disadvantages heteromorphic heroes in the public approval ratings.  No one tripped over a magazine article about it and got curious enough to look the topic up online.  No one’s heroic mentors or family members have talked to them about it (particularly egregious with Koda, given the fairly strong implication that his own mother suffered it).  No one had a patch of morbid interests (Tokoyami) that led them to dabble in reading about real-life horror stories of human hatred, or an interest in how their society came to be that might have led them to reading about the CRC and realizing it still exists in the modern day.

They attend a hero school, and yet Shouji seems to be the only one with an inkling that there are heteromorphs out there who need, and have been needing, heroes.

That’s all a lot to ask of the reader, but what really pushes it past plausibility to me is what happened with the Ordinary Woman.  How close to the surface must violent heteromorphobia be even in the cities if the current state of Japan brings it all right back into the open in a matter of weeks?  That none of the students other than Shouji have ever even imagined that heteromorphs can still be victimized in this way represents an over-the-top ignorance that I have to read as either a bleak condemnation of the shallow focuses of heroes or reflective of Horikoshi’s own beliefs about discrimination and the understanding of it possessed by those who aren’t immediately threatened by it.

Whichever is the case, and with Spinner’s higher brain functions out of commission, it leaves Shouji carrying the whole plot on his back and he just can’t do it, both because the audience hasn’t had enough time with him to buy it and because the answers the series uses him as a vehicle to deliver are facile, victim-blaming nonsense.

...And here’s where I admit that even if the hospital attack had climaxed with a whole bunch of heteromorphs from Class A and B and the Pro Hero ranks acknowledging the mob’s feelings while pleading with them to not give into hatred and to stand down, I would still have issues if the resolution didn’t involve concrete suggestions and promises about how the heroes would address the mob’s grievances going forward.  Which canon very much did not, and just adding more voices to Shouji’s wouldn’t have changed that.  But my whole rant about that can be found in the relevant chapter posts, so I’ll not repeat it further here.

  

How Would I Have Done It Instead?

Let’s be real here for a second. Even if Mina had been the one to stop Machia. How would she even do that? I remember back when people were talking about when Mina would get her moment to shine, and that it would involve Machia again, I had serious doubts about that idea ever becoming true because I couldn’t think of a single thing she could do against him. I thought for sure Mina’s moment was going to be relegated to fighting Midnight’s killer, since that seemed more within her capabilities. In the end her shinning moment did indeed involve Machia, and no one really had a confrontation with Midnight’s killer. I actually want to hear your thoughts, if you happen have a thing in mind that you think Mina could’ve done to be the one to stop Machia. I’d love to hear it.+ Btw, since you brought it up, in what way could she have defeated the Sludge villain that would’ve been witty, or skillful? If you don’t have any ideas you don’t need to answer. It’s not that important. I’m just curious of the posibility.

Okay, so, this is the part that hung me up for the longest, because there are a few wildly different possible answers here.

The real truth is, if I had been writing this whole shebang from the start, this confrontation would never have happened this way at all.  Just off the top of my head, I think there’s no compelling reason AFO couldn’t have sent Toga into the hospital to activate and retrieve Kurogiri weeks ago, and with Kurogiri back in play, getting Machia would obviously have gone differently.  I would also never have disposed of the MLA as comprehensively as Horikoshi did; I would have had at least one or two instances where an MLA member who didn’t get uncovered by the HPSC in time was in a position to shift the balance in the villains’ favor—maybe one would have been with the police somewhere.

Barring a top-to-bottom rewrite of the whole arc, however? Well, I'd still say that, feeling as strongly as I do about how morally dubious this whole second war has been, even if I were telling this scene with the same components, I probably wouldn’t be writing towards a hero success because I don’t think the heroes have earned it.  The baby steps the kids have taken towards Saving Villains don’t go far enough for me to want to see the villains defeated here.  The biggest changes there would have been twofold:

1) Shinsou’s voice changer play shouldn’t have worked on Machia.

Machia has a sense of smell so incredibly acute that, if I were trying to logically explain how it worked, I’d make it a psychic ability that just happened to manifest as scent-based.  We’re talking about a guy who could track down Shigaraki after a teleport of over 270 miles, who could smell AFO’s vestige stirring from almost fifty miles away.  There’s absolutely no reason he should think for even a second that AFO is standing right outside his prison.

Now, we do know replications of AFO’s voice has an effect on Machia—we saw as much as the beginning of MVA!  But I would contend that back then, he didn’t have a big loud response to the recording, just curled up around his radio and started loudly purring.  In the scene with Shinsou, he actually responds as though he thinks AFO is there, but again, I don’t buy that Machia should have fallen for that, especially since he was woken by Hose Face’s device emulating AFO’s voice, which would have given his unbelievably keen senses enough time to register that it’s only the voice, not the man, that he's hearing.

But, with Machia up and not immediately prey to Shinsou’s ploy, the other big change I’d make with him becomes apparent.  The series has proved willing and eager to shitcan everything Shigaraki gained in MVA, but not me.  Shigaraki won Machia’s loyalty at the end of MVA, and if Machia’s cranky with AFO for leaving him behind again,[8] that doesn’t mean he couldn’t still have loyalty to AFO’s successor.

Given that his loyalty to Shigs is predicated on his loyalty to AFO, it might seem logical that AFO squandering the latter would free Machia of obligation to the former.  That’s a fair take.  But if it were me, I’d capitalize on Machia’s keen senses and what he was present for in MVA—Shigaraki saying that his followers should do whatever they want.  Hell, if the endgame likes flashbacks so much, let’s have a flashback of Shigaraki and Machia actually talking in ways that would let Machia distinguish Shigaraki and AFO.

In other words, I think Machia’s loyalty should supersede his anger.  If he gets free, his first reaction should be to go to Shigaraki, not to focus on his anger.  That way, it’s not a hero win rewarding their gross sky coffin tactics, but AFO doesn’t get quite what he wanted out of it, either.  This would be one part of focusing the narrative back on Shigaraki and his allies, rather than ruining Shigaraki’s hard work by letting AFO take over and piss it all away.

Incidentally, I will concede that, just because Machia shouldn’t have responded like a dupe to Shinsou mimicking AFO’s voice, that doesn’t mean Machia might not have responded at all—he could have rebuked Shinsou for trying to emulate Master, and that would have worked for Shinsou’s purposes just as well!  So to avoid that, I would add one more element to a flashback showcasing Shigaraki and Machia’s relationship post-Deika: have Shigaraki showing Machia a picture of Shinsou and warning him to be on the lookout for this kid, and to not respond to anything he says.

Horikoshi loves to tie back plot beats to pre-established elements, and one such element is, as I footnoted earlier, that AFO and Shigaraki watched the U.A. Sports Festival together, so they should both know good and well who Shinsou is and what he can do.  Knowing Shinsou’s SF-era capabilities doesn’t predict the voice changer, of course, but it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that, if the heroes are pushed to a point of desperation and they have access to a brainwasher, even a non-licensed one, they will try to use that brainwasher on whoever they think is their highest priority target.  Quite frankly, all of the higher-ups and key players should have known about Shinsou.

2) The kids shouldn’t have been tipped off that they were facing Midnight’s killer, or it should have come up in a different context.

Nothing interesting comes of the way the canon deploys it, thanks to Mina’s vengeful feelings having no grounding in the story, and the blunt way it’s brought up serves only to make Hose Face easy for the reader to write off.  As I said in the chapter post where he brought up “that U.A. teacher,” there’s no real reason for him to be focusing on Midnight specifically unless he has a personal reason to think she’s emblematic of the things about Hero Society he hates, or unless he was tuned in enough to U.A. personalities (knew who was teaching there, watched the Sports Festival to get a handle on its students, etc.) to realize that he was facing students he could potentially rattle by bringing up their teacher’s death.

The latter would offer a less awful read on Hose Face’s personality: He’s not bringing up the death out of pure sadism, but as a psychological tactic.  The former would give him some real characterization and motives while also giving the kids something to argue against, rather than the easiest possible reaction of, “Hay did u kno Might Makes Right iz bad?”

Alternatively, if Hose Face has nothing personal against Midnight at all, and doesn’t have an encyclopedic memory of hero wannabe high schoolers, he has no reason to specifically mention Midnight.  Even if the narrative must see her death “answered” in some fashion, it still doesn’t follow that the kids must get emotional closure for someone they lost to the undeclared war they were drafted into.  The audience can take some solace in perceived karma, but lacking a naturalistic way for Mina and the rest to connect those dots, the kids should just have to deal with him as they would any other opponent they come up against, because, surprise surprise, when you’re fighting in a war, you’re not guaranteed to see and know who’s on the opposite side of the gun that just shot down your best friend.

As another alternative, if we go with the idea that Mina was struggling with dark desires for revenge, maybe she should have brought it up!  Not as an accusation—again, she has no way of knowing she’s facing Midnight’s killer without him saying it—but just out of generalized fury with her opponents as a group, the same way Aizawa and Gran Torino hold the pain of their loved ones against Shigaraki when Shigaraki is not the one responsible for causing that pain.[9]  Maybe a more openly vengeful Mina could just freely state that her aim is to take down the PLF to avenge Midnight, only for the enemy in front of her to answer, “Midnight?  You mean that woman I killed in the woods on the day of Liberation?  Here’s your chance, then, girl.”  (Or whatever.)

Of course, Shonen Jump is not in the habit of validating heroes craving revenge, so Mina in that scenario would fail because rage would make her sloppy, same as with Deku, Iida, and so on.

So, in a scenario where Machia is up and not falling prey to Shinsou, but rather prioritizing getting to New Master Shigaraki, and the PLF is likewise loyal to Shigaraki and not AFO, I’d just let it work, because I’d be slanting this whole combat towards an overall heroic loss.  Give Mina a face to obsess over until next time but also let Kirishima get a good eyeful of it so he at least knows there’s a serious problem with his best friend and one of his hero inspirations.

Mineta would have a chance to weigh in, too, as he's a good middle ground: he's got his own anger about Midnight, who he adored, but he's also worried about how that anger looks on Mina. Mineta always worries about his classmates, but he's shared a pretty fair amount of incidental screentime with Mina specifically over the course of the series, ranging from her sweetly offering to put a harem moment into the band performance just for him to stuff like the Clockwork Orange gag, as well as more serious stuff like Mineta being the first one to ask aloud if Midnight's dead, with Mina warmly, and with a confidence it turns out she doesn't truly feel, reassuring him that Midnight's fine.

(I've said before that Mineta should have had more to do in the confrontation with Midnight's killer, but that's not just about his fondness for her. It's also about him being the first to question if the heroes didn't just make the whole situation worse, and, if Mina really took Midnight's death so hard it had her thinking about revenge, it should also have been about Mina and Mineta's shared experience surrounding that death.)

That all said, I suspect that what you really meant is, how would I have handled this scene if I had to use all the same pieces and be writing towards a heroic victory?  So let me at least touch on that.

As far as Hose Face goes, I actually think Kirishima might have been better suited to talking to him?  Like, Mina’s been friendly with people, sure, but I don’t really buy her most pivotal, “shining moment” scene being a bunch of talk about the strength of the weak coming together.  As best I recall—though do correct me if I’m wrong—it's never been shown that Mina regularly struggles with feelings of weakness or inadequacy.  It would be perfectly natural for her to do so after flubbing against Gigantomachia, to be sure, but the series doesn’t make the time to show it, so her lines about forming packs with others does not feel like a natural evolution for her arc.

Likewise, while she’s obviously been depicted as friendly and sociable from the beginning, her lines in 383 suggest that her sociableness has, and always has had, an ulterior motive: covering for her perceived weakness.  The lack of focus on her relationships from her own perspective makes that impossible to verify or even predict, so it just feels like it comes out of thin air, grabbed almost at random by the author in his attempt to find something, anything, Mina could say that would give Hose Face even a moment's pause.

Kirishima, on the other hand, has had a focus on his relationships, places where they’ve been pivotal to his own arc and the greater plot.  (I’m sure I don’t need to harp on this to you, rvg, but I’ll go over it to lay out my perception of these things.)  His relationship with Mina—the ways he’s trying to live up to her example, as well as his desire to support her when she falters—is a profound motivator for him, something we see much more explicitly and from his own perspective than we do Mina's feelings about him.  Meanwhile, while his relationship with Bakugou isn’t given that level of psychological exploration, it’s a critical factor in Bakugou’s rescue at Kamino, and we also get that bit of Bakugou specifically giving Kirishima some advice that leads to the latter’s Unbreakable mode.[10]

So like, we do get an angle on Kirishima and his sense of his own relationships with others.  That awareness allows him to demonstrate what is, I believe, the first unabashed moment of empathy for villains that a hero demonstrates in the entire series!  Specifically, I’m talking about that low-level gang mook he comes up against during his internship with Fat Gum.  That guy does a bunch of yelling about things that speak to Kirishima—fears of weakness, desire to be stronger, a need to help his “bros”—and Kirishima tries multiple times, even after being attacked, to express his understanding and sympathy for the man.

That being the case, if anyone were going to be able to make an impression on Hose Face via appealing to his sense of camaraderie and desire for strength, it seems to me that Kirishima has the better groundwork in place to sell the moment, regardless of whether he could successfully “reach” Hose Face in the way that’s being attempted with Shigaraki/Toga/Dabi.

As to the Sludge Villain, I’d probably either not have him there at all, given how much he claims he just wants to pretend to fight for a minute before getting the hell out of there.  He very much seems like he didn’t want to be here to begin with, so I can only assume that, despite AFO claiming the jailbreakers didn’t need to do anything for him but rampage, he very much did summon a bunch of them back anyway[11] for his final dramatic attack on Deku and Hero Society.

Assuming we’re stuck dealing with him, I’d probably let the Class B kids do it.   Have Mount Lady—who was there for the Sludge Villain’s rampage using Bakugou, and therefore knows what Sludgey looks like and that he can possess people—yell for people to stay away from him.  Let there be a moment of panic and confusion, where it looks for a moment like a repeat of the mess in Chapter 1 where no one had the exact right answer to deal with him, so no one’s willing to step up.

Then, in a 1-2-3 combo move that reminds everyone why Class B is said to have advanced more quickly than Class A, and just as Sludgey lunges for someone, have Yamagi use Poltergeist to manipulate him into a steel drum barrel being held by Yui, let her shrink it down to a good tight fit before dropping it, then have Juuzo soften the ground to half-sink it, top down, then resolidify the earth, trapping Sludgey for later removal.  Ta da, a neat demonstration of the next generation outperforming the old generation when it comes to on-the-fly teamwork and decisive action even when no one individual has the perfect quirk for solving a problem.

…This, of course, is assuming there’s no good way to actually get the Sludge Villain to talk in more depth about why he didn’t want to be here from the beginning and had to be threatened into doing it at all.  It would be nice if someone could broach that topic!  Maybe a quick not-too-serious handful of lines from Mineta, who has his own history of running in terror from fights he doesn’t think he can win.  But even with some sympathy, I imagine Sludge Villain would try to run away regardless, on the (well-grounded) suspicion that heroes are going to want him to go back to prison and finish his sentence, and that’s when B-tachi could step in.

So that just leaves Machia, Mina, and Shinsou.  And honestly, rather than having to power through it, I’d rather see Mina, in particular, talk her way out of it.  This draws on two things.  First, there’s the fact that she’s one of the kids who failed her Final Exams, with her and Kaminari being unable to figure out how to utilize their strengths to get out of Nedzu’s rat maze.   I’d love to see her demonstrate that she’s grown from having no plans but to brute force her way through obstacles!  Second, there’s this sequence:

This is a bit exaggerated, obviously, but the quick demonstration of how quickly and smoothly Mina is able to approach, scold, bond with, then deescalate people in tense situations is rightly portrayed as remarkable.  But where is that facility in real confrontations with villains?  Nowhere, really, save that airless stab at remarking on common ground with Hose Face and the PLF.

I obviously don’t expect her and Machia to wind up breakdancing together when the stakes are as high as they are, but Mina would have at least a bit of an opening—her encounter with Machia in middle school wherein she lied to him about where the Springer Agency is.  I don’t for a moment think that Machia’s forgotten her smell—I doubt he forgets anyone’s, though he may or may not care about them otherwise.

For this version of the scene, I’d probably play Machia as more ambivalent—tired of being abandoned over and over again by the people he’s tried so hard to be loyal for, so not immediately inclined to run off after them, open to a bit more dialogue.  He doesn’t fall for Shinsou for the same reasons I outlined above, so Shinsou and Mina have to talk Machia into acting—or at least stop him from just rumbling off to bury himself under a mountain for the next decade or two.

I don’t know how they’d go about making that argument.  Honestly, I don’t really think there’s anything in the story for Mina or Shinsou to fall back on (by which I mean earlier panels Horikoshi’s assistants can look up and copy/paste into the storyboard to accent a dramatic speech).  Maybe they could ask him why he’s so loyal to All For One and find some commonality, either through heteromorph discrimination or bias against villains.

Maybe Machia is torn on his loyalty, betrayed by AFO one too many times to want to help him but not sure where that leaves him on supporting Shigaraki.  Hearing this, Mina brings up that AFO is threatening Shigaraki right now, but also that a friend of Mina’s is trying to stop AFO/help Shigaraki,[12] so maybe Machia could help them with that and then decide?  Machia doesn’t trust her due to the Springer Agency thing, but that same experience does lead him to believe her when she says she just wants to help people, not hurt them.

That last bit has the benefit of providing an explicit reason for why Mina uses her quirk nigh-exclusively as a watery defense barrier or to take out inanimate objects: She long ago made an active choice not to use her acid against sentient people.  This would give her some room for a little motivation-establishing flashback of her own—maybe canonize that theory about her chipperness being at least in part a front!—and provide a nice alternative to the current state of Mina’s narrative, which has spent nearly 400 chapters refusing to allow her the same free hand people like Bakugou and Kaminari take with their quirks for no established reason.

This doesn’t give Shinsou much to do, but that’s okay: his moment comes against AFO instead.

