#shiragiri

[midgardianqueenreturns]

I really hope Shirakumo regaining his memories won’t mean he’ll forget his time as Kurogiri.

[cardboardflamingos]

My little skrunkles..

[bifronse]

The way Betten draws Kurogiri is so funny. Horikoshi goes out of his way to make him an unidentifiable blob of mist but Betten is just like “Kurogiri? You mean Shirakumo’s silhouette?”

[class1akids]

BNHA 423 - Thoughts (aka how to fumble your ending: a masterclass by Kohei Horikoshi)

I won't have time on Sunday, so I'll write up my chapter thoughts today. Probably the last time for this series (unless we get a Todo-family moment in the epilogue).

I've joined this fandom 6 years ago and written countless meta and analysis. I'm grieving today not that the story has come to an end, but the way it fumbled its landing.

Last chapter: Deku after a combo from everyone Rises to everyone shouting Ganbare and All Might Annointing him as HIS personal Jesus Greatest hero

This chapter:

Everyone's aggregate animosity (including 16 members of Class A - missing: Uraraka, Bakugou, Shoto and Aoyama) and the strength Deku added to OFA in 2 years kill AFO-in-Shigaraki's regen (even though he was engineered by Ujiko to be able to hold OFA).

Deku punches the body of that little crying boy he yapped about saving of the big bad and it starts to crumble. So AFO looks for a new host in Deku.

We get to the only good point in this chapter: as Aizawa is yelling for Midoriya, ShiraGiri worries about Tomura. The tragedy of how their lives went in separate ways. The only person on this battlefield who cares about Tomura is Kurogiri

WTF - I'm emotional. This must help bring Tomura back, right?

Let me see! what's happening on the vestige side?

Is Kurogiri dead? Why?

I NEED ANSWERS!!!

Or fuck that - let's get to Bakugou, because why not. Obviously, he's in desperate need of another highlight.

Let's even make sure he gets personally praised in case in the last 5 chapters he was not mentioned we forgot how he's the awesomest. Who cares about Kurogiri dying in the background? Who cares about Aizawa's or Mic's feelings? The most important question is how Bakugou got to the battlefield.

Oh, wait, here comes the twist. Remember that crappy little panel of Shoto in the last chapter? No? Don't worry. Neither does 99% of the fandom, except a few die-hard Shoto-fans.

Well, you see, that crappy panel was actually Shoto being hidden as he lifted up Deku at the end of that long combo to give him his last push. And the one above, is not a BKDK combo but an Origin Trio combo. It's just cropped the same way BKDK shippers always crop Shoto out of any Trio pictures.

Congratulations, Kohei Horikoshi-sensei! What an amazing twist. You managed to write Schroedinger's Origin Trio scene! It happened, but maybe it never did. Thanks for stringing me along all these years through the rollercoaster rides of Origins and Risings. I'll take that playground from you and give it to fanfic writers who actually care about maintaining it.

While Bakugou is yelling in the background, Deku is pulling a Mirio on AFO and calls him friendless. The worst thing that can happen to a Shonen boss.

There is some incomprehensible mumbo jumbo about OFA-magic - but don't worry peeps - it's all a set-up for Deku getting it back (in case you are one of the people who seems really to be worried about that)

And then AFO realizes - due to Deku transferring the last bit just so - that he was just a sad little human who loved his brother all along. Yoichi's lifelong efforts to make an impact on AFO didn't do anything. Only the Jesus-Punch-of-Magic did. Too bad.

Oh no, the whole fucking peanut gallery is back to nobody's surprise. (Actually All Might is missing, which may suggest Deku will only get the stockpile back). Even if Deku gets OFA back, please don't transfer these guys back. I'm so sick of them. They were a total waste of time and took Deku's precious real estate for introspection. Fuck that. I don't actually care. Deku has been damaged beyond repair.

GROUP FIST BUMP!!! Amazing Climax. Maybe a double spread, Sensei?

HK: Sorry, I used up my double spread quota on Bakugou!

I'm not one to criticize Horikoshi's artstyle, but boy, this panel is so underwhelming compared to the stuff he drew in this endgame. Is this your big AFO vs OFA clash????

What happens when Ghost Fist collides with Real blood? Of course, it will transfer all that sweet Ghost-DNA!!!

Aka - Horikoshi is saying - Don't worry, Deku won't be quirkless.

OK. Well. Let's move on.

Here is another line from Horikoshi's outline. Did you want to see a heart-warming scene between Nana and Tenko? Too bad for you. You get Bakugou, you voted for him.