I realize that Mina's fans want her to have a big badass moment, and simply talking down a confrontation is not the kind of thing that tends to get viewed as "badass" in a shounen battle manga. Sorry about that. She can still jump around and dodge a lot while giving her pitch? Maybe she could get a big badass moment later on? I dunno; that's just what I would do, and obviously my priorities for what it would be cool for the kids to do are not the same as the broader readership's.

I'm also not sure where that leaves the confrontation with Midnight's killer; I suppose that depends on how things go between him and Kirishima in this scenario. Maybe they leave without him when he tries to protest Machia accepting the temporary alliance, or maybe he's soldier enough to take the help where he can get it and worry about later conflict later. Obviously, at any rate, this is happening in a scenario where he hasn't immediately blabbed that he killed Midnight; that can come up as a nasty surprise later on.

  

But does that mean you think Midnight’s killer should totally get away with it scott free and suffer no consequences?

Hnnnngghh that’s a tricky one because I am an unabashed MLA stan and villain supporter and therefore deeply biased about this.  Like, I don’t think soldiers should be put on trial for killing enemy soldiers, no, even high-ranking officer-types.  Obviously it’s different if they attack civilians or are otherwise breaking the codes surrounding conduct during warfare, but I do think Hose Face killing Midnight was basically a soldier killing someone he perceived as another soldier, with no undue cruelty or misconduct.

However, obviously the series itself—and the state authority the PLF is openly trying to tear down in-universe—would disagree with me!  In that context, I can’t even really call the guy “a high-ranking officer” because that would, as mentioned earlier, convey more authenticity to his position than his government wants to grant him.  As far as they’re concerned, he’s probably more like “a key figure in the recent anti-government actions carried out by the terrorist group calling themselves The Paranormal Liberation Front.”  People like that tend to get executed in prison a few years after their short, perfunctory trials.

I suppose the problem for me is that the series wants me to believe that the MLA is Very Bad and they all deserve to be Locked Up Forever, whereas I want more nuance from them than that?  Even setting aside the probable cult upbringing, I have significant trouble unabashedly blaming the PLF for their actions because the series has done nothing to convince me that less drastic avenues for change are available or even survivable for them.

This was a huge issue with the hospital attack sequence, but it applies to all sorts of the setting’s problems: Other than, “Insist that victims of oppression should focus on providing a good example to future generations,” what methods for addressing inequality does Hero Society have?  I want to know what the villains should have done, what they could have done, about systemic inequalities and repression that would have been effective against a government that employs agents like Lady Nagant and Hawks.

The picture Nagant paints is of a society waging a war against anyone who sought to change the Hero System, a war that many people who sought change never even knew they were already in.  The examples she provides of her targets are, of course, corrupt heroes and would-be terrorists, but what her HPSC President said was even farther reaching: that the purpose of her killing was to “preserve hope and faith” in heroes.

The HPSC legitimately does not seem to believe that any system other than the current one is feasible for maintaining stability, and that any attempt to shake or besmirch that system is no different than throwing the country back into the chaos of the advent of quirks.  What’s a few missing activists or tragic accidents compared to that?

Horikoshi seems desperate to have us pretend he never told us that the government his protagonists are defending actively grooms assassins to enforce the status quo, but that’s not a genie he can put back in the bottle.  I see the current events of the series as, in some form or another, basically inevitable because of Hero Society’s active, even violent resistance to change.  Midnight’s death for that cause is thus something I have tremendous difficulty thinking of as a crime that needs to be punished.

Does that mean I think Hose Face should get off scot-free?  Eeehhhhhhhhnnnngh I hate to say it this plainly, but…

Maybe it does?

The thing is, I know that Hose Face is, canonically, a quirk supremacist trying to violently overthrow the rule of law.  In real life, I have no sympathy for people trying to institute fascism, regardless of whether they’re using legal mechanisms or armed force.  But in the fictional world of BNHA, I have nothing but disdain for the way the MLA has been turned into a caricature of themselves in this final arc.  In that sense, my dissatisfaction with Hose Face’s treatment is really based on the ideal version of him and all the rest of the MLA I have in my head—the MLA that’s allowed to have nuance behind their extremism, the one overflowing with members motivated by their lived experience with the flaws in Hero Society, with a generous helping of radicalization from the fact that they’re a cult as much as they are an army.

BNHA has scrapped all that potential and left us with nothing but naked quirk supremacy to fill the void.  In an endgame that’s trying so, so hard to sell the readers on Saving Villains, that’s just poison to the story’s themes, and my villain stanning comes directly from that issue: demanding consistent treatment for the characters whose tragic backstories we haven’t been permitted to see.

Hose Face is clearly a bad person—heck, I was headcanoning him as a hard-edged, ruthless killer even when all we had to go on was him killing Midnight, long before he showed up to espouse open quirk supremacy and gloat about killing a schoolteacher, so it’s not like I ever thought he was a super nice dude or anything!  But I guess I just have trouble with the idea that the current system deserves to be the one to decide his fate, when it has, to all appearances, gone to extreme lengths to stamp out any perceived threats to itself, to the point that the narrative itself is now openly delegitimizing everyone who might otherwise offer cogent critique.

It would be different if we had never seen the dark side of the status quo and the villains really were all just shallow, two-dimensional monsters.  It would be different if the narrative had shown us legal, nonviolent and effective avenues for protest and change.[13]  It would be different if Hose Face had killed some rando uninvolved civilian.

As it is, though, Midnight was a combatant for a terrible, terrible status quo.  She might not have been using lethal means herself, but she was defending a demonstrably lethal, openly acknowledged as repressive, system.  I just can’t find it in myself to demand justice for the fact that she died for it.

But with all that being said, I also don’t think Midnight is a bad person.  She never knew about the government assassins, after all; she’s a member of the system she grew up in, the same way the kids are.  She presumably never saw the extent of the system’s flaws because she was never victimized by them.  At the end of the day, she still deserved to be properly mourned and remembered and it is a crock and a crime that we never got to see her funeral.

If anything, I think Midnight’s funeral would have been an excellent setting for a scene where the protagonists start asking questions about how things came to this, what went wrong and where, that their teacher had to die.  What is it about Hero Society that’s led to tens of thousands of dissidents, and why haven’t they ever heard of this discontent before now That would have given us considerably better set-up for a nuanced PLF, an opening to talk about Shouji’s experience of heteromorphobia, foreshadowing for Lady Nagant, and, to bring this back on-topic, the opportunity to really show Mina struggling with everything that happened as set-up for her later confrontation with Midnight’s killer.

  

Tumblr, How Does That Work?

Honestly I was expecting some sort of notification about your answers if and when you replied to me. Is that not a thing?

Making my reply a fresh post, or just posting replies in the comments section of the post you originally commented on, would not have notified you without me specifically tagging you, which at the time Tumblr wasn’t letting me do.  This problem seems to have cleared up, so you should have gotten a notification about this post going up because of your name being tagged at the very beginning!

What you see for people answering asks depends on a few things. If you send asks anonymously, you won't get a notification if/when the person answers them; you'll just have to keep an eye on their blog. If you send them with your name attached, as you did originally for me, I could choose to answer those asks privately, sending my replies back to your Inbox, or answer publically, posting my replies to my blog. Either way, you'd be notified!

For this round of responses, if I'd just replied to your reblog in comments as you did with my original post, or reblogged your reply with a reply of own instead of staring a new post, you’d have gotten notifications about either!  But I don’t want to put this much wall ‘o text on my followers’ dashboards without a cut, so I haven’t been responding directly, for which I apologize.

(Disclaimer: Notifications can be configured in your Settings menu; you can toggle them on and off for loads of stuff! You might wish to check what you currently have them set for rather than just taking my word for it.)

On the topic of cuts, I mentioned at the beginning that the cut option is hard to find on mobile, but just for reference, it looks like this in the post editor on desktop:

It's the same icon on the mobile post editor, it's just on the far right of the bar of icons along the bottom of the app. My screen cuts it off, so I have to scroll the bar over to find it.

Like I said, the Expand dropdown button Tumblr instituted a little while back has reduced the need for this somewhat, and you can certainly do whatever you prefer, but as I believe having the Expand dropdown automatically clip long posts is still an optional configuration in Settings, I'd feel better about reblogging from you directly if you put the bulk of your reply under a cut.

  

Don’t know what “blorbo” means. Kinda sounds like a demeaning term, but I’m going to assume it’s not.

Sorry, it’s not intended to be demeaning!  It’s just a slangy affectionate term for “character you really like.”  In my experience, I’d say it also has a connotation of protectiveness or self-identification, though I can’t speak for the whole of the internet.  I like plenty of characters, but I wouldn’t call them all my blorbos, just the ones that I really and truly love and want to explore/share/defend their honor to the death.

  

Thanks...? Is, is that a compliment?

(Re: my telling rvg that we seemed to have similar issues with the way Mina was being handled, but they were more willing to do the mental legwork on her than me.)

It’s mostly just an observation, but not a critical one!  As someone who’s very ready to read into the canon every little drip of information the canon will give me And So Much More, I have a tremendous amount of fellow-feeling for people of like minds, even if our taste in characters is different.

    

Buried At The Bottom, Why Kaminari Is A Worse Character Than Mineta, Yes I Said It And I’ll Say It Again

>>I have observably positive feelings for about a third of Class 1-A and only particularly negative feelings about Deku and Kaminari. What’s up with Kaminari?

My irritation with Kaminari boils down to two main things—and forgive me, I know you didn’t ask about Mineta, but Mineta’s pretty important to my feelings on Kaminari being what they are, so he’s a part of this answer.  This is all going to be pretty openly dismissive of Kaminari, as a fair warning, on top of being based on not-exactly-rigorous familiarity with the student material, so apologies to anyone who likes him and finds him an enriching, valuable character. But man alive, that is not me.  And but so:

1) Kaminari is a watered-down Mineta, with watered-down versions of all of Mineta’s flaws, but because he’s watered down, the growth he experiences stands out less than Mineta’s.  More on this in a second.

2) Despite Kaminari being a redundant character who brings virtually nothing to the table that other characters don’t do better—with the only things that are unique to him going underdeveloped in canon—fandom loves Kaminari.  (Disclaimer: I obviously don’t spend much time in the hero-fan circles of the fandom, so this is just my perception.  I’d be curious to get your perspective of Kaminari’s relative popularity, rvg!)

To hit the second point first, Kaminari has a more conventionally attractive cute anime boy face than Mineta, so Kaminari’s pushing of his female classmates’ boundaries gets mostly ignored, while Mineta gets so many fics written about him dying that there’s a dedicated Dead Mineta Minoru tag on AO3 with almost 350 hits. 

Fandom built a whole tottering edifice of fanon about Traitor Kaminari despite the howling absence of compelling evidence in the manga[14] for, so far as I can tell, the sole reason that people wanted the cute anime boy to have crunchy angst.  Then, when the actual traitor reveals landed (first the fake-out and then the real one), fandom deemed Hagakure an ungrateful bitch and Aoyama a whining coward.

So like, the fandom discrepancy is what pushes me over the edge from the bottom end of neutral into active dislike.  But I would be awfully close to it anyway for the whole “redundant-ass character who contributes nothing to this story we couldn’t get better from someone else” thing.

Kaminari being kind of leery and unpleasant about his female classmates would be a lot more glaring if it weren’t stacked up against Mineta’s actual sexual harassment, even though Kaminari is a frequent co-conspirator!   

Kaminari has a brief tussle with fear at the beginning of the war arc, but it’s neither as sustained nor as convincing as Mineta’s frequent wrestling with cowardice, present from USJ all the way up through his terrified confrontation with All For One.   

Mineta is frequently, openly envious of his classmates, a whole extra flaw that Kaminari never demonstrates in more than fleeting glimpses.   

Kaminari’s quirk is redundant next to the other high offense types in the class.   

Kaminari’s personality is not distinct enough to add anything irreplaceable to the classroom dynamic.  That’s not to say he brings nothing to the web of relationships amongst the students or the ways the class as a whole reacts to the events of the series, just that what comes to mind for me is mostly extra layering to existing dynamics, not anything truly original and unique to him.  Which would be fine—I love extra layers!—if he were contributing more as a character on literally any other fronts.

I can think of only two things that Kaminari uniquely brings to the table, but both of them are mentioned once and then never come up again.  Firstly, he’s the only one in the class to voice open admiration for Stain, a willingness to admire cool traits in Villains that never leads him to any interesting conflicts with people (classmates or otherwise) who hew to the more standard flat refusal to consider that a Villain might have or express positive aspects.

The other thing is less about Kaminari himself and more about how he’s one of three places where the story brings up the idea of people using their quirks for non-hero jobs and then refuses to develop that premise.[15]  It’s interesting worldbuilding, but as far as I’m aware, it’s never directly shown—everyone we see using their quirks (legally) in the series is doing it as a hero.  We never get much sense of what other options there are for quirk use because heroism and villainy are the only contexts we ever see it in!  This would be a little annoying on its own, but I also find it undermines a lot of other established facts and characterizations.

(Bear with me and I promise I’ll loop this back around to Kaminari.)

My interests being where they are, the biggest problem for me with the fuzziness about the legality of quirk use is that it leaves Destro and the MLA with no coherent cause.  They want free quirk use, but are they really so incredibly averse to just getting a license that they’re willing to become terrorists over it??

You could argue that naked quirk supremacy is what the MLA is currently after, and that’s obviously incompatible with the laws as they stand, but Destro Classic is never really framed as a quirk supremacist, so why did he so virulently despise the quirk use prohibitions if all they really did was require people to get a license to use quirks in public, no different than a driver’s license or a permit to serve alcohol?  Sure, you get small clutches of people sometimes with that kind of “any government oversight is bad government oversight” black-and-white thinking, but the original MLA was a powerful enough force to stand against the government for years, which doesn’t exactly scream “a handful of malcontents” to me.

Rendering the MLA’s cause mindbogglingly asinine is my biggest problem with the “other jobs can get quirk-use licenses too” tidbit, but there are also things like how totally invisible the entertainment or sports industry is.  That would make perfect sense if quirk use is illegal in those fields—people want to see cool superpowers getting used, so industries that bank on public attention dollars but can’t have their celebrities use their quirks are going to decline when they can’t compete with industries/celebrities that can.

If quirk licenses can be gotten for all sorts of jobs, though, then why have sports and entertainment become so invisible?  If “frivolous” fields like those are not aren’t seen as “contributing to society” enough for quirk use permits, then which fields do?  Why does HeroAca!Japan still mostly look and behave like IRL!Japan if quirks are in use in “all manner” of industries?  And if it isn’t the case that heroism—a dangerous job which sometimes gets people killed and which generally requires cultivating a socially demanding public brand/identity—is the only path to being able to use the special power you were born with to earn a livelihood, why does every single middle-schooler in Deku’s class and countless other classes across the country want to become a hero?

I just feel like the way the world looks and operates, the kinds of repressiveness described by even the heroes, the structures that drive people into heroism and villainy alike—the former because they don’t see any other viable way to achieve the happiness they’re looking for, the latter because they can’t become heroes but still have desires that their quirks could help them achieve—all of that makes much more sense in a world that has super powers but has tightly restricted their use to a single job class of person.

So, tying back, obviously that’s not a fault of Kaminari’s, but he is the character where that gap is most apparent.  If there aren’t many lightning heroes because lightning is in high demand in other industries, it would shed significant light on who Kaminari is as a person if the manga would tell us what those other industries are. 

What other paths could Kaminari have chosen?  What’s so much better about those other industries that people with quirks tailor-made for heroism,[16] in a society that worships popular and powerful heroes, are so willing to choose those other industries instead?  Why did Kaminari not make that same decision?  What does heroism mean to him personally that he chose it when so many others in his situation did not?

Kaminari could present a huge in on that angle of the worldbuilding, but instead he’s a complete dead-end.  Mineta’s motivations are base as hell, but at least we know what they are!  Further, it tells us interesting (uncomplimentary, but interesting!) things that people like Recovery Girl and Deku hear said motivations from Mineta’s own mouth, and shrug and accept them as perfectly valid.

And that’s just his professed motivations!  His final exam scene actually drops an early hint about the admiration for Deku he’ll later wholeheartedly declare in the 1-A vs Deku fight!  I don’t remember Kaminari ever getting anything a fraction so revealing; he just coasts through the story contributing nothing unique or meaningful.  He’s hardly the only 1-A character with that particular lack of depth—Sato, Sero, Hagakure and Ojiro are all similar blank slates in terms of their motivations or histories—but then, none of them are a fraction as popular as Kaminari is in the fandom as I experience it, either.

So to sum up, I dislike Kaminari because he’s a wishy-washy nothing of a character, a generically Inoffensive Anime Cutie Boy adored out of all reasonable proportion compared to more compelling and equally underdeveloped classmates alike.  Mineta is, by any measure, more problematic, and it's even worse that U.A./Aizawa are so blasé about him, but, at least from where I’m standing, he’s still more layered, more compelling, more dynamic, and speaks in more interesting ways to the world around him than Kaminari ever comes close to matching.

(…Kaminari’s thing with Jirou is fine.  Perfectly reasonable character relationship building material.  I just don’t count it one way or the other because it’s a self-contained relationship dynamic that has no bearing on the way either character engages with the broader world/system the series’ overarching narrative is challenging.  They motivate each other in small ways, but that motivation doesn’t lead them to truly grow or change as people, only to overcome modest internal confidence hurdles blocking them from things they already wanted to do anyway.)

--

And that's it! Thanks for forging through, good lord, over twenty pages of this, rvg and anyone else who did! I hope you were at least moderately entertained, give or take my blatant Kaminari slander. See you next time, and enjoy the Footnotes.

---------------- FOOTNOTES ----------------

[1] We’re not shown any personnel or drugs or anything, but I assume they’ve been keeping Machia drugged since Jakku, same as Kurogiri in between interviews.  It’s the only thing that worked on Machia before, so why wouldn’t they have more on-hand?

[2] Despite watching the Sports Festival with Shigaraki, natch.

[3] I would like it if he would do that with a lot less insufferable power scaling bullshit, you understand, but I’m spotting the comic its plot arc here.

[4] Outside of, say, the Persona games, where the MCs can change ability sets by swapping out what companion spirit they’re packing, but even that doesn’t make them specialized for status effects, merely capable of using them.

[5] Interestingly, while Bakugou fought off the villainous sales pitch with as much verve as he brings to all his fights, if he had fallen off the righteous path there, we might have observed that his pridefulness was explicitly fostered by the people around him giving him excessive praise for his powerful quirk and ignoring his resulting violent arrogance.  That is to say, Bakugou would have fallen under the same, “Villains are created by the failures in their society,” pattern that BNHA applies to all of its sympathetic villains.

[6] There was one other instance, but iirc it was an error in the translation C.Cook had done for the BNHA databook.  It would not surprise me that he was being less careful or was more pressed for time when translating the reams upon reams of text in one of those.

[7] At least until the fifteen-thousand-strong mob shows up.

[8] Which frankly should be all he’s sore about.  As others have pointed out, Machia’s anger about being abandoned is kind of incoherent.  Yes, AFO left him on the battlefield, but he didn’t exactly leave him to rot in prison forever.  The moment AFO made his big push, he sent people to spring Machia, so in what sense exactly does Machia think AFO abandoned him?  If it was just the last straw after a string of abandonments from both AFO and Shigaraki, the manga could have stood to make that much clearer.

[9] AFO and Ujiko created Kurogiri out of Shirakumo—as a babysitter for Tomura, yes, but Tomura didn’t choose that.  And as to Shigaraki’s very existence trampling on Nana’s memory and causing All Might pain, well, Shigaraki didn’t ask to be brought into the world, abused by his father, neglected by his family, and then raised by a supervillain, did he?

[10] And speaking of Unbreakable, compare how explicitly we’re shown Kirishima’s growth and the foundations of it with how the inspirations for Mina’s attacks are relegated to passing mentions, not direct depictions.  She just casually tells Kirishima that his Unbreakable inspired her Acidman, and likewise only internally reflects on asking Bakugou and Todoroki to teach her their training method, which let her develop her Max Power Acidman Alma move, without so much as a single scrubbed in doodle depicting said training assistance.

[11] Somehow.  The story is unclear on whether he disseminated threats, contacted them directly, or just used the combination of Search+Warping to drag them all back into his presence, and that last option in particular runs into complications given the limitations of both quirks.

[12] In this AU, we would have gotten to see the class have an actual discussion about Saving Villains, prompted by the way the reveal about Aoyama solidified Deku, Shouto and Uraraka’s desires to help their respective villain foils.  The class would carry that resolve forward not only for those three villains alone, but also Shouji for Spinner, Kirishima when talking to Hose Face, Mina, here, with Gigantomachia, etc.

[13] None of the things I can think of that might be considered evidence of protest meet all the criteria.  The original MLA became violent, Harima Oji was a lawbreaker and also ineffective in the long term, the small group that yells at Endeavor and the rest in Chapter 311 is not portrayed as linked to any broader efforts to unseat “fake heroes,” and the group that “condemned” the newscaster Miyagi Daikaku was ineffective and didn’t even seem to rise to the level of open protest.

[14] "His grades are poor but he namedrops a Hemingway novel! He must be concealing the fact that he's actually super-smart!" "He's doing a Liberation salute! He must be the traitor, even though the Liberation salute uses the other hand, and Kaminari has been using finger-gun gestures to fire off his lightning attacks since at least the License Exam if not earlier, and the League had no connection to the MLA at the time when the traitor was most active!"

[15] A blurb about Kaminari in, iirc, one of the volume extras, Suneater’s flashback to a teacher telling his class that they can “make fine use of their quirks at any number of jobs,” and Uraraka’s early mention that she’d considered “getting permission” to use her quirk to help with her parents’ construction business.

[16] See the previous discussion about the kinds of quirks that are popularly accepted as “good hero quirks.”

[scary-grace]

for the what will ur character do asks, 7 with tomura but reader’s the ex pls :)

Thank you for the prompt! This is for #7 from this list: A character getting kissed by their ex. I also decided to roll in my @pixelcafe-network Challenge Friday dialogue prompt! 2.1k, canon, post-MVA, no warnings. A little suggestive towards the end.

fallen

You were a double-agent, but you failed your mission, and you're expecting to pay for your betrayal with your life. Shigaraki doesn't see it the way you do.

You knew this day would come. Told yourself you were ready for it, even – but as the ground shudders beneath your feet and the walls of the shack in the woods you’ve been hiding out in begin to crumble around you, you realize all at once that you’re not ready at all. You sold your soul a long time ago, when the HPSC publicly excommunicated you for the purpose of creating a credible spy, someone no villain or villain organization would expect to still side with the heroes. When they sent you to infiltrate the League of Villains, mere days after the Hero Killer was arrested, you fulfilled your purpose at last.

Or part of your purpose. You were supposed to infiltrate the League, and if they ever rose from the ashes of Kamino Ward, you were meant to make an example of them that would be impossible to ignore. That was the euphemism. The president of the HPSC didn’t mince words: Kill Shigaraki Tomura, and do it in plain sight. You agreed. Why wouldn’t you? You’d already sold your soul. There was nothing left of you to give away – except your heart.

You were supposed to kill him, but you fell for Shigaraki instead, and when the moment came to act, you ran, even though you knew it would expose what you really were. You ran and hid, but you know it’s not possible to hide forever. Not from the brand-new Paranormal Liberation Front, with members all across Japan, with their fingers on the pulse of the support sector, the political establishment, the news networks and surveillance software. They’d find you eventually; Tomura would find you. And when he did, you’d pay.

Misery and rage and guilt well up in the back of your throat, and you swallow them as dust rains down around you. You sold your soul a long time ago. It’s time to pay the price.

When the house has vanished into nothingness, you look for an escape route on autopilot, but the PLF has the house surrounded. You know without identifying even a single soldier that they’re all equipped with deadly quirks, quirks that can kill as quickly and efficiently as yours. But of all the dangerous quirks you’re encircled by, the worst is the one that destroyed your house, the one that belongs to Shigaraki Tomura. Shigaraki Tomura, who’s standing in front of you, arms crossed over his chest, clearly waiting for you to speak first.

You thought he’d be enraged, that he’d kill you on sight or order someone else to do it, but he’s just standing there, looking at you, as calm as you aren’t. You last just under three minutes before the suspense drives you over the edge. “Just do it already.”

“Kill you?” Shigaraki tilts his head, studying you. “That’s not why I’m here.”

“Since when do you lie?” You know it’s beyond hypocritical to accuse Shigaraki of lying when you’re the one who spent the entire time you were with the League lying by omission, but you’re trying to goad him. You want him to snap. “I betrayed you. I’m already dead. Hurry up and kill me.”

“If you were trying to betray me, you’re shit at it,” Shigaraki says. He’s dressed in a suit, a red cape lined with fur around his shoulders, every inch the supervillain you were supposed to stop him from turning into. “You weren’t the one leaking information to the heroes. We know who did that.”

Did it, not doing it. There was someone else. Who? What happened to them? A hollow feeling settles inside you, devouring everything else. “Everything you’ve done has helped us,” Shigaraki continues, “and when you were supposed to kill me, you didn’t. You didn’t betray me. So I can let it go.”

No. You thought he came here to kill you. You want him to kill you, need him to kill you, so you don’t have to live with this anymore. “I’m your enemy,” you snarl. “I was working for them the entire time. I joined the League so I could stop you, and that’s the only reason. There’s nothing else!”

“If that was it, why’d you run?” Shigaraki takes a few steps closer. He’s still limping a little bit. His wounds from the fight in Deika City have been slow to heal, and you have to fight the urge to go to his side, to help him stand straight. “All the shit the heroes did to turn you into the perfect spy. They took away your whole life when you were in high school, just so they could use you against people like us. You’re more like us than you are like them. If you weren’t, you wouldn’t have run.”

A few steps closer. You back away, wishing for a wall to put your back against, something to help you stand firm in the face of this, of him. “You can come back now,” Shigaraki says. His voice grows softer. “You’re supposed to be with me.”

“How many times do I have to tell you that it wasn’t real?” Your eyes are starting to sting, from the dust or from unshed tears or both. “Everything I did, I did so I could betray you more efficiently. I never loved you. I was faking it so you’d let your guard down. It was all a lie.”

You see a flash of hurt on Shigaraki’s scarred face, but it’s gone in moments. “If that’s true, why didn’t you kill me?” he asks. “I don’t believe you.”

You avert your eyes. “You should.”

“Then make me,” Shigaraki says. “Look at me and tell me that you don’t feel anything. make me believe it, and I’ll go.”

“You’ll kill me,” you correct. “You’re shit at this supervillain thing.”

Shigaraki’s mouth pulls up at one corner, in the ghost of a smile or a mockery of affection. “Are you going to do it or not?”

You wish this wasn’t happening in front of an audience. You wish this wasn’t happening at all, that you’d turned down the assignment when you got it, that you’d pushed back when the HPSC blew up your life in your second year of high school. You wish you didn’t have to feel so sick and guilty that you can barely stand. You wanted Shigaraki to be furious with you, so furious that he’d kill you without a second thought. You don’t think you can survive his forgiveness.

And you don’t have to. You can still kill him. He’ll let you close enough, and as if you’ve made the decision already, your feet uproot themselves from the ground and you take step after step closer to him, closing the distance he’s already halved. You see the PLF soldiers stirring restlessly in your peripheral vision. “Grand Commander –”

“Shut up,” Shigaraki says.

“He’s right.” That’s Spinner’s voice. Of course the League is here. Even if Shigaraki really is ready to let this go, the League never will. You know how much they value loyalty, how much the thought that you were planning to turn on them hurts. “You might like her, but she can’t be trusted. She’s going to kill you.”

Spinner’s got your number. Shigaraki must know that, but he lets you come in closer. Lets you set one hand on his chest, knowing that your fingers could morph into razor-sharp claws at any moment and tear out his heart. “Do it,” he says, almost a dare. “If it was all a lie, then it doesn’t matter what you do to me.”

You want to prove him wrong more than you’ve ever wanted anything in your life. Or at least that’s what you tell yourself as you raise your hand to his shoulder, curl your fingers so that the activation of your quirk will sever his jugular vein and carotid artery in an instant. You can kill him. It’ll be the work of seconds, and so what if the PLF tears you to shreds afterward? You’ll have done what needs to be done, just like a hero should.

But you’re aren’t a hero. The HPSC made sure of that. You look up from your fingers prepared to lay him open and find him looking down at you, and from there, all it takes to kiss him is to lean ever so slightly forward.

Shigaraki should be nothing to you. You ended it with him when you ran, and he never should have been anything to you at all. You hid from the truth for so long, even as the two of you grew closer, even once it became clear that you still had something left to lose. The HPSC has owned your soul since you were sixteen, but Shigaraki has your heart. The League has your loyalty. You didn’t run because of what they’d do to you. You ran because you couldn’t face what you did to them.

And so you find your fingers uncurling to grip his shoulder instead, your hand leaving his heart to cradle the side of his face. You kiss Shigaraki Tomura like the two of you are alone, like you’re coming back from a long time away, and even as you realize he might have just been luring you closer to kill you, you tell yourself it’s all right. You’re ready to die. This time it might even be the truth.

Shigaraki kisses you back, like you knew he would, and doesn’t let you pull away until you’re both out of air. “I’m not convinced,” he says, and you manage a miserable laugh. When he speaks again, he pitches his voice to carry. “We’re done here. Let’s go.”

They came by helicopter. The sound of the blades was what warned you they were coming, and the noise is unbelievable even through the headphones you and the League put on when you climb in. Twice and Toga are pointedly avoiding your gaze, while Spinner’s glaring at you. It’s hard to tell what Compress is doing behind the mask. Dabi’s the only one who makes eye contact with you, the only one who flips his microphone into position and speaks. “You know you were a decoy, right?”

What? You shake your head, and Dabi scoffs. “You were a decoy,” he says. “They wanted us to get so distracted blowing up at you that we’d totally miss Hawks selling us out.”

Hawks. You knew Hawks was part of the PLF, but you never would have guessed that his belief in it wasn’t genuine. You know very little about how the HPSC trains their prize heroes, but you know enough to understand that Hawks might have his reasons. “It was him?”

“Don’t worry. We’re sending him back to the HPSC one feather at a time,” Compress says. You can’t tell anything from his voice. No idea if he hates you or if he’s just glad that the matter of you is officially settled. “He was their true operative. It’s likely that they always expected you to fail.”

You never mattered to them. That shouldn’t come as a surprise, and it shouldn’t sting. “That’s the only reason you’re still alive,” Spinner tells you. “You’ve got a lot of work to do before we ever trust you again.”

“If we ever trust you again,” Toga says. You think that’s a pretty big if. It’s quiet for a moment, with nothing but the dull roar of the helicopter blades to fill the silence. “But Tomura-kun is glad you’re back. So I am, too.”

Tomura is glad you’re back. When he’s unhappy, he draws inwards, shrinks away from contact, but when he’s happy, he’s touchy, almost clingy – just like he is now. You didn’t think it was in his nature to forgive anyone. When you broke it off with him, when you said too much in the course of the fight that followed, when you ran, you could barely stand how much you hurt him. You don’t know if you can forgive yourself. But if the way you’re crushed against his side is anything to go by, he’s well on his way to forgiving you.

The two of you don’t speak until you’re back at headquarters, alone in Tomura’s rooms. He kissed you again as soon as the door shut, pushed you back across the room to his bed, and crawled on top of you without pulling away. It’s a while before he pulls back. “You were lying about us, before,” he says, looking down at you, his white hair falling in a curtain around your faces. “Tell me the truth.”

Shouldn’t it be obvious? The fact that you’re here should speak for itself. “I didn’t fake us,” you say anyway. “Any of us. I love you.”

“Good,” Tomura says, and he rolls the two of you over so you’re straddling him awkwardly. Pieces of your clothing are crumbling away, baring your legs and your shoulders for his hands to explore. He shifts beneath you, getting comfortable, then looks up at you with a smile that holds the faintest shade of cruelty. “Now prove it.”

taglist: @shigarakislaughter @cryptidfuckerofficial @lvtuss @issaortiz @stardustdreamersisi @deadhands69 @xeveryxstarfallx @lacrimae-lotos @evilcookie5 @minniessskii @aslutforfictionalmen @f3r4lfr0gg3r

[codenamesazanka]

Saw some Spinaraki kid OCs so I decided to try my hand at it too. Though it's less happy family kidfic and more resentfully making Heroes and Deku face consequences post-canon. Sorry.

the Spinaraki lovechild:

Shirakata Masanori | 白方正憲

Age: 15

Appearance: Lizard heteromorph. Black hair, pink eyes, white scales.

Quirk: Adhesion. Decay's spreading effect + Gecko's sticking trait. Anything object Masanori touches and remain in contact with will adhere with anything the object is also touching. If he touches a sidewalk, everyone on it will be stuck and trapped, unable to move their feet.

result of Spinner and Shigaraki getting together post-Deika/pre-surgery. super unexpected.

three months after Shigaraki went in for surgery, Spinner pops out an egg (please go with it)

During Heroes' raid on the PLF Villa, Spinner entrusts egg to ReDestro. Unfortunately, when everyone got arrested, egg gets swept up in custody capture of MLA kids.

With no one to claim the egg, it is placed in orphanage; all contact is then lost.

Egg hatches after war, at end of August.

Spinner was never able to tell Shigaraki about their kid due to the possession.

He decides not to say anything to the Heroes either. Doesn't trust them after Shigaraki got killed, and better that the kid doesn't grow up stigmatized for having terrorists as parents.

But Spinner does leave a letter with his court-appointed lawyer, hoping that one day it will reach the kid, when they come of age.

Spinner dies early due to effects of having multiple quirks; dies ten years after war

The lawyer, deciding to just finish up this assignment cleanly, finds the kid 4 years later and delivers the letter despite the kid not reaching age of majority.

Despite half-assed mild societal change efforts, Masanori grows up an orphan in the system, with the additional stigma of being an PLF raid kid (and therefore very likely the child of dead/arrested Villains/criminals)

Abandoned, unnamed babies in Japan are named by the city/town's mayor. Masanori was named with the kanji "white-direction correct-law" in hopes that he would become a law-abiding citizen (unlike his unknown parents). The Mayor is an asshole.

(Though Shirakata is a real surname, and chosen because kid has white scales)

Early on, Masanori looked out into the world and realized it doesn't want him, made it clear he doesn't belong. So he accepted it.

However, he knows the path of Villainy only leads to doom.

His caretakers drilled that into the PLF raid kids. Quirk counseling emphasized it a lot. So did teachers. Everyone.

He’s (reluctantly) played the ‘Villain’ in enough playground games that ends with the ‘Heroes’ pretending to smash him to pieces or explode him to nothing, because everyone has seen the war footage.

And he’s known too many people who salivate over the satisfaction of proving his blood is irreparably criminal.

So he won't be a Villain.

He just wants to leave - leave the orphanage, leave the city, leave Japan. Maybe travel the world alone forever.

Masanori is: very solitary, utterly disinterested in people, self-reliant, pragmatic, opportunistic, clever enough but can bite off more than he can chew

Masanori doesn't really have any sentimental feelings about his parents; or rather, he feels there's no point to dwell on it

He always knew he was the son of criminals. Discovering that he's the son of the most notorious criminals is somewhat cool, but Spinner and Shigaraki are long dead and gone.

When Masanori first received the letter, there was a satisfaction to finally knowing, nearly a sense of destiny. So he read the League of Villains memoir. He read the manuscript drafts that he inherited from Spinner. He did a lot of research.

(In the letter, Spinner admits that the kid was a surprise, that Shigaraki never knew, and Spinner himself doesn't know anything about the kid and will likely go to his grave not knowing.

They dealt the kid a shit hand.

Saying something cliche like they loved the kid they never knew would be hollow; and besides, Spinner and Shigaraki were twisted and distorted people. Villains. So the truth is, the kid is likely better off without them.

But.

Spinner wishes he and Shigaraki could've known the kid, and he regrets that neither of them were able to stay alive and free.

Spinner also writes that if Shigaraki knew about the kid, he knows Shigaraki would've tried to give them the world.)