(Btw, Shoto is not the only one who doesn't seem to be allowed to have a proper scene with his mom, I guess Tenko cannot even get an emotional afterlife scene. If you are an abuse-victim in story, Horikoshi says - fuck you! Take a swan dive and hope to be reborn as a bully in your next life).

Well, at least Tomura noticed that Kurogiri mysteriously died after Horikoshi couldn't think up an actual proper endgame for him.

OK, onto the MAIN ANTAGONIST's final monologue. It will be deep after being built for 400 chapters, right?

Shigaraki: Well, I didn't even manage to destroy your hand. I amount to just a crying boy.

Deku: Well, I still hate you for stabbing Kacchan and the others. (forget the others, I never cared about the others). I killed you because I was sick of your moping it's the International Board of Therapist's recommended therapy for victims of abuse and grooming.

Shigaraki: Well, what do I say to that. That's so fucking stupid.

Shigaraki: And to my gay little boyfriend, I leave my treasured Nintendo controller.

Deku: Yeah, whatever. I don't really have any thoughts. I've stopped introspection in Act 2. Your life sucked. You need to fuck off now and stop spreading the sadness, I have a victory punch to perform.

Deku: This is the story of how I became the greatest hero by punching the fuck out of this crying, abused little boy and then bathing myself in his nasty pixie dust. killing 2 main villains for the price of 1 in under 7 pages and changed the weather for the dudebros on Twitter can cry about the blue sky in the anime again. I also eradicated sadness with punching it hard enough.

Also - I probably still have a quirk. Tune in to find out in two weeks.

Sensei, with all due respect - this chapter was ass. Visually, thematically, from a storytelling point of view. Even the good ideas were executed badly or were crammed in with terrible ideas. What a fucking let-down.

Will Shigaraki go and be the hero of the villains?

I can see him reconstruct with Overhaul and magic, or I can see that we will get a reveal where Deku had the Lion Turtle solution all along and he has punched Shigaraki just at the angle to magically manifest 5-year old crying Tenko and save him and he was cold and aloof because he already "saved the boy".

I can see a BS solution incoming. But it will not fix this chapter for sure, nor the broader writing issues with Deku's character and with the Deku - Tomura dynamic.

[haleigh-sloth]

Toga is a liar

Let's talk about Toga this chapter, and also Toga during MVA. Because once again her words do not align with the pictures on the page. Horikoshi has not stopped making Toga unreliable--yet.

Cannot use the official page for this one point because of Caleb's trash translation, but the point to be made here is that Toga outright admits that she has been lying to herself this whole time:

She tried to pretend everything was fine. In MVA you see what is clearly unreliable narrating. "I'm not miserable! Not me!" on top of pictures of her clearly being haunted by her past.

Curious forced her to face her demons.

However, martyrdom is not how you relay a message, so Curious ultimately lost the physical battle. But she clearly understood Toga's pain and hit the nail on the head.

Now we get to the current chapter where once again, literally nothing Toga says aligns with what is on the page.

Toga says that the LOV will create a world that is easy for her to live in, and yet, despite that being all she's wanted, she's supposedly ready to leave the world behind in order to save Ochacko. So what does this mean?

It means Toga knows the truth. She knows the world that's coming is not the world she wants. Sure, maybe it'll be a world where she can do what she wants, but it's not the world she wants. What makes this particularly obvious is how disconnected her recent memory of the League is from reality. Twice is dead. She believes Touya is dead. Tomura is out of commission as far as she's concerned (also his hand being over his face is an interesting detail I need to think more on). Toga says "that's a world I can live in", and then says "I'm going to leave this world behind, despite what I've been wanting coming soon."

Toga doesn't believe what she wants can actually happen. It's not coming, she knows it. The acceptance she had from the LOV sustained her and made it easier for her to live for the time being, but ultimately it isn't the world she wanted. Because the world Toga wants doesn't involve everyone she loves and cares about dying. It doesn't involve all of the people who accept her dying. And so far, that's all she's gotten.

Toga being ready to die shows just how little faith she has in the possibility of her living how she wants in a world she WANTS. A world where she's free, loving and living how she wants, and isn't losing people she loves.

Really, her words here indicate that now she got what she wanted, but it came too late. The presence of "IF" and “MAYBE” is a big tell of this mindset.

Even with this break through, the entire time Toga never really had faith she could live how she wanted. The LOV promised a world easy to live in--a world where she does what she wants, and watches her friends and people who accept her die. That's the world that was promised, and that's the world being delivered to her right now, which is not what she wants.