But eventually, for Masanori, the end result of all that is realizing that there's nothing to be done with this information. Spinner and Shigaraki don't know him, and he doesn't know them; never will. They were criminals, they were young and stupid, they picked a fight and lost, and they left him behind.

All he has is still just himself.

...and this new knowledge he might be able to use to his advantage.

Which is why Masanori decides to confront the Hero Deku and demand compensation for the death of his parents and other hardships

Age 15, Masanori arrives at Deku's agency, carrying Spinner's letter that is his only proof

But just looking at Masanori convinces Deku. Kid's appearance is basically Tenko in lizard heteromorph form, but even his demeanor reminds Deku of Shigaraki - aloof but intense, determined. (tho he is still younger, less hostile, a bit stiff in nervousness)

Deku is shocked, guilty, suspicious, already wants to help, appalled at the extortion attempt. Ready for a conflict.

At least until he hears Masanori's demands:

Guaranteed admission to UA's General Studies Program, a recommendation letter, as well as a stipend all three years that Masanori is in high school.

And that's it.

Masanori has only an okay school record.

He did not have an enriching school life.

He's been accused of delinquent behavior - mostly suspected small theft and 'incidents' with other students

(They could never actually prove he stole anything; and the incidents he get into are always with the more aggressive classmates. They're not so much fights as pranks, and the bullying usually ceases immediately afterwards.)

High school is not mandatory in Japan, and minors legally can start work at age 15, so Masanori has been "asked"/expected to leave the orphanage after middle school. Jin Scenario

Not a very bright future. But he was ready for it... until he received Spinner's letter.

Suddenly.

If Masanori gets into UA High School, an elite national school, with recommendation from a world-renowned and beloved Hero, it's leaving the orphanage, leaving his hometown, starting a new life.

(General Studies program because he has zero interest in being a Hero.)

Graduate and better prepared to leave everything behind and travel the world alone forever.

Opportunity of a lifetime. He will shamelessly seize it.

Masanori's not blackmailing Deku or anything - nothing to blackmail, since no one cares Deku killed Shigaraki, and admitting he's the son of terrorists is social death. He's relying entirely on Deku's heroism.

Even if his Shigaraki was a Villain that Deku had to kill for the good of the world, that was still his father. Deku will feel compassion and guilt for Masanori.

Because Deku is a hero.

Manipulative? Yes. Is he unqualified for UA? Yes. But Masanori wants a chance at having more to life.

And Deku has to face what he (and All Might, and OFA) never actually did: resolve the continued rejection and ostracization problem in quirk society, and the cycle of Shimura tragedy

Because it's quickly obvious Masanori is just like his parents: given up on the world, given up on people. He's just not dangerous about it.

But his heart is empty. He has never been saved. And he no longer wants to be.

In other words: this time, Deku has to truly save someone that's been failed and rejected by this society he upholds. even if easy mode too because Masanori is not a villain. but is less receptive than a seven-year-old. or someone already having Pro-Hero aspirations

[satancopilotsmytardis]

Head Empty, Stuffed...

Pairing: Shigadabi

Rating: Explicit, 18+ only

Summary: Commissioned by @curufins-smile. Dabi has a hard time letting go in his and Shigaraki’s scenes until he starts pretending to be something he’s not. The escalation from that point to pretending to be nothing but a head-empty horny slut is not something he foresaw for himself, but he is absolutely not complaining when it makes him feel so good. 

Contents: BDSM, Dumbification, Bimbofication, Feminization, Lingerie, Edging, Orgasm Denial, Sex Toys, Masturbation, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Double Penetration, Creampie, Cock Cage, Dirty Talk, Degradation, Praise Kink, Daddy Kink, Prostate Milking, Spanking, Dacryphilia, Subspace

Word Count: 8,167

Dabi has, even after everything in his life has gone wrong, always been the kind of person who thinks he knows exactly how and where his life is going to go next. Maybe that innate sense is from how he was told he had purpose when he was born, maybe he is just someone who constantly seeks out a way to make his life mean something, but either way, he has always known what he would be. That thing has changed over the years, but visualizing his future was never something that he had trouble with. 

Tomura Shigaraki might be the only time Dabi has been thrown a curveball and left spinning on his ass as he tries to figure out where he's going from here. Dabi wasn't expecting Shigaraki to be anything other than a villain obsessed with his own goals when he first heard about the League. And then he hadn't been expecting him to be anything other than an entitled, loser, brat, gamer-bro villain who was being bankrolled by real power in villain circles and he would just be a tool for Dabi to use to get to his goals. And then he thought he was a worthless waste of space when AFO got arrested. And then he thought that maybe Shigaraki could actually be capable enough for him to be worth Dabi spending his time with after the Overhaul thing. It wasn't until he watched Duster tear down the city around them in Deika as he convinced the army that was standing against them that he could be a good leader and that hitching his horse to this wagon until his own inevitable end was truly a good idea. Dabi has had a lot of thoughts about Shigaraki over the months that they've known each other, but he absolutely didn't have any concrete ones about the other man’s sexuality until he was confronted with it.

"Grand Commander," The PLF member that spoke was a woman, in her early twenties, bright eyes, big tits, and a sweet smile that had not convinced Dabi that she was innocent and coquettish as she was trying to present herself as she immediately got a little too close to Shigaraki as she introduced herself. "It's so wonderful to see the new direction that you've taken the organization in so far." She said, completely ignoring Dabi who had been in the middle of trying to set a time for he and Shigaraki to go over what he'd missed since he spent two straight weeks getting healed by the doctor so that he wouldn't be limping around here on his cane or dying of gangrene from the fingers that had to be amputated. "I would love to spend some time together one-on-one and hear about the other ways that you plan to make changes." She batted her eyelashes and Dabi would have gagged if he weren't so flabbergasted that anyone would make a pass at Shigaraki of all people. "I have a combat quirk, so if you're cleared for more strenuous activities, we could also do some training together sometime." 

He'd opened his mouth to say something then, but Shigaraki had blatantly run his eyes up and down her body before he'd turned back to him. "We can meet in my office tomorrow at eight. I'll see you then." Before he turned and walked off with her. 

Dabi had gaped after him, but when the shock and indignation wore off, he had figured Duster had just never gotten any attention from a girl before and the socially isolated gamer was just begging for attention and his first taste of pussy. 

And then when he went back up to their wing of the villa after finishing all of his work for the day, he had heard her howling with her pleasure and begging for more through the walls until nearly two in the morning. Dabi had been just about to lose his mind, but thankfully, someone else spoke to Duster about the lackluster soundproofing in their rooms and he had contractors up there within the week to make sure the incident didn't repeat itself. 

So fine, Dabi acknowledged that Shigaraki fucks. He could also say that chick was putting on a good show for whatever status she didn't end up getting from fucking the new leader. But that didn't stop other people from trying it with Duster too. More girls, guys, people outside of the binary, and Shigaraki accepted a handful. Dabi couldn't even tell what the other liked, given that the people he took to bed had such a wide variety of different traits, worked in different departments, and had completely different styles. But whatever. Shigaraki's dick was his business, and Dabi was going to go back to ignoring it. He could admit that he didn't expect Shigaraki to be the kind who was able to pull but that wasn't going to impact his work. 

And then Shigaraki stopped seeing anyone else and Toga mentioned when he was helping her trim her hair that he smelled lovesick. The idea of their boss being so fucking influenced by his emotions like that had Dabi hording the knowledge like a knife in his back pocket. He thought that was fair given that they had tried to kill each other when they first met. 

It was bad form for him to pull it out when he was trying to go over work with Duster in his office and he noticed that the other man seemed a little distracted. 

"Put away the longing, hand job, I'm not just here to look pretty." He'd snapped and that had red eyes locking onto his with an intensity he hadn't been expecting. "Yeah, Toga told me about your crush, stop thinking about it when we're supposed to be working." He couldn't help pressing the advantage when he had it.

Shigaraki had tensed slightly and then he'd taken a slow breath, "What about outside of work?"

Dabi snorted and went back to the papers, "What you do with your dick outside of work isn't my concern unless you make it mine." 

Dabi had thought he was being pretty clear that he didn't give a fuck who Shigaraki, well, fucked, but when they finished their work and he stood up to leave and Shig had caught his wrist, stepped right into his space, wrapped a hand around the back of his neck just gently enough not to kill him before his mouth had been over his own and he was being devoured, Dabi realized that neither of them had been playing with a full deck.

He had changed his expectations about Shigaraki a lot since they met, and even more when he'd gotten his head out of his own ass and actually started dating him properly. But Dabi had not been able to anticipate how much he would want to change where he was going next or who he was when he was with Tomura. Not giving up his goals, or changing who he would be outside of their bedroom, but inside of it? Oh, he had no idea just how freeing it would be to not have to think about that future or have any expectations on him but his dom's. 

///

Dabi is going to kill someone. He might kill a lot of someones if he goes out this weekend to 'recruit' as they try to keep up the pretense that they still don't have the resources that they do now with the PLF. Besides, keeping the heroes, especially Hawks who is still trying to crawl back into his good graces after he blew up at him, and blew his tattered cover, when he pulled the sword on him after the High-End fight is a good thing. He should probably take a couple of days off and wander around in a city not too far from Fukuoka so that he thinks that he's just been slumming it there in the aftermath. After that, maybe he should try a gamble with the doctor. He's not going to turn him into a nomu now, not when that would get him the wrong kind of attention from the rest of the League, but maybe he could do something about the shitty medical care he's been able to get for himself since he left the hospital. At least Ujiko actually has a medical license. After that it would probably behoove him to take some time digging around the files that their spy in UA sent them. He hasn't heard much about his brother's studies since his internship started, not since that villain went to their house and Natsuo nearly got killed. He should also--

"Dabi." 

He blinks, looking up from his laptop where he was finishing writing the meeting notes so that none of the other lieutenants, i.e. Geten, can pretend to have 'forgotten' something that they talked about and then go about doing the same old bullshit that he used to before they rebranded. 

"I'm going to be home this weekend." He tells him easily, "Why don't you go get pretty and we can do something special tonight?" 

Dabi didn't realize that his mind had been running so quickly it had seeped tension throughout every inch of his body until his lover offers him a reprieve. "Fuck off." The words are practiced and vicious, but everyone just thinks that he's, as Toga says, a complete prude when it comes to showing anything about his and Duster's relationship outside of their bedroom. They think he's just being prickly because that's what he does and Tomura is teasing him about it because he likes to see the rise that he can get out of him. It's a good illusion to keep because Dabi quickly finishes up the memo so he can go straight upstairs and do exactly what Tomura wants. 

Dabi knows that no one in their right mind really would find him pretty, but thankfully, Shigaraki has bad taste and likes to play pretend with him. He likes to be in charge, likes to make sure that Dabi isn't thinking twenty steps ahead as he constantly rushes towards his own goals in the midst of their war. When they have time to be together, he wants it to just be them, not all of the screaming thoughts that race through his head when he gets like this. But being apart for another three weeks while his lover was getting treatments from the doctor and having to keep on top of everything in the PLF has taxed him in a way that he knows will only get worse if he doesn't take the relief that Tomura is offering him. Besides, now that they've found the right cocktail of play that they can use to give him that, he's more than eager to take it. 

Knocking down the wall between their rooms, soundproofing the new space, putting in a second walk-in closet, and expanding the ensuite had been a project that took two months, even with the ability to use all of their own people who are also more than happy to use their quirks to speed up the work. But now their room is theirs, made perfect for them when they're inside. The separate seating area with Shig's game setup and the TV, the massive bed with the custom headboard that Dabi has been locked into more than once, a big tub so he can soak in it when he's been worked over too thoroughly to move for himself, and of course, the second closet. 

This door is locked whenever they're not using it, both of them knowing that the chances of one of their friends barging into their room for something or another is still extremely high, and not wanting to compromise their privacy or Dabi's dignity by leaving it open. He has one key, Duster the other, and he goes over to the door and feels the last of his tension melt away as he turns it in the lock and hears that satisfying click ring through the room. Dabi enters the closet and immediately is hit with the smell of the soft floral perfume that is sitting on the vanity. Their normal closet is filled with their normal clothes. Tomura's suits, their villain shit, their casual clothes, and it is all just organized cleanly and neatly with an organizer that they essentially just dragged and dropped from some big online furniture store. That room is pragmatic, this room is for play. Dabi steps into the closet, the floor in this room carpeted with a thicker, plusher pale pink than the dull gray of the rest of their room. Three of the walls are covered with built-in drawers, racks, shelves, and cabinets to organize all of the things that they could ever need during play, from dildos, restraints, collars, and lube to leather, lingerie and heels. 

Dabi goes over to the section that is absolutely lined from end to end with... girl clothes. He had just about killed Tomura when he suggested it, but after having to safe word out of half a dozen scenes, and then dropping two times he pushed himself to keep them going when his head just could not get to where it needed to be, he was ready to try anything. Becoming Tomura's baby girl had not been something he thought he would like, but it... worked for him. Dabi knows what he is and what he's not, and having Tomura treat him so differently during their play when he already innately knew that he was wearing a costume had helped him to get his head on board with the kinks they were exploring more than any amount of negotiation ever had. So when Tomura tells him to get pretty, he knows that it's time for him to stop being him and for Dabi to start... being Daddy's baby girl. 

With how heavy his head has been for the past week, Dabi is more than ready to make things easier for himself by being Daddy's girl now, and he picks out his undergarments first. Different ones usually tell his Daddy what kinds of play he wants. The black strappy ones tell him that he wants him to be mean to him, the red ones beg for him to romance him and give him more pleasure than he thinks that his body can take, the white ask for him to be the one to corrupt him 'first', but Dabi passes over all of those and goes for the bubble gum pink set. His head is too big and heavy and he wants to be stupid for the weekend. He wants his body to feel good and to be able to look at himself and pretend that he's pretty. So he picks out a thin lacy pair of panties that make his cock and balls look so cute inside of them and a pink and white bra with push-up demi cups, the pillow-soft padding pushing the muscle of his chest up so that he looks softer there like he has a cute pair of tits nearly spilling over the edge of the cup trimmed with pink lace. He can't help running his hands up over his chest, biting his lower lip as he sees how much the undergarments alone have already changed how he looks and have made his head feel a little lighter. He can be cute like this. 

Dabi loves to go through the rest of the clothes. Daddy sometimes lets him go on shopping sprees with his credit cards, but sometimes he just buys him boxes of new clothes that Dabi doesn't get to see until he picks them out. It makes him feel so spoiled as he gets to walk up and down the rows and select his baby girl clothes for the day. Dabi's whole body goes hot when he sees the micromini skirt that has a little white petticoat attached to the underside that he knows will show his Daddy his ass if he moves at all and he takes that off of the hanger and shimmies into it, before picking a garter, ruffled headband, white stockings, and a pair of pretty heels that he has to sit on the big pink heart-shaped ottoman to put on. They make his legs look nice and push his weight onto his toes, giving him the illusion of a fuller butt beneath the skirt. He's so cute like this and he's a little giddy as he goes over to the vanity. He's already giggling to himself when he realizes that he can't actually pull his skirt low enough to sit on, his panties against the stool as he reaches for his makeup and perfume to make all of him softer.

He adds a fruity scent to his skin to soften the stressful tang of smoke that has been clinging to him after having to be responsible for so long while his Daddy was gone. Then he makes sure that his lashes are curled and there's mascara making them thicker and fuller, making his eyes pop, and covering his lips in a fruity pink sparkly gloss that makes his skin soft. He looks so cute like this. Toga would be jealous of how many cute clothes he has, how cute he gets to be when his Daddy takes care of him. He doesn't know when his Daddy is going to finish with things elsewhere and it's too hard to think about finding wherever he threw his phone when he got into the room, so Dabi stays at his vanity and picks out one of his pretty sparkly nail polishes too and starts to work on those as well. 

When they're all painted and all that's left is for him to wait for the top coat to fully cure, he gets up from the vanity and goes out into the rest of their bedroom. Daddy still isn't there and Dabi huffs and throws himself onto their black leather couch, trying to take the remote between his palms so that he doesn't mess up his nails. It's still hard to hit the right button to turn it on, and he immediately starts to scroll through the channels. The TV is always left on the news, but that makes his head full and he knows that baby girls are supposed to have empty heads and holes for their Daddies to fill. So he can't watch something like that. So he clicks through the channels, flitting between a shopping program and a saucy magical girl show that's only on one of the special channels his Daddy got on this TV for them to enjoy. Dabi wonders if his Daddy would buy him all of the pretty sparkly jewelry being advertised and then make him feel good with only that glittering on his body, but then they start to talk about a new air fryer and he switches to the magical girl show and watches as the domineering villain catches the hero with their legs spread wide around a bench that morphs into an undulating snake that starts to move through the city streets. The movements of the snake rub against the hero's crotch, sending waves of pleasure through them as they try to struggle out of their restraints and stop themself from getting so visibly aroused by the treatment as the villain lets the whole city see how humiliated and needy the hero actually is when it comes down to it. Tha has Dabi's clit starting to harden in his panties and he starts to squirm on the couch reaching down to palm himself through his panties. The soft lace puts so much texture against him as he squeezes himself and lets out a moan from how good that feels. 

"Already emptying that pretty head for me, princess?" Daddy asks as he shuts and locks their door. Dabi immediately squeezes himself again, spreading his legs wider so Daddy can see how cute he looks in his pretty clothes he bought him. 

"Uh-huh." 

"Did you finish sending that memo to everyone?" He asks as he starts to loosen his tie. 

Dabi blinks, his hand falling away from his crotch, "Yeah, Duster, wha--" 

Daddy clicks his tongue with clear derision. "Not empty enough yet, but that's okay, baby girl. Daddy is going to help you become the stupid, needy slut that you were made to be." 

Heat rushes fresh through his body, his clit starting to harden and his nipples pebbling inside of his bra as he lets out another needy moan at just the suggestion. Yes, yes, he wants that. He wants to be nothing but empty holes for his Daddy to fill. Daddy goes into the closet and Dabi sits up a bit more on the couch, checking to make sure his nails are dry so he doesn't make any messes that might distract him. When Daddy comes back out he's holding a new toy and a small case. It's a black pillow made of a velvety material that he recognizes as the waterproof kind that their favorite blanket is made of, and it has a strange plastic hole in the center. 

"I know that your head gets filled with so many thoughts when Daddy isn't here to make sure that you stay pretty and stupid, princess." He says, leaning down to press a kiss to Dabi's temple before he starts to arrange the cushion on the couch. Daddy then unzips the carrying case and takes out a dildo much smaller than his cock and Dabi pouts. He's gotten so spoiled from having his Daddy's cock that anything smaller feels like a punishment. Tomura chuckles when he sees his expression, "On your hands and knees, baby girl." He gives the order as he locks the dildo into the plastic housing on the pillow. Dabi immediately moves into the position he wants, and Daddy rubs his hands along his ass, his gloves already in place so he doesn't have to worry about Dabi hurting himself if he does something stupid like moaning and spreading his legs wider as he pushes back to try to get his Daddy to touch his pussy sooner. The biting slap that comes down over one cheek only makes his clit twitch hard in his panties and Dabi can't help how hot it makes him. 

Daddy doesn't even take his panties off, he just uses one hand to stretch them to the side, his other squirting icy lube against his hole so he's nice and wet for him. But he doesn't unzip his pants and give Dabi what he wants. Instead he presses a finger inside of him, making sure his insides are wet too and Dabi tries to entice him more by heating his body a little more with his quirk. That has Daddy pulling that finger out so he can land a spanking right against Dabi's pussy. 

"Naughty girl. Thinking you can manipulate me. Thinking," he clicks his tongue derisively and Dabi whimpers. "It's a good thing I came home when I did, otherwise you would have forgotten completely that good sluts aren't supposed to think." 

"I'm sorry, Daddy." He chirps, resisting the urge to push himself back into the touches so he can get more. 

"You're not going to be anything but an aching clit and a dripping cunt for me, soon, princess." Tomura promises him. "Because you're going to sit right here," He pulls Dabi up again and has him position himself over the smaller dildo. "You're going to sit here and watch the pretty colors on screen while your pussy gets all warmed up for Daddy's cock." He says before reaching back into the carrying case and taking out a little bullet vibrator. "You're going to tease your cute little clit until you're all wet in your panties and Daddy is sure that you don't have any thoughts rattling around in your head." Dabi's body goes warmer as his Daddy tells him what to do. "But if you cum before I give you permission, then Daddy is going to have to punish you, baby girl." 

"Okay, Daddy." 

"Good girl. Now let Daddy see you stretch your pussy." 

Dabi eagerly holds his panties aside as he sinks down on the false cock, letting it start to stretch him in a much less satisfying way than he knows his Daddy's cock will when he gets it. Then Daddy gives him the bullet and lets him turn it on. The vibrations that start to go through him as he reaches to rub it against his head has another moan immediately tumbling from his lips as his Daddy moves so he can see the TV again. He would have pouted as he realizes that Tomura is going to shower and change if not for the fact his Daddy takes one more thing out, a little black remote from his pocket. He clicks that on and Dabi keens as the pillow starts to move beneath his spread legs, the dildo starting to fuck into his hole slowly. He starts to move in time with it, his clit hardening so much his skirt is tenting and his panties are stretched as he starts to make himself feel so good. 

///

Dabi isn't sure how long his Daddy has left him like this. He doesn't know how many episodes of this show have flashed over the screen or how to count the number of times he's had to take the bullet away from his clit. His whole head is foggy, his body trembling. There is smoke leaking from his seams and the heat of his quirk is making his skin glisten with a thin sheen of sweat as his clit aches. His balls are so tight and the dildo inside of him has rendered his wall so sensitive that every slow mechanical thrust is leaving him on the verge of tears. He wants to cum so badly, but he can't. Daddy said he had to wait. But it's so hard to remember that when his whole body is so tight from forcing himself away from his completion again and again. 

He keeps running the bullet along himself, having to touch different parts of his oversensitive flesh so that he doesn't spill without permission, but the sharper that the vibrations begin to feel against him, the less he remembers that he's supposed to stop. Or, rather, the less he cares. He wants to feel good. Good girls bounce on cocks, they let their pussies do the thinking for them, they get to feel good all of the time. Dabi is a good girl. He's so cute when he sees himself in the reflection of the screen whenever it goes dark between scenes. He's cute, and good, and he is so, so horny. He wants to be allowed to feel good. Dabi feels himself getting close again and he can't make himself take the bullet away or try to angle himself up so that the toy inside of him isn't rocking so deliciously against his aching prostate anymore. He keeps the toys right where they are and he chases that good, good feeling that he's been starving himself of for the past however long he's been here. 

He is just about to tip over that final edge before both toys abruptly turn off completely. Dabi cries out, trying to push the dildo deeper inside of his pussy, trying to find a button on any part of the bullet, tears filling his eyes as his foggy head fails to make sense of what's happening. He was so, so close. He just needed a little more--

"Are you really such a stupid little bimbo that all of Daddy's orders leaked out of your ears like how your pre soaked your panties?" 

Just hearing Daddy's voice has him moaning, arching back against the couch so that he can rest his neck against the back of it and look up at him. Daddy's long hair is wet from his shower, his chest bare, and he smells so good that all he wants to do is shove his face against his skin as he brings their bodies as close together as he can. 

Daddy doesn't make him try to speak, reaching down to take the bullet from his hand and then rubbing his fingers along Dabi's clit through the lace that is sticky and so wet from how many times he's gotten so close that there is a puddle on the cushion where he's been riding the toy. "But you did get all wet for Daddy without cumming, which means that you don't have to be punished." 

"Thank you, Daddy," he chirps automatically. He doesn't like it when he gets punished. Not when that means he doesn't get to feel good the way that Daddy always makes him when he's good. 

"Take off your panties, baby girl." Daddy tells him, straightening up so that he can come around the side of the couch. 

Dabi tries to move quickly, but his legs are so weak from riding the toy that it takes him a second to even just stand. And when he does, he nearly collapses into Tomura, but thankfully his Daddy is so strong and sure that he catches him. Dabi can't help giggling as he teeters a little on his heels and that makes Daddy smile too. 

"My ditzy little girl." 

"Uh-huh," He agrees, but manages to get his feet under him so that Daddy can sit on the couch. Tomura was only in a towel, and he sheds that as he sits, letting Dabi see every inch of him. His whole brain feels hot and soupy as his eyes drag along his Daddy's body. Over the swell of his pecks, the strong line of his shoulders, his thick arms, cut stomach, the sharp v of his hips that lead the eye to muscular thighs and the thick, long cock that hangs between them. Dabi's pussy can't actually drip just from seeing him, but he knows that it would if it could. As is, his clitty is twitching in his panties again, and he needs to get out of the scrap of lace that is confining him now. As he shimmies the soaked fabric off of him, trying to do it without getting the icky mess on his stockings or shoes, Daddy opens the lube and pours some into his own palm, reaching for his pretty cock and starting to stroke himself as he watches Dabi partially strip. 

"You look so cute like this, princess. Turn around." 

Dabi is more than eager to turn for him, giving a little spin that makes him stumble on his weak legs before he fully turns away from Tomura. 

"Bend over, baby girl. Let Daddy see how pink your pussy is." 

Dabi has to brace one hand against the coffee table as he folds over at the waist immediately, his other one going to his ass as he feels his skirt pull up to expose most of him. He doesn't bother trying to tug it down, he wants to show Daddy how hungry his pussy is, and he spreads his cheek open with the other hand, feeling some of the lube from the dildo slip out and drip along his taint. 

"Mm, so cute, all pink and puffy like that, princess. Daddy is going to make you do the same thing when he's all finished filling up your slutty little holes. Gonna take a picture and make it the background on all of your devices so that every time you open one, you remember that you're not supposed to be anything but my needy little cumdump." 

"Daddy," it's not a protest. It's a moan, a plea, as he has to quickly lift his hand from the table to push his skirt hard against his clit as it gushes another stream of pre as the thought of never forgetting this makes him so warm. 

"Did that get you so close, princess?" Daddy's voice is mocking, but when he looks over his shoulder to nod weakly, he sees that he's smiling. "Okay, baby girl, come here." 

Dabi straightens up right away, his skirt pushed up around his clit that's so hard that he's going to turn purple soon, as Daddy leans over the back of the couch to pull another box up from the other side. He stands in front of his Daddy, trying so hard to think through the fog enough to find his words. "I wanna be yours Daddy." 

Tomura pauses with one hand in the box. "You're already mine, princess." 

"Like this." He admits, feeling warmth in his cheeks as he plays with one of the layers of his little skirt. 

"Oh?" He stops stroking himself, his cock hard now and making Dabi's head dizzy with arousal as he licks his lips, knowing that he will taste so good if he takes him into his mouth instead of his aching cunt. Tomura wraps his hand around Dabi's hip and pulls him between his spread thighs. "You want to be Daddy's just like this? Not the scheming little brat, just Daddy's good, dumb, horny slut that doesn't think about anything but getting his pussy filled?" 

He can't hide how badly he wants that when his whole body trembles and Daddy can see how the words immediately have thick drops of pre beading on his head and dripping over his skin. 

"You can be Daddy's dumb slut all the time, princess." He purrs. "But you'll have to be trained properly. Right now you're such a needy little bitch, you wouldn't be able to walk around in all of your cute little outfits without being tricked into letting someone else touch you and you're Daddy's set of holes." 

"I'll be good, Daddy." 

"We're going to see about that. I have something that you'd need to wear until I know that you wouldn't let anyone else touch, and so I know that my silly little girl won't get so distracted from his own cute clit that he touches himself without permission. If you can wear it for the rest of the weekend, then Daddy will let you wear some of your princess clothes out on Monday." 

"Okay, Daddy!" He agrees immediately. He wants to wear more of his cute clothes. He wants to have his pussy filled. He wants to have his skirts on so that Daddy can decide when he wants him wherever they are and he can bend over for him to fill or drop to his knees right there so he can get his mouth splattered with his cum. 

The smile Daddy gives him is so sweet the second before the grip on his hip goes bruising. It goes so tight to keep him in place as Daddy takes the ice pack from the box and presses it directly to his clit and balls, the heat of Dabi's skin so intense and the sharpness of the chill so bright that a hiss goes through the air before he squeals as it instantly starts to melt against him. The cold bites at his princess parts and makes his arousal from there ebb so sharply that Dabi's eyes are filling with tears and his whole mind goes cloudy with heartbreak. He was being a good girl, wasn't he? So why is his Daddy hurting him like this?

The sob that tears out of him is shushed by his Daddy. "It's okay, baby girl. Daddy just wants to see you little." 

He doesn't want to be little, he wants to cum, but then Daddy takes away the ice pack when he's all soft and as small as he can go from how badly his body reacted to the cold. Before he can find words, Daddy exchanges the pack for a pink silicone... thingy. Dabi hasn't seen a thing like that before. It looks like a little cup with a ring on one side of it and a little slit going through the tip. Daddy pulls him closer again and he slips his clitty into the tube part before the ring goes around his balls. The tube is textureless inside and once his balls are in place and the sleeve is pulled to the right position, Dabi is squirming again because it feels... little. Not too tight, but it's hugging every part of his clit and he doesn't understand what this toy is for. Daddy uses a little pink padlock to snap the two pieces together and lock them in place. He looks down, reaching for the hem of his skirt so he can see that his clit has been pressed small and tight to his body in a way he hasn't ever had done before. It looks... different.

"There, princess, look at how cute you are in that pretty pink clit cage." Daddy coos at him. 

Dabi manages a sniffle. "Cute?" The rest of the words flow through his mind and out the other ear. 

Daddy smiles so sweetly. "Absolutely adorable, baby girl. So cute that Daddy doesn't want to wait to have your tight little pussy any more. Come here, precious, in my lap. Daddy wants to watch your pretty tits bounce." 

The compliments make his head feel much softer than it did a minute ago and he climbs into Daddy's lap eagerly. He's even happier when he doesn't have to lift himself into the right position. His Daddy is so strong now with all of his special quirks, so Daddy lifts him, hooking Dabi's knees over his shoulders, and bracing him with one hand against his thigh and the other arm supporting him around his lower back. Then he starts to lower Dabi down onto his cock like he's nothing but a fucktoy. Dabi moans at the first press of his thick head against his hole, the sharpness of the ice and strangeness of the clit cage enough to have distracted him from how badly his insides wanted to be stretched properly after being teased with the little toy for so long. 

That arousal comes flooding back now but... it can't go to his clit. Dabi keens, looking down at his heaving chest as Daddy sinks him all the way along his length so hard that his tits really do bounce. Dabi gets distracted by the movement for a second, liking the way that he looks in the push-up bra as he jiggles. But then Daddy draws him back up and slams him right back down. The movement of the toy had been slow and aiming to abuse his prostate constantly, but now he's so worked up that these harder, deeper thrusts, brush past it and make him see stars as those untouched, unstretched parts of his pussy are made to take the brunt of the stimulation now. And it's good, it's so, so good, but it doesn't have his clit filling after being chilled. It has his whole body tingling hotter because his arousal can't go where he's used to it. Dabi wants to find words, wants to figure out how he's supposed to cum with the cage on, but Daddy doesn't slow down. He pushes in harder and harder on every thrust, faster and faster as he drags Dabi's body down into them rather than letting gravity take any of the work. 

All he can do is moan, reaching for Daddy's hair, tangling his fingers in it and getting even louder when he manages to drag him in closer so that Daddy puts his mouth on his bouncing tits. He catches the center of the bra between his teeth and tugs it down as he lifts Dabi high along his cock, making his tits pop out over the top of the cups when he's tugged back down roughly a second later. With his nipples exposed, Daddy wastes no time in bringing his mouth there, sucking and tugging his piercings with his teeth until his tits are aching almost as badly as his clit that still isn't being allowed to get hard in the tight silicone that is trapping it. Dabi doesn't know if he's ever whined and howled at the way his body feels as he's made to experience his arousal in a completely new way, but every pulse of pleasure through his body that isn't allowed to go to his clit heightens the sensations elsewhere.

He wants to cum so badly, he's wanted to cum for forever now, surely. It's been years at this point, surely, but Daddy doesn't let him. The tight hold on his clit doesn't let him. He just has to writhe as his tits are tortured and his cunt is fucked so roughly, so perfectly, his whole body folded in on himself so that he can be made the perfect toy to satisfy his Daddy's needs. He likes to be used for his needs, so when Daddy keeps fucking him hard as Dabi's own frustration sends sharp tears along his cheeks again, he does get a little relief and satisfaction when Tomura's mouth shifts from his tits to his cheeks so that he can lick away the bloody tracks of tears before he fucks up into him hard one more time before Dabi is mewling as he's filled with Daddy's cum. His whole body is so hot that the thick splash of his seed spilling deep feels cool inside as he is held in place to be pumped full. 

"Mm, fuck, princess. Love your pussy so much, don't know how I'm going to get anything done if you're walking around so eager to get filled like this again. Maybe Daddy will need to buy you a few longer skirts so that you can sit in his lap all throughout our meetings. Gonna have to teach you to be quiet if I do though, because I don't think my stupid little slut will be able to stop himself from babbling to everyone about how much he likes to warm his Daddy's cock." 

Tomura just came, but Dabi still hasn't been allowed to and he is trembling hard in his lap, sobbing with his need as his hand goes down to his clitty. He tries to tug at the tight ring around his balls, the tighter sleeve that keeps him small and soft no matter how badly he wants to cum, and neither budge. When he can't get them off he tries to rub himself, squeeze himself, through the silicone, and Daddy laughs at his desperation. 

"You have to keep it on if you want to stay Daddy's little slut forever." He teases. "You're practicing to be a good girl on Monday, aren't you, baby girl?" 

"I wanna cum, Daddy," he whines desperately. "I wanna feel good." It's sheer petulance when he keeps trying to rub himself off fruitlessly as he sobs. "Dumb whores are supposed to feel good! Pretty princesses are supposed to get spoiled!" He's supposed to be both of those things. He made himself a pretty princess for Daddy today by picking out his pink panties. He made himself dumb by emptying his head of anything but the gratification that he's been craving for so long now. He wants to have what he was promised right now! 

Daddy laughs at him and makes Dabi squeal as he sinks two fingers into his pussy right alongside his softening cock. The extra stretch has Dabi keening, his toes curling as he feels some of Tomu's cum gush out of his abused pussy. But then those fingers are crooking and rubbing. Like the toy before, they find his prostate and start to prod at it relentlessly. "You're going to do something else today, baby girl. Daddy is going to show you something that will make you even better at being his good little slut. Something that will make him so happy and that will make sure that your needy body learns that it only gets to feel good when Daddy says so. This way you won't ever get so distracted from your own tits or how cute you are and start to touch yourself. You want to be a perfect little slut for Daddy, don't you?" Daddy doesn't wait for his response, rubbing his fingers inside of him deliberately again. "Don't worry baby girl, you don't actually have to listen to any of that, I know it would be too much for you to process right now when Daddy's made sure that your pussy is so full and your head is nice and empty." 

Dabi keens in response, rocking down harder on the fingers as best he can, his head is too foggy to make sense of Daddy's words. He just wants whatever pleasure he can get from him. 

"Come on, princess," he coos, "Just let go. You aren't anything but what I make you now. And I want to see my little girl squirt." 

His body doesn't feel the same way it ever has before when his arousal peaks. It doesn't send pleasure pulsing along his clit, it doesn't even feel like the good, satisfying full-body sensation that comes from when his Daddy makes him cum from his pussy instead. No, this sends that heat that was burning up under his skin to deep inside of him, aching at his root even though his clit is still held soft in the cage, before he's letting out a higher pitched, embarrassed moan as all of the sudden his clit is spilling everywhere. It doesn't pulse out a few spurts of thick white cum, instead a thin pearly liquid starts to stream from the hole at the tip of his cage, Daddy shifting their positions then to lay Dabi back against the couch as he keeps rubbing his fingers hard against his swollen prostate with one hand and his other, now free, hand reaches to his clit and teases his slit as he spills, and spills, and spills. Dabi's whole body trembles as he makes a big mess, so much more fluid coming out of him than he's ever felt before and leaving him absolutely breathless as the burn of arousal in him only seems half satisfied when it finally stops. 