So she rejects that world and saves something important to her, and plans to die in the process because she doesn't see a world where she can really live. Hence "IF" in her words, IF she had found love sooner. The next step is the big picture showing Toga that it's ready to accept her. Which is more of an effort involving showing Gentle and La Brava, Lady Nagant, the Todorokis with Touya, Izuku with Tomura, Aizawa with Shiragiri, Shoji with Spinner (maybe lol still unclear where that’s going), etc. Just showing the effects of saving on others and that it’s possible to keep going.

[super-paper]

Manga spoilers!

I wanna give the benefit of the doubt to hori bc i know this isn't the last chapter and he could always continue and mend stuff in upcoming chapters. With that said, this chapter does feel rushed and off. And i'm not talking about action wise as most fans on twt think, but i'm refering to the conclusion(?) of shigarakis character arc. Regarding the whole afo/yoichi talk, hori could get away with it a bit, but as for shigaraki.... that's another conversation. There were moments in this chapter that i loved, i really liked izuku understanding of afo deep down, and the little ,although rushed, talk between the brothers. I loved that scene of the ofa users (minus toshinori i think, why????? He deserved to be there lol) and shigaraki punching afo, i love the idea of shigaraki also being a part of that and i find that panel of his and izukus fists connected beautiful in all ways. But then at the same time it's so rushed! I heard some fans think izukus character got ruined by ending the series quirkless, (....?.....) but what bothers me is actually izukus lack of reaction. It's valid and understandable for izuku to not forgive and be upset at shigaraki, but for the same kid that was so set in saving that crying boy for multiple arcs and through this one, and all the compassion izuku felt for tenko, for izuku to not react shigaraki crumbling into dust and disappearing feels so weird and out of character for him. Can one even count that as him saving that crying little boy?? Now, i do expect hori to bring back tomura/tenko somehow, but if not.... well then that's disappointing and i have to wonder what happened with his character arc??

Like, I'm really trying to be optimistic but 😭

Like you said it was extremely rushed and jammed what should have been 2-3 chapters worth of content into a single chapter-- it makes everything seem unfocused and flat. Like, whatever happened between Tenko and Nana getting offscreened completely neutered the emotional impact and "triumph" of Tenko's "return". AFO getting psychologically dressed down by Izuku, confronted by Yoichi and the vestiges + Tenko, and ultimately "exorcised" deserved its own focus chapter rather than being forced to share breathing room with the (equally gimped) exits of two other characters. Tenko and AFO's relationship gets zero focus/introspection-- Instead we have Tenko literally getting lumped in with the rest of the vestiges instead of getting any sort of unique dialog/interaction with AFO even though his dynamic with AFO (and their melding/untangling from one another) has been a MAJOR part of the series. Honestly, if I think about Tenko/Tomura and his treatment any more I'll probably make myself sick-- other people have already said enough on why this would be a terrible ending for him/MHA as a whole if it sticks.

It's just, such an incomprehensibly bad and cowardly chapter lmao.

(heavy criticism re: Izuku's writing under the read more)

I think my main issue is that even if it is a big fakeout, there's just.... no salvaging Izuku's character for me after this chapter. His entire arc and what was supposed to distinguish him from other heroes hinged on this. Like, you can't have your "intrinsically compassionate sees-the-heart-in-everyone" MC smash through the dying remains of a character who is literally begging for Tenko's life and expect ppl to still root for him??? Shiragiri sacrifices himself to plead on Tenko's behalf and remind everyone there that Tenko is a human who has people waiting for him-- but tonally, him getting utterly steamrolled still gets treated like a hype/heroic moment by Bkg's inexplicable arrival on the scene. It's incomprehensibly tone deaf and makes Izuku's almost complete nonreaction to pretty much everything that has happened to both Tenko and himself stand out all the worse.

As a Izuku fan it boggles my mind that other Izuku fans seem to think this was a good conclusion to his character arc. Like. There's literally no way to backtrack or put any kind of positive spin on how Izuku behaved during this fight evn if Tenko does survive, and it kills me. There's no way to spin it that doesn't boil down to Izuku thinking that Tenko was an acceptable loss if it meant erasing AFO from the world.

There was not even a smidge of internal conflict or hesitation or even a single thought spared for Tenko. Zero introspection from Izuku and zero grappling with the weight of the life he's about to take (because from his perspective, even if Tenko *does* miraculously survive, Izuku had no way of knowing he would and still made the decision to whale away on his body as it crumbled!). Like. Zero reflection on the reveal that Tenko was manipulated from birth, zero attempt to reach him or even speak to him again to see if he was still "in there." Zero attempt to minimize the damage to Tenko's body, zero attempt to engage w/ the sole other character invested in trying to save him (💀💀💀) Zero communication with his fellow heroes about Tenko's situation and his desire to save him so THEY could all make an informed choice, zero hesitation in repeatedly whaling away at Tenko's dying body, zero attempt to "go beyond" and change the ending/future. like. Everything abt Izuku's writing in this chapter is utterly ghoulish.