"Mm, there, such a good little whore. Spread yourself open for Daddy, baby girl." Tomu demands as he pulls his fingers out of his hole and wipes his cum off on Dabi's skirt. He feels so dazed, but he follows the instructions automatically, one leg falling open so far it slips off the edge of the couch. Dabi reaches down and makes sure his pussy is as spread as it can be, shivering as he feels how wet he is, soaked with everything that came out when he... squirted, and all of Daddy's cum spilling out too. Daddy reaches over for his phone and doesn't hesitate to take pictures of him while he's so dazed and messy. "There, baby girl. You look so cute like that." He sets the device aside and then regards the huge mess that they've made of the couch. 

It's a sharp relief when Daddy doesn't try to make him put his head back on straight, instead standing so that he can lean down and pluck Dabi from the couch. 

"I know it's going to take more than one time to make sure my baby girl is trained properly. But that's okay, I think that you still have enough energy for Daddy to smudge your pretty lipstick, don't you, princess?" 

Dabi doesn't even really hear the words. He just sees his Daddy smiling down at him sweetly and nods along. His head is too empty to try to think for himself. It's such a good thing he has a Daddy to do it for him instead. 

///

Thank fucking god Duster doesn't take the shit he does when he's completely in bimbo mode to heart without actually checking in with him, because Dabi would have killed them both if he'd come out of the headspace in the middle of a meeting when one of the other lieutenants said something stupid only to realize he was dressed like a girl. Thank god he can say 'no' to the things he might have said 'yes' to when he was absolutely desperate for all of the good floaty feelings that come for him when he's in his subspace. So when Monday rolls around he is back to doing his work with the efficiency that he always has, in his usual villain gear. 

But maybe it's just another testament to how completely Tomura has thrown a monkey wrench into his plans for himself and who he thought he would be leading up to his death, because beneath his dark pants, the soft pair of pink satin panties and the tight cock cage that is keeping him cute and small for his Daddy are keeping him aware of what else he'll become whenever he has a chance. 

Thank you so much for reading! If you enjoyed please consider leaving a comment/ask. If you'd like to get a commission, consider checking out my guidelines at the bottom of my pinned post! Commissions are half price until the end of March!

[endeavorsbiggesthater]

Just got done killing arresting some PLF soldiers

k 👍

[class1akids]

I wanted shigaraki to live so we can address “what now” with different victims of hero society… Someone said something like suicide squad and I don’t know. If foreign aid arrives after the defeat of afo, I don’t think that makes sense. But in the future maybe? I saw another say something about the lov escaping and I think that goes against what the story tries to say about owning up to one’s actions. But the story has failed in that department too so anything goes at this point.

Despite the whiplash, there are some very direct promises in this chapter that things won't go back to the status quo:

The doctor's panel put right under the rebuilding efforts.

2. Deku thinking of Shigaraki being the leader of the villains till the end (and are we sure it is with negative judgement?) and entrusting Deku and his friends with what to make out of the destruction:

3. Deku talking about how the end of the war doesn't automatically mean peace, and that the bright future has to be delivered, while we get the overview of Shoto looking through glass in the hospital (Toya), Spinner's scales on a medical tray and Ochako looking through the window (Toga). The way the panels are placed strongly suggest that the "bright future" includes figuring out what to do about the villains.

4. Horikoshi's author comment committing to a post-war arc - and acknowledging that after the fighting comes the rebuilding and that new era he promised.

So I guess let's see how he delivers on it. I have fairly low expectations and think that much of the epilogue will be spent with crowd-pleasing, cutesy, sentimental scenes like Eri singing. But I'm confident that he'll try to address the villains' fate as well.

I agree that - unlike post-PLF War - a suicide squad makes no sense tbh. But Tomura being the "hero of the LoV" should come with some kind of pay-off and I think the fact that he helped beat AFO could help with public perception to a more rehabilitative justice in the end.

I don't think that the LoV escaped, but I could see Hawks becoming HPSC president and offering Toga a deal of some sort to train to become an underground hero. Spinner's fate is tricky because he was the posterboy of the heteromorph uprising and treating him too harshly could really ignite those crowds, so I could see him get leniency in view of how he was treated.

Touya is the toughest, as he's not shown publicly much redeeming qualities, but I could see Endeavor taking responsibility for Touya's actions, leveraging his service to the public / exchanging his hero work for trying to get him a rehab clinic or a house arrest, rather than Tartarus. Shouto being the face of saving everyone at Gunga may also help.

Like I really don't expect the villains to fully escape prison / confinement. Even the reformed villains like Gentle and Nagant served prison time. But I think it's important how that time is spent, if they are given the tools / support to change and heal and prospect to rejoin society that will be livable for them.

[kelin-is-writing]

Since we hate hawks, imagine after he killed twice, he’s fighting Dabi but it goes differently from canon. He’s telling Dabi how the league will be arrested, he and the heroes will put a stop to the plf, and THEN has the audacity to say, “and I’ll be taking your girl too ‘cause she deserves better than a lowlife villain”

That’s when the kill bill sirens go off in Dabi’s head

OHMYFUCKINGGOD YES!!!!!! anon you a real one lemme tell you 😌🤌🏻

dabi was already pissed to his limits even before that garbage opens his annoying and hypocritical mouth, but he’s holding back for the sake of his plan, it doesn’t help that fact that he hates him to the core like– he can’t even see the heroe’s ugly face from how much it makes him hurl.

what makes him snap completely though is when that piece of trash dares to spit out from his filthy and shitty mouth that he’s gonna take you, make you his and even going as far as to say that he’s gonna satisfy you more than a lowlife like him would, dabi is seeing red.

ohh this m*therf*cker doesn’t values his life at all, he thinks scoffing a breathless laugh letting his head tilt down.

suddenly dabi is glaring up at him with the darkest glint he has ever had, mouth curled into a spiteful grimace as the villain’s voice dropped low “a piece of filthy trash like you? with her? don’t make me laugh.”, and in a second the whole room has already went ablaze, blue flames roaring inside those four walls hotter than usual, as he walks closer to the wounded ‘hero’ and stomps mercilessly with his boots onto his face, smashing the sole of it against his cheek until he didn’t start to bleed “ohh you did your numbers so wrong, hero, after that crap the only way you gonna get out of here is in ash, bastard.”, and dabi is a man of word.

because his princess deserves way better than garbage such as that.

[jp---v]

Speaking of the Meta Army.

They did quite poorly in the 1st War.

I know they were included just to make the League look good. But you would think they could have contributed more in the battle.

Right? Like, they were somewhat introduced as the League's way of getting funding after AfO got imprisoned. At least three massive corporations were pouring funding into them, including Detnerat, which was a support item company.

After merging the League of Villains and Meta Liberation Army into the Paranormal Liberation Front, the members of the League should've been decked out.

The "warriors" that had allegedly trained beyond heroes were all useless in the fight when it came down to it. Thousands were arrested and Twice died. Sure, there were heroes that died too, but those were from mostly from Shigaraki. Hell, even the location they were using was separate from the MLA/PLF. It was Ujiko's lab.

They provided practically nothing but some new outfits, a bit of medical care(from the injuries they gave the League), and some stable food and shelter.

[ladycry19]

Villain AU ramble.

Im not fully caught up with mango yet but based on what I've seen ima write my thoughts on where Morgan is through the final fight.

I think she ends up getting pushed with Toga. This may be subject to change the more I catch up with the mango. Either way, she's separated from Tomura but that's fine, they've got important matters to tend to.

Background: Oboro and Morgan are childhood friends. That stays the same in both villain AU and Canon. Shes dropped out of UA after their first year, so she isn't around when he actually dies, but she does hear about it, and it tore her apart. She goes to his funeral and everything, and it all just Makes her hate the hero system more now that it has rejected her and killed her best friend.

But she has NO idea about Kurogiri. After the PLF attack, Morgan gets arrested. since her, Aizawa, and Mic all were in the same class together in their first year, the police ask them to help interrogate her, hoping they can get her to talk. But she refuses, and if anything she says spiteful and mean things at them.

After some time, Aizawa tells her about Kurogiri. About how he's a Nomu, with Oboro, their friend, her childhood friend, is the base for the the Nomu, created by Garaki and AFO

And Morgan is distraught and disgusted and horrified. Horrified that her dear friend couldn't rest properly, horrified that she's been WITH him this whole time, and she never knew...

It tears her apart, and she spirals. But eventually Tomura saves her from police custody, and she focuses on the matter at hand, Helping and support Tomura.

So back the current fight, when Kurogiri suddenly appears, he asks Toga what she wants, and he asks Morgan what she wants.

As soon as she sees him, she feels that disgust and horrid feeling come back, and she remembers everything Aizawa told her.

She KNOWS she should ask to be taken to Tomura. She should be supporting him, by his side and helping him in the fight... She should be helping her friends in their fights, helping Toga.

But instead, she let's her anguish and despair and desire for revenge choose for her.

"Take me to Garaki." She says instead. To everyone it seems like she plans on rescuing the good doctor. Even Kurogiri doesn't question it.

And when she appears, the doctor is all smiles and joy and he's like "Morgan, my dear! Come to save me? Did AFO send you? How kind of you guys to think of me during your big fight."

And she doesn't say anything to him, but she has this look of utter malice in her eyes. As soon as she sees the good doctor, she attacks him and just starts stabbing him, multiple times, harshly, practically torturing the man and k!lling him slow and in the most painful way possible.

For Kurogiri. For Oboro. Her dear best friend who couldn't rest properly because of Garaki.

[stillness-in-green]

Counting Cliffhangers: The Heroes Are Not the Underdogs in BNHA's War Arcs

(Being a project to tally up which side, if either, of Team Hero or Team Villain is "on top" at the end of each chapter in the war arcs, in consideration of the impact of the overall totals. This is one of those mega-long list posts; do not click the Expand/Read More unless you're prepared for a lot of reading and/or scrolling.)

One of the things that bothered me throughout both of the war arcs was the persistent sense that, for all that the manga was trying very hard to convince me that the Heroes were up against the wall and really having to give it everything they had, I never really felt that level of danger.  Of course, one always expects a degree of that—it’s not as though any sensible reader would really think this manga could end with the Villains winning!—but the problem went beyond that.  Expecting that the protagonist will win out in the end is the standard, after all, but good stories still find ways to keep readers engaged and believing in the stakes.

So why didn’t I?  I certainly believed in the stakes for the Villains—Twice’s death happens very early in the first war, and it sets the stakes quite clearly!  Was it just the difference between my own engagement with the Villains compared to the Heroes?  That didn’t seem quite right—even if I cared about one side for more than the other, it shouldn’t have been the case that that affection alone was skewing my suspension of disbelief about the dangers faced by the Heroes.  The threat posed to Midnight certainly seemed real enough, as was also the case for the Heroes left trampled in Gigantomachia’s wake, like Gang Orca and Fatgum.  As I’ve had to tell the occasional asker here before, just because I don’t particularly care about a character doesn’t mean I become incapable of evaluating their story beats!

What was the problem, then?  Why did the dangers to the Villains seem so desperately real, while the dangers to the Heroes, for the most part, just had me rolling my eyes and waiting for the next asspull that would save them?

I think there are two primary factors.  The first and biggest factor is simply baked into the worldbuilding and the decisions made in the writing: the sides are poorly matched.  I’m not going to go into all of that here, but as a thought exercise, go through the arcs of the story that contain active conflict and consider which side has the advantage in each of the following categories: individual combatant quality (stuff like raw power, endurance, and training/experience to improve upon their inherent capabilities), equipment quality, information about the opponent, ability to set the terms of engagement, and raw numbers of warm bodies to throw at a fight. 

By my measure, much of the early confrontations in BNHA work because these advantages are divided evenly between the Heroes and Villains.  Likewise, My Villain Academia is so gripping because the Meta Liberation Army has virtually every advantage over the League, making the League really and truly feel like the underdogs in the fight.  Conversely, the Heroes are the ones with virtually every advantage in the war arcs,[1] meaning they cannot convincingly be the underdogs the story so desperately wants us to believe they are.

1:  I swear I’m not going to go into all of it, at least not in this post, but to be very brief, I think the only advantages the Villains could even kind of claim during the war arcs are numbers and combatant quality.  The numbers advantage is mostly illusory; the PLF are leveled in the cursory mass arrest of the first war and, despite repeated insistence otherwise, the only place where the Villains’ numbers are a true threat in the second war is at the hospital attack, where said numbers consist chiefly of untrained and easily swayed civilians in a battle it’s desperately unclear why the Heroes allowed to take place at all.  The quality advantage, meanwhile, is heavily concentrated in only a handful of hard-hitting, A-to-S-rank threats on the Villains’ side, while the Heroes maintain clear quality supremacy in rank-and-file or side character battles.

The other factor, and the one this post concerns, is the structure of the chapters themselves, to wit, the way that they end.  In a serialized story being published and read week to week, each installment’s ending is a crucial factor in the story’s overall tone.  What happens on the last page is a major factor in the impact each chapter makes, the feeling the reader is left with while they wait for the next part.  If the intent, therefore, is for the Heroes to feel threatened, pushed to the very edge of their endurance, then a very basic thing needs to be observed: don’t end every fucking chapter with the Heroes having the fucking advantage.

I’m so serious here, guys.  It’s not that the Villains never have the advantage, never get twists or reveals or reinforcements that turn the tide of the battle in their favor.  It’s that, by and large, those advantages come in the middle of chapters, while the Heroes’ twists and reveals and reinforcements get the benefit of being at the end of chapters, so the dominant feeling—the side that’s left wildly cheering for their “team” at the end of the week—is usually the Heroes.  While it’s possible that the impression left is different when reading the story in volume form,[2] when reading week to week, that imbalance critically damages the story’s ability to portray the desperation and strain of the Heroes’ struggle.

2: Having not read the arcs in this fashion, I couldn't say. Obviously I don't know how a volume-only reader would experience this aspect of the story, but even reading (or rereading) a bunch of chapters all in one go online suffers from some impaired momentum between chapters by having to specifically navigate to the next chapter webpage and wait for it to load rather than just being able to turn pages freely.

That, in any case, was my thesis when I first started this count, listing which side has the upper hand at the end of each chapter of the two war arcs, as well as the total overall.  With the second war arc finally having ended, I figured I’d go ahead and post my results. 

Hit the jump!

For each arc, I started counting at the chapter where active conflict breaks out, including as a dramatic end cliffhanger.  Thus, for the first war, I didn’t start in Chapter 258, where the groups are still gathering, but rather in Chapter 259, when the forward momentum begins and the first Villain (Ujiko) is confronted.  Likewise, the second war count begins with Chapter 343, when the armies confront each other.  The counts end with the last chapter containing active Hero/Villain conflict rather than narrated montage.  Thus, the first war ends in 295, when AFO and the League flee the field, not in 296 with the looming threat of the long-awaited jailbreak.  The second war ends with Deku’s weather-clearing fist in 423.

My basic categories are Hero Advantage, Villain Advantage, and Neither.  Fake-outs are categorized as they are perceived in the moment of reading them, not as they read in retrospect.  Further, I do not categorize based on the overall tenor of the chapter, but only the impact of the final page.  This is by nature somewhat subjective, but I’ve done my best to call them as I think they’re meant to be read.

What is the feeling the reader takes with them into the next chapter?  Excitement for the heroes?  Dismay and fear?  A simmering tension?  Which side, if either, got the HELL YEAH HELL YEAH fist-pump?  If there's a relative clear answer, I'll call it for one side of the other; chapters that end with no particular new reveals, arrivals, power-ups, or other such shifts in the tides with be called as neither.

Finally, for ease of tracking and reading, my tallies and accompanying brief explanations are separated by volume. I'll provide totals for each category at the end of each volume, and full totals, as well as a total count for which category the volumes end in, at the end of the arcs. Final counts and commentary will close the post.

Let's get started.

FIRST WAR ARC

Volume 27: 259: Hero Advantage.  Endeavor and company confront (apparently) Ujiko, catching him completely flat-footed.

260: Hero.  Mirko crashes into Ujiko’s lab, to his horror, and kills John-chan in doing so.

261: Neither.  Mirko and the High Ends square up for their Round 2.

262: Hero.  The Villa gets cracked open like an egg, catching its inhabitants entirely off-guard.

263: Hero.  If they were on more level footing, I’d call this Neither, but given the positions Hawks and Twice end the chapter in, and the clear difference in emotional preparedness, this one goes to the Heroes.

264: Neither.  The Hawks/Twice fight continues inconclusively; Dabi is revealed to be on his way, but has not yet arrived on-scene to affect any changes.

265: Villain.  Dabi makes a strong and, for Hawks, unexpected entrance, pinning Hawks beneath his boot.

266: Neither.  Twice dies, which is a huge hit to the Villains, but the narrative sympathy is so clearly with Twice and Toga that it’s impossible to describe the chapter as ending on a fist-pumping note for anyone.

267: Hero.  Doubly so, as Endeavor and Tokoyami both show up to intervene in fights that were about to go to the villains, but we'll be fair and only count it as one anyway.

                   Heroes 5 | Villains 1 | Neither 3 | Total 9     

Volume 28: 268: Neither.  Basement action.  The tube gets cracked; Aizawa and Mic are told not to let Shigaraki wake up.  Nothing conclusive.

269: Hero Advantage.  Literally ends with Ujiko wailing that the Lord of Evil’s dream is over.

270: Villain.  It ends with Deku getting a warning about Shigaraki, which makes it a bit borderline, but Shigaraki being awake at all has to count for the Villains.

271: Villain.  Gigantomachia stands up.

272: Neither.  The kids start rallying against the Decay wave.  Deku gets a new move that doesn’t seem like it should have any effect but is played as being effective.  Shigaraki’s Decay wave is being monstrously effective, even apocalyptic, but the tone of the last page is ambiguous.

273: Neither.  Shigaraki faces off with Endeavor.  Both are known factors on this field of battle.

274: Neither.  Deku is on the move in hopes of leading Shigaraki to a more deserted area.

275: Hero.  Aizawa arrives at the Shigaraki fight, locking down his quirk use.

276: Hero.  Deku and Bakugou arrive in time to save Aizawa from what likely would have been the same kind of blow that will later cost him his eye.

                   Heroes 3 | Villains 2 | Neither 4 | Total 9     

Volume 29: 277: Neither.  Mount Lady attempts to stop Gigantomachia.  Results inconclusive; both known factors.

278: Neither.  Leans a bit Hero side because it’s Momo dramatically getting her head on straight, but it’s really just more preparations for a face-off.

279: Hero Advantage.  The League is getting swarmed and Mina is on the brink of delivering what’s framed as a knock-out blow to Machia.

280: Neither.  Shigaraki laboriously gathers himself, preparing to monologue.

281: Villain.  Shigaraki readies a quirk-destroying bullet with Aizawa’s name on it.

282: Villain.  Gigantomachia, who is very much not knocked out,  looms over an unsuspecting city.

283: Hero.  Deku negates the (immediate) danger of Decay by activating Float.

284: Hero.  Deku lands a full-power blow on Shigaraki, who’s been largely unable to fend him off in the air.

285: Villain.  It pains me to grant this because I knew good and well Bakugou would be completely fine.  But he is a major combatant and face for the Hero side and this is clearly intended to look like it will take him out, at least for the fight.

                   Heroes 3 | Villains 3 | Neither 3 | Total 9     

Volume 30: 286: Hero Advantage.  The action moves to the vestige realm.  Very borderline, but Nana’s words are definitive: “Let us handle this.”  The implication is very much that there’s no need to fear because the vestiges have got this.

287: Neither.  Chapter ends with Toga reflecting on heroes and the weight they give to the lives of Villains.  Could represent a major turning point for Toga, but it’s still soft-pedaled by making that turning point dependent on a Hero’s yet-unspoken words.

288: Neither.  Chapter ends mid-dialogue in the Toga/Ochaco fight.

289: Villain.  Machia and his passengers arrive.

290: Villain.  A little borderline because the actual very last panel is the plane containing Best Jeanist, but the audience doesn’t know that yet, and the bulk of the final page is dedicated the devastation of the Touya Reveal, so I have to give this one to them.

291: Hero.  Best Jeanist arrives.

292: Hero.  Mirio arrives with his quirk restored.

293: Hero.  Machia goes down because the sedative finally kicks in.

294: Villain.  Mr. Compress backstory reveal and big escape moment.

295: Neither.  The battle ends save for the wrap-up.  The villains are neither victorious nor defeated.

                   Heroes 4 | Villains 3 | Neither 3 | Total 10

FIRST WAR TOTAL: Heroes 15 | Villains 9 | Neither 13 | Total 37 Volume End Advantage Count: Heroes 2  |  Villains 1  |  Neither 1

                       

SECOND WAR ARC

Volume 35: 343: Hero Advantage.  The Heroes counter AFO’s army by “unexpectedly” whipping out their own via Warp Gate.

344: Hero.  The Heroes take the offensive and split up the villains’ army.

345: Villain.  Toga lassos Deku through a gate, separating him from the field he’s supposed to be on.

346: Villain.  The beginning of Fingervetr.

347: Neither.  Borderline because it’s a big dramatic page of Toga, but it’s more conversational then confrontational to me, and isn’t revealing anything particularly new.

348: Neither.  Deku flees the island, leaving Toga to Ochaco.

349: Neither.  Dabi gears up to provide the answers Shouto has specifically asked for.

350: Neither.  Dabi’s coming on strong, but Shouto remains undaunted.  I’d give it to the Villains if the last page were Dabi liquidating the All Might statue, though.

                   Heroes 2 | Villains 2 | Neither 4 | Total 8                    

Volume 36: 351: Hero Advantage.  Shouto unleashes Phosphor.

352: Hero.  Shouto appears to beat Dabi.

353: Neither.  AFO is talking a lot, but not about anything groundbreaking.

354: Neither.  AFO and Jirou exchange smacktalk.

355: Hero.  Hawks and Jirou combine efforts to break AFO’s mask.

356: Neither.  Endeavor has a big moment, but AFO gets his hands up in time to block and is still shown intact at the end of the chapter.  Borderline, but I’d say not quite definitive enough to qualify it for the hero side.

357: Villain.  AFO regenerates.  A little borderline because it actually ends with Deku, and the approach of what I guessed at the time were the American jets, but I think it’s a similar enough scenario as the end of Chapter 270 to call it for the Villains as well.

358: Neither.  No impact from the Hero attack leaves it a little unclear how much effect it will have, and a new attack is not a big enough game changer for me to really count it even unproven.  It’d be easy to call it for the Heroes, though.

359: Hero.  Return of the Big Three.

360: Hero.  Bakugou’s in rough shape, but there’s a hint that he’s noticed something important, which could foreshadow a change in the tides of the battle.

361: Hero.  Suneater’s Chimera Cannon, which certainly looks incredibly hype and impressive in the moment.

362: Villain.  Bakugou’s “death.”

                   Heroes 6 | Villains 2 | Neither 4 | Total 12                    

Volume 37: 363: Villain Advantage.  AFO finishes regenerating; full face reveal.

364: Hero.  The impossibly moronic Edgeshot-as-Bakugou’s-heart business.  Not conclusive, but it steals one of the Villains’ victories out from under from them.

365: Villain.  A shift in Inner Tenko’s emotional state heralds Shigaraki’s next form.

366: Hero.  Deku arrives at the Sky Coffin.

367: Neither.  Deku attempts conversation to ask about Shigaraki’s status.

368: Hero.  Deku lands a full-power hit on ShigAFO while Yoichi talks to his big brother about letting this being the day that their battle ends.

369: Villain.  A scene change to Spinner that’s timed in such a way that it could really only foreshadow Spinner’s victory.

370: Neither.  It’s very close to a Hero call, but mostly what Shouji’s doing is shaking off mundane attackers and making a dramatic proclamation.  Not quite enough direct impact for an end-of-chapter Hero Advantage.

371: Neither.  Even closer than the last one, but neither blow the kids are gearing up for actually connect on-page.  I wouldn’t fault anyone who called it for the Heroes, though.

372: Neither.  An extremely effective cliffhanger, for once, as Spinner and Mic call out to Kurogiri simultaneously.

373: Villain.  Kurogiri gets up, calling himself the protector of Shigaraki Tomura.

374: Villain.  Toga deploys Sad Man’s Death Parade; Hawks proves he hasn’t learned jack shit from the last time he faced this question.

                   Heroes 3 | Villains 5 | Neither 4 | Total 12                    

Volume 38: 375: Hero Advantage.  Toga’s narrative-destined rival manages to follow her off the island and to the Villa ruins.  Close to a Neither call.

376: Neither.  Setting up a Dabi/Endeavor clash with Endeavor not caught on the back foot.

377: Hero.  Return of La Brava.

378: Hero.  Return of Lady Nagant.

379: Neither.  Sets up a reengaged clash between Shigaraki and Deku.

380: Hero.  Arrival of Shiketsu.

381: Hero.  Tokoyami lands a blow that AFO is explicitly afraid to get hit with.

382: Hero.  Shinsou and Kirishima arrive with a brainwashed Gigantomachia.

383: Neither.  Reiterates that AFO is in trouble, but it’s not new information, and the choppers coming in at the very end are an unpredictable element.

384: Hero.  The choppers are full of Hero-supporting journalists here to tell the world how incredibly hard-working and earnest and admirable Heroes are.  Gag.

385: Neither.  AFO’s belated but impressive show of force gets dampened somewhat by the Heroes refusing to give in, and even getting one of their number back.  It’s back and forth, but Stain really tips it for good over to a neutral chapter ending.  While he’s obviously not aligned with the Villains, he’s far too murderous to chalk him up as a Hero yet, either, especially on-scene watching two kids he tried to kill last time he saw them.

386: Hero.  All Might gets a cool robot suit and the last-page chapter title drop references his iconic catchphrase.

                   Heroes 8 | Villains 0 | Neither 4 | Total 12                    

Volume 39: 387: Hero Advantage.  Rei is, of course, a civilian, not a hero, but she’s clearly aligned on the Team Good Guy, so I have to give it to them.  It’s not a hill I’d die on, however, particularly with the very last panel being the flashback to Touya emphasizing Rei’s culpability.

388: Neither.  What a nice vision of hell as everyone burns to death, including Dabi.  If I gave it to anyone, I’d lean Villain, because it’s certainly more in line with what Dabi wants—what he’s always wanted.  But in terms of impact on the reader, it certainly isn’t going to get anyone whooping and cheering for the Villains.

389: Neither.  It’s a good last few pages of Shouto and Iida, but the reader already knows they’re on their way, so it’s not a pleasant surprise to see them enroute.  The fact that they are still enroute rather than dramatically arriving to save the day keeps this from being a full Hero moment ending.

390: Neither.  Teasing more of the fight between Toga and Uraraka, but no sudden turns, new elements, or grand statements on either side.

391: Neither.  Ongoing fight; while Ochaco gets the stirring line, the actual last page is Toga lashing out.

392: Villain.  While I’m loathe to give it to them on the basis of an injury I was not for one second actually worried about, the chapter does end with Toga putting a knife into Uraraka’s gut and a flashback to Twice asking Toga about a Villain name.  A clear Villain-upper-hand ending.

393: Hero.  Ochaco comes through with flying colors, getting a quirk awakening and making Toga an offer she’s dreamed of her whole life.

394: BOTH.  For literally the first time in this whole count, I can’t count this against either side.  If pressed, I’d call it a Hero win, but it’s a win because it validates both sides.

395: Neither.  Sorry, gang.  I’m utterly incapable of calling this one in an unbiased way.  It’s an all-too-real death scare for Toga and, regardless of how happy she is in the moment, I can’t call her potential death a victory.  But since Ochaco obviously feels the same, it’s not a Hero win, either.

396: Hero.  And get ready, ‘cause there're about to be a whole lot of them.  Good god, but I hate this All Mech sequence.

397: Neither.  Ongoing battle, no major tides turning in the final page.

398: Neither.  As above.

                   Heroes 3 | Villains 1 | Neither 7 | Both 1 | Total 12                    

Volume 40: 399: Hero Advantage.  The big turn-around with Aoyama, with All Might dropping the Aoyama-themed laser of AFO.

400: Hero.  Stain’s return.  Stain’s a Villain himself, but far too aligned with Hero orthodoxy for me to count him returning to help All Might as anything but a Hero-side victory.

401: Neither.  All Might’s still kicking, AFO is within range of Shigaraki, but nothing decisive deployed on the final page.

402: Neither.  To all appearances, All Might continues to shovel more battle damage onto AFO.  There’s a death threat in the explosion, one I don’t think I took very seriously at the time, though plenty of others did.  Left to my own devices, I’d call it for Team Hero, but I’ll err on the side of restraint and call it a hero equivalent of Toga’s death threat.

403: Hero.  Unequivocal Hero victory—Bakugou’s back up.

404: Hero.  Saving All Might with the literal power of prayer.

405: Hero.  If I wanted to be snide, I’d point out that Final Boss is definitionally a Villain role, so Bakugou enthusiastically claiming it for himself implicates Heroes as having been the Villains all along, while the Villains are the clear heroic underdogs struggling against a corrupt, violent system.  But that’s just my bitterness making me perverse; this is a clear Hero victory.

406: Neither.  Exchanging of smack talk, Bakugou gets a good but not definitive hit in.

407: Neither.  AFO’s flashback ends with one of the most crushing emotional defeats of his life, but you can hardly call AFO slice-and-dicing Yoichi a Hero win, either.

408: Neither.  AFO’s going all-out, but Bakugou remains undaunted.

409: Hero.  AFO’s effective defeat at Bakugou’s hands.  Yoichi’s regretful glance is not enough to shift the needle.

410: Villain.  Shigaraki does what the narrative has long been warning that he can and steals a portion of One For All, grabbing Danger Sense for himself and stealing Shinomori from the OFA collective.

                   Heroes 6 | Villains 1 | Neither 5 | Total 12                    

Volume 41: 411: Neither.  Deku’s readying an offensive that gives Shigaraki lots of Danger Sense tinglies, but nothing definitive.

412: Neither.  The temptation is strong to call this for the Hero side, as it’s the moment Kudou formulates the plan that will soon be leading to Shigaraki’s ultimate defeat, but the caveat that the plan requires losing One For All kiboshes that feeling very triumphant.

413: Hero.  There’s some nominal sadness for Deku gearing up to lose OFA, but the tone here is much more about how great and awesome Deku is for being willing to do it, on top of how incredibly fucking rad the art plainly wants us to think that he looks.

414: Hero.  I’d normally call it Neither for lacking new elements or definitive actions, but I have to acknowledge the sheer disparity between, on the one hand, the vestiges telling Deku that it’s working and to keep going as Deku gears up to unleash another punch while, on the other hand, all Shigaraki can manage is huddling in on himself and choking out a few pained grunts.

415: Neither.  Borderline in that Eri is a clear Hero-side ally with an absolutely game-changing power, but the truth is that she’s at U.A. with no immediately clear way to make it to the battle even if anyone were to let her go, so it’s not too different from any other chapter that ended with a major player en route but not yet arriving.

416: Hero.  Deku finally breaks into Shigaraki’s inner mind, over Shigaraki’s protestations.

417: Neither.  Deku and Nana make a major breakthrough, but Shigaraki’s backstory yet has terrible bombs to drop.  I can’t call it a Villain advantage, though, because it’s still stuff Shigaraki very much does not want Deku meddling with.

418: Villain.  AFO returns yet again, spoiling Deku’s hard-won moment of equilibrium and understanding with Shigaraki.

419: Hero.  We can’t even get a week to savor/freak out over Deku losing his arms because the actual last beat of the chapter is Aizawa bringing in a pair of classmates via Kurogiri’s warp gate, suggesting (albeit inaccurately) that Kurogiri has settled as a Hero ally.

420: Hero.  More of the above and Deku gets his arms back after a world-shakingly relevant and momentous chapter and a half.

421: Hero.  All around Hero support, now including from civilians too.

422: Hero.  More of the above and now Deku’s punching Shigaraki at the end of it under a chapter title of Midoriya Izuku Rising.

423: Hero.  Deku’s triumphantly raised fist clears storm clouds, changes the weather, and kills the man he was trying to save.  This is framed as a victory anyway.

                   Heroes 8 | Villains 1 | Neither 4 | Total 13

SECOND WAR TOTAL: Heroes 36 | Villains 12 | Neither 32 | BOTH 1 | Total 81 Volume Count Total: Heroes 2 | Villains 3 | Neither 2

                   

TOTAL CHAPTER COUNT FOR BOTH WAR ARCS: 118 CHAPTERS Final Page Hero Advantage: 51 Final Page Villain Advantage: 21 Final Page Neither: 45 Final Page Both: 1

Total Volume Count: 11 Volumes Last Page Hero Advantage: 4 Last Page Villain Advantage: 4 Last Page Neither: 3

---------------------

Now, you could (and I might) write a whole different post about the unbalanced strategic advantages that I discussed at the beginning of the post, but I think this breakdown also serves to illustrate the scope of the problem with raw numbers (percentages rounded off a bit such that they total to neat 100s).

In the first war, 40.5% of the chapters end with the Heroes on the upswing, 35% have no clear advantage, and only 24.5% end with the Villains waxing triumphant. Despite Hawks reflecting at the end of My Villain Academia about how the Paranormal Liberation Front was a power on par with, or possibly even greater than, that of Hero Society, the numbers don't really back that up. Instead, Heroes have the advantage over half again as often as Villains do, and even the uncertain chapters are still more numerous.

The second war is worse—much worse. Hero Advantage chapters account for nearly half of the arc at 44.5%, while chapters where Neither side clears account for the bulk of the remaining chapters at 39.5%. Only 15% of the chapters, well under a quarter, are Villain Advantage. For an endgame that wants to be about "saving Villains," only one single chapter (1%) ends with something you could credibly call both sides winning.

Now, of course, the second war is the climax of the whole series, so of you might say that of course the Heroes are going to ultimately do better. They have to win in the end, after all, so of course the arc will eventually feature mostly Hero victories.

I would counter that, while that is true, the story repeatedly tries to convince us that the Heroes are really struggling, that they've lost so many people, that they're at this huge disadvantage that neccessitates the extreme measures they use. And the numbers simply don't back that up, even less than they did in the first war!

If you look at the totals for each volume, Heroes have a wild advantage in two of the first four volumes (the arc is seven volumes in total), numbers the Villains never come close to meeting. There's one volume (the third, Volume 37) where they have the majority of the chapter-ending advantages, and even there, it's a narrow margin. Volume 38 is then a blow-out with not a single Villain Advantage chapter cliffhanger in the whole book, and in the final three volumes of the arc, the Villains get exactly one Advantage chapter per volume.

Not very convincing numbers, if the aim is to convince the reader of how much Plus Extra effort the Heroes are going to have to exert, if you ask me!

Between them, Hero Advantage and Neither chapters make up a shocking 81% of the two war arcs, with merely 18%, less than fifth, of the chapters ending on Villain Advantage beats that could serve to freshly drum up, "Our heroes are really in trouble now!" anxiety.

Looking back to what I said about the Heroes having the bulk of the strategic advantages for both arcs, that surely can't be all that surprising. You can't expect a set-up that slanted to leave much room at all for Villains to get time to shine; they simply don't have the room in the story for that when, for everything they try, the Heroes already have some countermeasure.

As a final comparison, remember I praised MVA back at the start for being gripping in large part because the "Heroes" of that arc, the League of Villains, were at such a disadvantage?

I briefly ran the numbers there, and I'd say, of nineteen chapters that contain active confrontation of some sort between the League and an antagonistic force (Gigantomachia, Ujiko, and the MLA), the League have the chapter-ending advantage beat in four of those chapters: Toga's victory in 226, Twice overcoming his mental block and starting to replicate himself in 229, and the two chapters covering Shigaraki's ultimate victory over Re-Destro, 238 and 239. That's a grand total of 20% "Hero" Advantage chapters for them, and half of those are the arc climax chapters.