But hey, Izuku's final punch made the rain stop or whatever. Ugh. 🙄

[anartisicandautisticstararcher]

MHA x 'Splosion Man Crossover AU

A Nomu!Mic AU with a twist.

Kayaku, also known as The 'Sploding Hero: DJ 'Splosion, isn't your typical Pro Hero.

He was a specialized nomu designed to be a living explosive for the League of Villians, hence his name. However, Dr. Garaki made a slight miscalculation when designing Kayaku. Unlike his other nomu creations, Kayaku was more independent and aware of what was going on.

As much as he could be, at least.

But the experiment and the instability of his new quirk left his mind worse for wear, as Kayaku hardly remembers anything before he was kidnapped.

He does know that he was friends with Kurogiri though, and broke him out of the facility.

Which leads us here.

Kayaku/DJ 'Splosion

Hehehehe! 'Splode!

Modified Quirk: Combustible

Base Quirk: Voice

Smells like coal and amber

Was experimented on for years before he escaped.

He is a bit of a Cloud Cuckoolander because of the experimentation he went through and his unstable new quirk.

Despite his unstable mind, Kayaku is smarter than his looks.

Wired with an instinct to create chaos wherever he goes.

Unlike his canon counterpart, Kayaku doesn't hold back and will create problems on purpose.

He got his hero name from Kuroboro, who said that Kayaku reminded him of this video game character he liked.

Speaks in gibberish most of the time. Kuroboro often has to translate for him.

Has a weird obsession with cake and meat. Shouta has to hide any cakes he has outside of his and Kayaku's apartment.

Kayaku also tends to eat any power sources, such as batteries and uranium. He says it tastes like citrus candy.

Doesn't mix well with water. Luckily, his quirk allows him to self-clean by disintegrating any dirt or bacteria, so he doesn't need to bathe.

His hero costume allows him to release any excess energy into the leather. Each part of his hero costume has a different element infused into the leather, causing it to release a different color glow as a result.

If his hero costume is glowing brightly, that's your only warning that he's going to explode.

Despite how many times he has exploded, Kayaku is surprisingly still alive.

Kayaku tries to remember his past, but he never was successful.

He can't even remember his own name.

Why can't he remember?

It started with an 'H', right?

Why couldn't he remember?

Why why why why why why why why why why why why why-?

What was he thinking about? Oh yeah! Cake!

Aizawa Shouta/Eraserhead

As if you weren't loud enough before.

He was the one who found both Kayaku and Kuroboro after they escaped from the facility they were held captive in.

Shouta helped Kayaku get well-adjusted and even let him stay at his apartment.

Over time, Shouta realized that he still had feelings for Kayaku despite the fact that he was no longer Hizashi.

He's honestly hesitant to call Kayaku by his old name, worried that it might trigger some bad memories.

Shouta often has to use his quirk on Kayaku so he doesn't cause problems.

Shouta once came home to find Kayaku stuffing a whole 3-tier cake in his mouth. He barely slept that night.

He likes to cuddle up with Kayaku sometimes when he's cold.

Shouta feels guilty for how Kayaku ended up like this.

Why?

The last time he saw Hizashi Kayaku was during their high school graduation.

And he had used his quirk to silence Hizashi Kayaku before leaving him alone.

Shiragiri Kuroboro/Thunder Cloud

Cool! You're like a video game character!

Kuroboro is high school best friends with Kayaku and Shouta.

Kuroboro isn't a full nomu like Kayaku due to the latter interrupting the nomufication process.

He kept most of his memories but is still a bit fuzzy here and there.

He's the only one who can understand Kayaku's gibberish due to being part nomu.

Kuroboro often feels conflicted about his identity, hence why he combined his human name and nomu name.

He tried to get Kayaku to remember his past, but it didn't end well as Kayaku became distressed...and exploded.

The first time Kayaku exploded, Kuroboro thought he was dead.

He took care of Kayaku while they were still on the streets.

Kuroboro was relieved when he finally found Shouta and begged for his help.

After getting reinstated as a hero, Kuroboro became UA's gym teacher and biology teacher.

[stillness-in-green]

Chapter Thoughts — Chapter 386: I Am Here

Sorry for the lateness on this one, folks. This time it was less Life Happening and more trying to sculpt all of my many, many words about All Might and his mech suit into something at least kind of coherent. I've got a few asks and a meme I got tagged in I'm hoping to get posted before the next chapter, fingers crossed.

Hit the jump!

On “Everyone’s on their last legs” and “No heroes can possibly make it in time.”:

O  I have…  Some issues with these claims.  Let me take the latter one first.

No one can make it in time?  Really?  Iida is being tasked with running across a third of the country in under ten minutes.  Gigantomachia’s ludicrous turns of speed are well-documented.  Okay, Machia’s incapacitated and Iida’s got something else to do, but even setting aside the two of them, Miss Joke turned up at the Villain Cave mere moments after La Brava determined Skeptic’s location because she and the Ketsubutsu kids “happened to be nearby.”  Lady Nagant managed to get from Central Hospital to within firing range of UA, well over a hundred miles away, in what absolutely cannot have been more than two or three minutes.  The supersonic American jets are still perfectly intact, too.

Distance between combatants has been a laughable nonissue for the heroes for this entire fight, but now we’re supposed to believe that travel time presents any sort of problem?

Further, the claim, “Everyone’s on their last legs” is certainly interesting, in that it rather strongly suggests that the villains are winning, or at least doing so much damage that even when they finally lose, it leaves the heroes who were facing them with no energy to relocate.  Like, the travel time is an issue, but it doesn’t seem to be the primary issue; it’s not the one that’s brought up first.  The one that’s brought up first, and twice, is that there’s no one in good enough shape for it.

And like, really?  No one at all?  None of the heroes at Machia’s containment facility, who should all be free at this point?  No one at the arena fight where all the non-important villains were teleported?  No one at the parking lot fight?  No one at all?

Certainly it would be nice to believe that the villains at the other combat locations around the country are doing so well, but that sure hasn’t been reflected in the story thus far, which has been pretty insistent about heroes rather efficiently mopping things up everywhere but the AFO and Shigaraki fights.

I would like to take this as confirmation that Shiragiri did indeed dump a bunch of Himijins on more battlefields than just U.A. and Gunga, but we didn't see any at Kamino, so what gives?

 

On Dabi’s Immolation and the Evac Boxes:

O  On the one hand, I really like the idea that Dabi is about to destroy himself because of the Phosphor move he copied from Shouto.  It’s incredibly thematically sound!

Touya drove himself to destruction because he was trying to overtake his baby brother in their father’s eyes, despite not having a body type that can perform the types of moves said baby brother can.  Shouto has learned to balance both sides of himself, has spent the whole series trying to come to terms with both the parents he inherited his dual elements from, while Dabi remains focused exclusively on his father’s fire, with absolutely zero concern for his ice side/his mother’s perspective/balance in the family.[1]  Dabi is accumulating heat because he was never trained in how to turn that heat down and isn’t about to start now.  Dabi is on a path that will destroy he himself (again) and destroy his family without intervention that Endeavor doesn’t know how to give.

Also, it’s just really great art of Dabi in general, dramatic tool (affectionate) that he is.

On the other hand, lololol imagine trying to convince readers that the police and their magic sensor machines can accurately predict when Dabi is going to explode.  Dabi!  The guy who survived for over ten years when Ujiko gave him less than a month to live!  And who lived those ten years not even taking it easy, but obsessively training himself with the fire that was supposed to kill him!  But sure, now we’re supposed to really buy that lifespan outlooks are going to be so very reliable.  Okay, BNHA, whatever you say.

O  It is entirely lost on me why Gun Head (no longer occupied with Bowl Cut spy dude, I see) thinks people would be less safe in the metal box that is quite some distance underground than they would be right at the surface when a 5km wide fire bomb set to “burn everything off the map” goes off.  Maybe the idea is to just manually run and try to get out of range?  But there are dozens of people in that box, including elderly and children.  5km is a bit over three miles—call it a mile and a half radius, then.  How fast could you run a mile back in Phys Ed, and would you want your grandmother or baby sibling to have to match that time to avoid being killed in a catastrophic inferno?

Granted, Dabi may or may not be right on top of them, but even if they’re towards the edge of the range, 5km is given as the distance at which everything will be “wiped off the map”—the damage is going to be reduced beyond that range, but it isn’t going to just cut off in a perfect circle!  Also too, if Tsukauchi is right and Dabi did get information from Skeptic, he might well be right on top of them!  He has been chasing Endeavor through the woods for several chapters now—perhaps he knew the spot he was aiming for?[2]

On the other hand, there are already pieces of the ceiling falling and taking out chunks of the interior structures, so maybe the reasoning here is that if they stay, they run a chance of the whole thing collapsing on them and burying them alive?  I dunno; I assume the real reason for getting people above ground is to facilitate the long overdue full Todofam reunion, but good lord, if what’s happening on the surface is so bad that it’s doing this underground, how could it possibly be safer to send people right up into whatever’s causing that damage?