The "Villains" for the arc likewise have the ending advantage in 20% of the arc, four chapters: Machia having comprehensively whipped the League at the end of 419, RD making the League an offer they can't refuse in 223, Skeptic pushing all of Twice's buttons in 228, and RD plucking off Shigaraki's fingers in 233.

The remaining eleven chapters—60%—go to the Neither category. Compare that back to the percentages for the war arcs, and you can see that, while the Villain Advantage percentage is similar (~5% higher in the first war and likewise lower in the second), the Hero Advantage is twice the percentage (40+%) in both arcs, while the Neither chapters are accordingly lower (the war arcs are 35% and ~40% Neither respectively).

In other words, the Heroes in the war arcs just straight-up have more chapter-ending awesome moments and reveals, and spend less time facing chapter-ending uncertainty, compared to not just the Villains they're fighting in those arcs, but also compared to what those same Villains got when they were being Heroes for an arc.

And to think, Horikoshi wants me to think his Heroes are being challenged. Pull the other one, Sensei; it's got bells on.

(I welcome anyone else to run similar numbers with e.g. the trainng camp attack or the Hassaikai base raid. For myself, I'm too sleepy to figure out a better ending for this post, so I'm just turning out the lights and hitting the sack. Sorry if there's any formatting wigginess or the closing analysis is lacking; I will clean it up later if need be.)

[cuspidgoddess]

😇 about Usagi? 🤗

After further discussion Chronic asked about what led to Usagi taking Keigo up on his offer to join the PLF. So I give you a short blurb (674 words).

The First Virtue

Content warning: nongraphic mention of sexual assault, quirk discrimination, de-humanization and sexualization. Viewer discretion advised.

Being a hare is hard. Being prey isn’t even the hard part, he’s used to that. What he isn’t used to is the attention he’s started receiving since he turned 16. By the time he's 18 hands constantly trying to grab his tail, people trying to touch his ears have become his normal. A polite step away and a "please stop" usually earn an irritable scoff but the hands will fall away.

Rabbits- bunnies- hares- they're all the same to the world around him- have been a sex symbol for so long that people have stopped seeing him as a person. As soon as he started running for fun- for training the last of his baby fat fell away making way for toned calves, muscled thighs and a round ass- he became just another dumb bunny. They’re pests, and it shows when they try to poison produce at farmers markets, when he passes the prostitutes that look so much like him, when men leer at him from darkened alley’s.

Laying in the gutter, staring at the filthy bricks in front of him he can’t help but wonder dully how he got here. How can I be Usagi, the red light rabbit, the vigilante with the most sexual assault saves and serial rapist arrests and still become a statistic. I didn’t even scream… I didn’t fight- I just froze. How could I have frozen like that? His eyes burn almost as bad as the scrapes on his palms and knees. His cheek feels bruised from where his face was shoved against the cement and there’s an ache at the base of his spine that he will never ever forget the feeling of, a burning shooting pain that radiates through his tail and makes his eyes burn worse, but he can’t move, he’s still frozen, heart beating way too fast. His heart is going to give out, he’s going to die alone in the gutter, just like so many others, too frightened by the terrible world they’ve been born into, too afraid to live. He tries to keep his sobs quiet, terrified of being found so vulnerable. It doesn’t matter that he’s been used, that he’s dirty and bleeding, he’s seen enough of the evils of life to know that to some those things don’t matter. 

It takes every bit of strength he has to crawl out of site, to wedge himself beneath the nearest stinking dumpster, out of sight, out of danger, his instincts promise. Hinata wishes he was a rabbit, wishes more than anything that he had a fluffle to go home to. The thing about hares is they aren’t rabbits. Rabbits are social creatures that live in groups. Hares are not, and leverets don’t get to stick around once they reach maturity. He’s been on his own since he was 17, hasn’t been able to hold a job because when management or the owner finds out he’s uncooperative they turn him loose. He lost his apartment last week and now more than ever he wishes there was someone that would notice he hadn’t made it home. 

He closes his eyes trying to block out the horrible, angry scent that clings to his skin, tries to conjure up anything else to think about then how fast his heart is beating, how all he can smell is blood and cum and around hear how life around him keeps moving as if his whole world hasn’t shattered around him. 

His mind brings him to red wings. Red wings and a lop sided, sharp toothed smile and the most faultless predatory eyes he had ever seen. 

“If you change your mind, need a place to go, or you need help,” Keigo sends one of his smallest feathers to the hare. “Talk to the feather... I know it’s hard being a mutant in this world, my old image didn’t really support that fact, but we have to stick together. There aren’t nearly enough mutant heroes out there, and we all need a flock... or a colony. Give me a whisper if you want to fight for change.” 

With a shaky hand he pats at his pocket and promises himself he’ll find a place where he belongs. 

[decayingflames]

Gonna kinda be alil organized rambling about my MHA oc Nozomi Hoshino...

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇

I've figured out that I could split Nozomi's timeline from canon at the Overhaul arc

This is because instead of letting Big Sis Mag stay dead (aka figuring out how the LOV healer would be unable to revive a teammate within a day) Nozomi can just be there for the meeting and revive Mag then get carried off

You may ask how that may impact the rest of canon, but you see, I feel Mags might just take a lil break after glimpsing the afterlife

And everyone would still want revenge for their harmed allies

Also the League is packed into Nozomi's apartment while they find a new hideout. Which they very much don't enjoy because it's a tiny one bedroom.

and by don't enjoy, I should specify that they don't like sleeping in a chaotic pile in the tiny living room while Nozomi sleeps in their bed XD

I've also thought about the time before MVA would be easier on the League because they can just crash in the apartment and Nozomi would fund food/ new clothes with whatever savings they have.

I've also considered how to get Nozomi to Twice during the PLF/ War arc; One way being they're on the way out of the villa to visit Tomura and they happen upon Hawks and Twice. Another way is that Nozomi gets Hawks on the league's side because hearing someone else's pov on being a commission hero might help him break from their bs.

I'm leaning to the second scenario because I want to let Nozomi burn down the Commission as a treat. So instead of Redestro fucking their shit, it's Nozomi backed by Dabi and Hawks completely demolishing the disgusting establishment.

It's the villian hunt/ final arc canon that fucks me over in the long run because yes, I can succeed in keeping the League alive, but coming up with reason why the League would still end up in that situation is hard.

I could get Twice arrested with Compress, but would that mess with our sweet Toga's mindset? Would she be as vengeful with Twice's blood? Or would she be more dangerous with it because hatred doesnt seep into her quirk and thus allows her league doubles to have their quirks? Would Toga go confront Ochako after the raid?

Tomura's still fucked, but I feel like he'd fight against AFO harder because Nozomi is insufferably clung to his side trying to keep him comfortable.

Dabi is still Dabi, but he probably doesn't see Shoto's silhouette as Twice???

Also, as I said about Nozomi's quirk evolution during war arc being probably an AOE healing field, I like imagining the cave stay with AFO being funny as hell because Nozomi's just putting up the field and because they fucking HATE AFO, he gets none of the effect while everyone else is just *refreshed*. I'm sure he'd be amused by it...

But yea, I'm alil stumped by the final arc also because my sweet healer can't be in each area, and they'd rather be by Tomura's side as much as he doesn't need them by that point.

Though I feel like Tomura would be reassuring Nozomi alot during the time in the cave, like sitting outside looking at the stars with them or just squishing them in his little hiding hole

Also during that mutation scene after stars and stripes and Spinner is alil freaked, but considering going to Tomura. Yea, I know Nozomi would go running in there, unconcerned about getting hurt because Tomura's comfort is more important. I think Spinner would try to stop them at first but they'd yank away.

Also Spinner, Nozomi, and Tomura are all gaming buddies. Spinner and Nozomi would bond more at the PLF villa while Tomura's tubed. Everything after is alot of them comforting eachother because they are the two most loyal to Tomura (who also owns their hearts).

Also I really want Nozomi to fight AFO!Tomura, trying to get Tomura back in the driver's seat, but that may be alil impractical .3.

I have thought about splitting from canon later in plot, but I'm going for more of a 'the league lives' ending. Not that I'm not tempted to make a 'bad end' alt fic that's more canon compliant. If only because I would love to torture every single hero with Nozomi's vengeance. But thinking of how to get around canon is hard but fun at the same time. Especially when I think of the angst and fluff XD

[satancopilotsmytardis]

If either Dabi or Shigaraki got sick, how would the other care for him?

Shigaraki taking care of Dabi (pre-relationship):

Dabi hasn't been sick in years. It's taken a considerable effort, but given how fucked up his body already is, the terror of getting any kind of infection usually kept him meticulously checking and trying to maintain his health. He did not want his skin to fall off again.

So getting a cold a week and a half after taking over the PLF is not an option.

"Dabi, you are literally sneezing sparks, please go lay down." Shigaraki sounds less annoyed than he expected, but he doesn't have any room to fucking talk given that he literally had three fingers amputated yesterday and his other arm is still completely bandaged, and he's got a broken foot, but he's still at this meeting.

"Fuck you, I'm fi--" he interrupts himself having to pull down his mask to sneeze into a tissue, his quirk flaring higher like it's going to somehow turn the sickness into ash in some fresh way his low fever can't.

Duster sighs, "Compress,"

"Don't you--!"

"Sorry, friend, but this is for your own good." And he's gone before he can get his flames ignited.

He's not sure how long passes before he's let out, but he does find himself on his bed, in his room. There's a box of cold medicine on his nightstand, a large water bottle, and two thermoses. He ignores those and goes over to the door to give his cohorts a piece of his mind and finds it locked from the outside. As soon as the handle rattles, Shigaraki's voice comes from the other side.

"Go lay down and rest. I need you at your best. If you can't do that here, then I'll send you to stay with Ujiko."

"I'm fine, let me out!"

"Dabi, you have a 42° fever."

"I have a fire quirk. I run hot."

"Not above 38°, normally. The doctor said if you go up to 44° you have to go see him. Compress made you tea, Spinner made you soup, Toga left you some shower and bath melts that are supposed to help with congestion, and the rest of us and the organization can handle anything else. If you try to leave through the window Gigantomachia has been instructed to eat you. If you set the villa on fire Geten has been instructed to freeze you solid. Rest. If you get bored I left you an e-reader."

Dabi gapes at the door. He cannot believe he is being put on--on house arrest because of a stupid cold!

"I'll come check on you in a few hours, and if you need anything-- other than being let out-- before then, just text me." There's a very slight pause, and then Shigaraki's voice comes again, a little softer than before. "You've done more than enough in helping prep for the merge. Take as much time as you need to rest and feel better. We don't want you to burn yourself out, Dabi."

Can't find his words at all around how tight his throat has gone.

"I'll see you in a little while, Firefly."

And he does move away from the door, he can hear him moving back down the hall. Dabi could probably melt the lock and get out, but after another second he goes over to his closet instead and puts his pajamas back on. He takes some medicine, has a drink, and curls up on his bed with a huff. The e-reader is plugged in on the other side of his bed and he reaches for that. Fine. A day of rest to get his fever down, and then he can get back to work.

He picks a book at random and is about twenty pages in before he has to start over as he realizes he has no idea what's going on, his soupy over-heated brain just constantly getting tripped up on how Shigaraki's voice had sounded calling him 'Firefly'.

[soul-dwelling]

Also for a more broad point about MHA - to me it seems weird to set up a situation where everyone has super powers, yet they are so restricted, with basically, as the paranormall faction points out in story, only a small part of the population can use all of their physicality, while also setting up a society of with bystander sydrome and one that has turned heroism into a product.

It seems, maybe do to my own stupidity, I'll admit that, that this was a set up for a new society, where instead of a strict hiearchy that only uplifts those who are already strong, it would into one where everyone can reach their potential, using quirks in all walks of life not just in law enforcment...

Hell this would also be a society where even the quirkless or differently abled could reach their dreams and add in their own way.

So its weird that the only change that happened is that civilians became vaguely more altruistic.

Like wouldnt it be better if the granny that helped the tenko expy, didnt just give her hand but use her unique quirk to help him in a way not even pro heros could, showing that quirks arent a disease like Overhaul claimed, but something that helps us connect and support each other in new ways?

anyways, sorry for rambling, but to me the story did so little with the "almost everyone has quirks" thing, that it may as well have said "every 10th person has one" and not a lot would change

Question received August 3, 2024, answered August 4, 2024--the official publication date of the last My Hero Academia chapter. 

Yeah, I was in the middle of responses and wanted to make that point, that this ending would have been better if a drastic change to Quirk regulation focused on permitting greater use of Quirks outside of Pro Hero work. I understand and appreciate how much of this story, as with a lot of “regulate the superpowers” stories, is an allegory for regulating weapons; however, as with X-Men and the Marvel Civil War adaptations, this is also about individual rights and, all the more importantly after the United States Supreme Court fucked over people who can get pregnant and bodily autonomy, individual rights to our bodies. It’s a thorny story, and MHA coming down on, “Keep the bodily regulations,” is sour. Unfortunately this was as much a problem in the Vigilantes spinoff and its only solution in its final chapter was, “Avoid getting arrested for property damage, go to the United States.”

You bring up how the MLA/PLF points out how restricted society makes Quirk users. The story then never gives any closure to that idea. 

I have read Horikoshi had more plans for the League of Villains, only for the Pussycat Compound Attack story and the League of Villains vs MLA arc getting such bad responses by readers that he decided to avoid any more significant focus on the League…which, even if he said that or thought it, that’s not what ended up happening, as at least there was closure, however much I don’t like it, for Shigaraki, Toga, Spinner, and Dabi, so his commitment to wrapping up their stories was always there. 

But the refusal to do more with the MLA/PLF will continue to bother me: I think the story deserved to have someone, anyone, from Class A to be the one to give a summary thesis statement as to what the MLA/PLF got correct and got wrong, and how their ideas could change society for the better. At best that idea is sort of carried forward with Spinner doing what Destro did and writing a book--but we saw, first, how Destro’s book endangered society, second, how the MLA/PLF and the League were in the wrong and were dangerous to any sort of progress, and finally, we never see Spinner’s book effecting meaningful change because we just end the story there with his book published but no follow-up. Again, I invoke the ending to Wakko’s Wish: take us by the hand through each step on how society meaningfully changes. I would even take Izuku, Ochaco, or someone else straight-up just narrating what changes. 

And the MLA/PLF lacking any closure becomes even more off-putting because of especially weird moments that came across as too fanfic-y for me: did Geten really have to be related to the Todoroki family?

And I’m going to end up stealing your idea of Granny using her own Quirk to help Stitches when re-writing Chapter 429--you had that idea first, I had not ever considered that until reading your idea. 

It really doesn’t help that your Granny idea is so good--and then the final chapter of My Hero Academia discounts it by insisting that only the strongest Quirks now matter. The final chapter of My Hero Academia has someone tell the kid Dai that only those with the strongest Quirks now get to be Pro Heroes. Yes, that is all corrected by Izuku’s advice to Dai and the fact that a Quirkless hero like Izuku still is recognized by his face alone. But it is bothersome that it takes Izuku to impart that lesson, while everyone else, and seemingly even Hawks running the new Hero Commission, is fixated on strong Quirks. Again, hero work should not just be policing or militarized--where are the Grannies with less powerful Quirks that would be suited for outreach, de-escalation, societal improvement, economic improvement, and responses to mental health and physical health treatment. 

[kukishoku]

name: saskia gomez shego age/height: 25, 5'10" pronouns/gender/sexuality: she/her, cis woman, bisexual affiliation: pro heroes (formally), lov (formally), and plf quirk: energy blasts quirk description: she can shoot green energy from any part of her body. the energy's destructive nature is linked to her emotions. the angrier she is the more damage it will do. she also can manipulate her own and others energy levels, but it takes a lot out of her and requires a lot of recovery time. it is only used in dire situations (ie. she needs an adrenaline spike or to knock someone out fast). short bio: coming from a long line of superheroes operating under the name team go and running their own hero agency called the go agency, shego inherited the title and position from her mother. her family specialized in scientific body augmentations and quirk expansion studies. at the age of 12 she, along with her 4 brothers, was put under intense physical trials and experiments where she ended up with her green skin and glow as well as enhanced strength and an advanced healing ability. she attended ua high and did all her work studies at her family's agency where she worked upon graduating and was thrusted into the hero world. she made it to the top 5 hero at the age of 21, but couldn't break past 5th. at some time in her hero life she met hawks and the two sparked up a romance of sorts, catching the public's eye and dooming whatever could have been. not long after breaking up with her fellow hero did she fake her death only to appear a year later on national television where she murdered her former mentor and introduced herself as the villain shego under the bumbling mad genius dr. drakken. he was arrested months later and shego was a free agent until she was contacted by giran to join the league of villains.

[feeling-uncomfy]

Alright lads I'm back again

Anyone want to explain why we have once again skipped over three, count 'em- three villains/groups that have targeted the league because of Jin?? Specifically, his quirk-

In the Overhaul arc we've got Overhaul only agreeing to see Shigiraki because Jin- a man he wanted to use for his quirk, most likely to produce multiple Eri's for mass production- but he only agreed because of that. I don't know how many people knew that in the league- but that motivation is still a catalyst leading to Magne and Compress- I'm surprised Overhaul didn't try isolate and take Jin with him as well as Eri during the raid- or at least have someone else try? Weird

Then you have the PLF arc, Skeptic was willing to kill Toga- everyone, for the sake of Jin and his quirk. The entire battle was mostly a distraction, killing the league off was a major goal sure, but ultimately ReDestro was looking for Jin's quirk. If Shigiraki hadn't stepped in, I'm pretty sure things would've ended different. (I do want to go into that in more detail- the aftermath as well)

And of course, we have Hawks. He's his own issue. He of all people got the jump on them and killed Jin. I feel like a guy with such "prestigious training" could've done a much better job at completing his misson- I get the whole "Twice or the world" argument but his job was to arrest and detain not murder. Anyway- the reason was because Jins quirk is just that powerful- he could and would have absolutely overpowered the group of heroes that attacked them-

But when you look at Jin- you just see a guy who wants to help his friends. It's a little hard to believe he was the most wanted man in Japan at one point. He's just a funky little man with severe mental issues- we need more content of him tbh