O  Of course, it’s fairly ridiculous to begin with that Dabi’s anywhere near one of these escape routes.  As @itsnothingofinterest pointed out here, the heroes had complete control over where they set these battles.  Why, other than the meta reason that it would be better for the battles to be set in places the audience would recognize, were any of them set anywhere near an evacuation route?

This becomes particularly egregious when you look at the battle map volume extra and realize that all of these combats are happening in a roughly horizontal band across the central, southern parts of the country.  Why not move any of them north or much farther west?  Also too, once those locations are chosen, why send any of those escape cubes on routes that would pass nearby?  The cubes look basically as crowded as a random street scene—people gathered up in clumps in some areas with a lot of empty space in others—so why not just put more people in cubes that are headed on northerly routes?

I’m looking forward to the reunion, don’t get me wrong, but the seams are showing in ways that, taken at face value in-universe, reflect very poorly on the heroes.

 

On All Might, Quirklessness, and a Fight With AFO:

O  GOSH THIS ALL MIGHT QUIRKLESS STUFF.  Yes, even a quirkless person can be a hero, at least as long as they have millions of yen to burn on transforming mech suits!!!

And okay, maybe that’s reductive; I can see an argument that the point here is that even quirkless people can use what resources they have available to help!  Except that All Might is, by any measure, incredibly wealthy and influential because of the 30+ years he spent being the number one hero with the most powerful quirk in the world.  He has access to resources that no random quirkless kid—certainly not middle school Deku!—could hope to match!  His mech suit car thing is basically a souped-up support item, and support items are strictly, intensely regulated, such that only two categories of people are allowed to utilize them at all.

One category of people is irrelevant for this discussion: people whose quirks interfere with their everyday life.  If you don’t have a quirk at all, obviously you can’t get cleared for a support item through this method!

The other category, of course, is heroes.  Could a quirkless kid get access to support items that way?  Well, Deku seemed to believe, back in Chapter 1, that U.A. allows quirkless people to take its hero course entrance exam; hypothetically, then, a quirkless kid who got into a hero school would then be able to access support items to use in hero work.  However, since they wouldn’t have that access until after passing the exam, they’d have to pass the exam with nothing but their own abilities.

Has that ever happened?  Well, no—Deku clearly stated that there was no precedent.  That implies that it’s not allowed at most schools—or has only become allowed very recently—and that, even at schools that do allow it, there’s never been a quirkless person who’s been able to pass an exam.  Not at U.A., apparently not anywhere.

And that’s not really a surprise.  Diminishing the agency and potential of quirkless people so thoroughly that they lose confidence in themselves is a well-established pattern!  Mirio handily proves that a quirkless person with the right advantage—in his case, his training in Nighteye’s fighting style—is more than capable of facing down a threat even well-trained heroes would struggle against.  Yet Mirio was still either allowed or required to withdraw from hero courses after losing his quirk.

I suspect it’s the same with support items: the right tool could make all the difference in the right hands, but if those hands are quirkless, no one bothers to give them the training or tools that would make that difference, nor do they themselves believe it’s even worth trying.[3]  You see how that works?  Quirkless people need support items to be heroes, but only heroes are allowed access to support items.

Remember, All Might himself said that it was a bad idea to rely on support items, especially if they’re such a central part of one’s persona/skill set that losing them would be cause for hopelessness.  Even if he’s changed his mind since, it’s easy to imagine that that sentiment as being the party line on why quirkless people can’t use support items to become heroes: they’d be so reliant on them that they’d be “helpless” without them.[4]

With all that in mind, how exactly does All Might’s decision to face AFO in a mech suit like nothing the average quirkless person would ever have access to have any bearing on Deku’s question about quirkless people becoming heroes?

O  I note, too, that this is all framed around the idea of “a quirkless person becoming a Hero,” and very much not about the idea of a civilian, quirk or no quirk, stepping up to take heroic action when necessary.  We’ll get some of that in the next chapter, which is nice, but also very tied up in familial responsibility and parental duty, which is not equivalent to a stranger helping another stranger because they’re there and capable of stepping up.  Stepping up with no power was framed as admirable when Deku did it, but his reward was not validation that quirkless people could be Heroes after all, but rather the gift of his very own quirk.  Likewise, All Might stepping up is framed as admirable here, but it doesn’t answer Deku’s question any differently than All Might did the first time.

Back then, he said that, because of the dangers of the heroic career, only people with power can become Heroes.  All this scene does is expand the definition of power to include mechanical augmentation that no one but a Hero would be able to access anyway.  From the first chapter to today, the story is still telling us that being a Hero requires power beyond what a normal person can muster.

A reminder of how this issue reflects on another bedrock problem the narrative is presenting: if only Heroes are allowed to step up and make a difference, then Tenko is still walking.

O  Because of how incredibly faulty I find the attempted callback to the question of quirkless Heroes, I’m torn about how I want All Might and AFO’s fight to go.  On the one hand, I wouldn’t mind seeing AFO kick All Might’s ass for the sophistry of answering Deku’s Chapter 1 question with a mech suit!  He could also defy All Might’s expectations and just fly on by, and that would be funny!  On the other hand, there are a lot of good narrative reasons for AFO to, firstly, be tempted into stopping here to fight, and, secondly, lose.  

There are several arguments I can see for that, many based in the concept of him being influenced by Shigaraki:

AFO cultivated Shigaraki’s hatred of All Might, carefully encouraging it for years for the sole purpose of stealing OFA.  He only ever intended to use it as a tool; for that purpose, he intentionally warped his ward’s psyche.  It’s karmically appropriate, then, that that wrongdoing plays into his undoing, with the hatred he created becoming a trap he can’t escape.

AFO making bad decisions based on emotions he can’t handle underscores the idea of Tomura’s willpower overpowering VFO.  Shigaraki’s strong hatred was too strong for the vestige to handle, and merely moving the conflict to AFO’s mind instead of Shigaraki’s doesn’t change the outcome.  (I also like that AFO falling more under Tomura’s influence reverses the progression that we saw in Jakku, of AFO’s influence gradually overcoming Shigaraki.)

Shigaraki’s hatred spreading down the mental link is a keen parallel to his Decay being able to spread to things beyond what he directly touches.  Shigaraki destroys VFO; VFO is connected to AFO; guess what happens to AFO?

If All Might could beat AFO but get his suit taken out in the process, that would leave the rest of this story to the next generation, and it would be about goddamn time. 

O  Some of those points are in opposition to points that could be made in favor of AFO’s victory, though more in the sense of both being valid points rather than one being a counterargument that defeats the other.

For example, the idea of leaving the story to the next generation works if you believe that Shigaraki should be the final boss.  I do, fiercely, but plenty of other people believe just as strongly that the last fight should be Deku (+/- Shigaraki) vs. AFO.

Likewise, there’s an argument that AFO will win here because the story has set up the idea that he has to give his quirk factor to Shigaraki, so it has to follow through on that plot thread.  A fair point, but you could also say that we already saw Shigaraki defeat VFO and there’s no point in retreading that if the outcome will just be the same, so instead, we have Shigaraki’s hatred/will overcome AFO right here and now, resulting in him getting into a fight he can’t afford to waste time having with All Might.

…One argument I don’t have a counter for is that if a mech suit is all it takes to defeat Prime AFO, why didn’t Hero Society just do that decades ago?  But I suppose Prime AFO wasn’t on a rapidly depleting life timer, so All Mech doesn’t need to be able to decisively defeat him, so much as just stall him.

O  Some of those points are also banking on the AFO/Shigaraki mental bond having overcome the complication of distance.  I mentioned that last time, so to elaborate slightly: in 340, All Might says that the minimum separation they need wrt AFO and Shigaraki is ten kilometers—a little under six-and-a-quarter miles.  The distance from the villa to the spot where U.A. was, meanwhile, is closer to one hundred miles.  Given how much Hawks and company had been managing to stall and delay, shouldn’t the distance at which AFO started mentioning his other self's influence still have been too great for their mind link (and thus, presumably, Shigaraki’s emotions) to be in effect? Pretty sure the characters would have mentioned it if AFO had managed to get that close all the way back circa Machia's arrival!

In that light, it’s interesting that there’s a conflict between what All Might says—that Shigaraki’s influence is what’s making AFO unable to suppress his negative emotions—and what the narration box says—that, according to Hawks’ report, the de-aging process is the culprit.  I don’t know if anything will come of that discrepancy—Hawks has to be guessing, but when was the last time Hawks actually guessed wrong about anything?—but it might be worth pointing out anyway, in case it’s relevant to the theories about AFO having impulse control problems because of his quirk.  Maybe All Might and AFO are just wrong about what’s going on in AFO’s brain!

(Note that a much simpler possibility is that splitting up AFO and Shigaraki was never about their mental link but simply about separating the enemy's two most dangerous combatants. The mental connection is mentioned, but it's not the sole cause for concern. But if that's the case, why mention such a specific distance as ten kilometers, instead of just trying to get them as far apart as possible? If them joining up at all is the problem, the distance is immaterial. So what else can the 10km be if not the maximum range of the mental connection?)

 

Odds & Ends:

O This is a really damn good sentiment that I wish the story would delve further into by letting its characters actually express more doubt.  Like, fair’s fair, neither Shouto nor Uraraka have managed to cinch a victory against Dabi or Toga when their actions haven’t matched their desires—squaring up for combat when they want a more peaceable resolution.  However, given that the full extent of doubt we’ve seen is Uraraka and Deku discussing, “Hmm, maybe I’m not feeling so great about beating the shit out of someone I have recently begun to suspect is a human person with human emotions.  But maybe I’m just a big weirdo and I should forget all about that,” it’s pretty, uh, basic?  Maybe we could take more than baby steps, is what I’m getting at here.

(Also, I note harboring that kind of doubt sure as shit doesn’t stop Deku from punching seven kinds of shit out of Shigaraki as long as he can still tell himself it’s AFO in control.  So, you know, he’s doing just fine on the victory front so far, doubts and all.)

O  Shouto’s emotional “stiff upper lip while his lower lip is going all wobbly from All Might praising him” face is cute.

O  Iida clonking Shouto with his mask is also cute.  But also, given that the distance is around two hundred miles—so Iida covering that distance in ten minutes will have him moving at roughly 1200mph—I can’t help but feel like it ought to take more than a face mask to protect someone who isn’t built for speed like Iida is from the wind intensity.

O  I think a lot of people assume the “wayward child” Iida is referring to is Shouto, and that’s a fair interpretation, but given how much Shouto wants to find some way to come to terms with his brother, it’s really far more Touya who’s gone astray.  Preventing that explosion means saving Dabi too, after all, so I think it’s maybe a bit more resonant if Iida is referring to the elder brother there.

O  I say this in complete sincerity: Hawks clutching Tokoyami is a good, emotive panel.  I also say this in complete sincerity: I dearly hope some Himijins catch up to them, STAT.

O  Stain must have either immersion-breakingly superb hearing or an in on the police line if I’m expected to believe he could hear Shouto and Iida’s conversation well enough to render a value judgement on it from the distance he’s at.  Maybe he’s just making some assumptions, since I trust he’s seen the Dabi broadcast like everyone else in the world at this point and thus can draw some basic conclusions from Dabi leaving via warp and Iida picking up Dabi’s brother piggyback-style.

O  Speaking of Iida and Shouto leaving, I notice we got no input from Burnin’ this week or last.  She was still standing last we saw her, so where’s she gotten to?  Maybe she’s getting medical attention for Kido and Onima?  We haven’t seen them since Dabi was doing a very good impression of burning them alive.

I will be shocked if Dabi managed to off a named character of greater significance and personal import to him than Snatch.  Pleased, too—as I’ve said before, Dabi’s firepower gets talked up way too much for how ineffectual it tends to be in terms of concrete, lasting consequences, and I can think of no better candidates to correct that than one or two of Endeavor’s sidekicks.  They certainly don’t deserve to be burned alive, but, well, them’s the breaks when you stand there flapping your gums to a murderous abuse victim about why you personally chose to stand with his abuser.

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

[1] So naturally, he goes and gets ice powers next chapter.  Sigh.  We’ll see how I feel about that when I read the official release and start putting thoughts down in writing.

[2] As, indeed, it turns out he is.  Mind you, typically the person with more control over where a chase goes is the one being pursued, not the pursuer.  Dabi would need to nipping right at Endeavor’s heels to have much ability to turn him in a specific direction, or he’d need to be teamed up with a partner who could also direct Endeavor’s flight.  So it’s actually pretty strange to suggest that Dabi/Skeptic had any hand in this confrontation winding up where it did.  Endeavor is the one who decided to take off in this direction and not veer off in another at any point.  A little more on this topic next time, probably.

[3] You could argue that Deku was an exception to this, but Chapter 1 Deku always comes off to me as someone who was pinning all his hopes on a Hail Mary without even considering his other options.  He wanted to tell himself, At least I tried, but he was already pretty sure he was going to fail, so he wasn’t doing prep he could have been doing to maximize his odds, like exercise, martial arts training, looking into backup schools with easier exams, etc.  I would be entirely unsurprised if Deku didn’t even contact U.A. to see if quirkless people are allowed to test for their Hero Course, or if that was just the earliest hurdle that would have felled him and left him thinking, Well, it didn’t hurt to try.

[4] As if that isn’t true for every hero who ever comes up against a villain that’s a hard counter for their skill set, like all those heroes in Chapter 1 who gave up on even attempting to save Bakugou the moment the “tools” they were reliant on—their quirks—were rendered moot.

[x-kiwi-03]

Shiragiri REAL????

[uozlulu]

manga spoilers

Still thinking about Shiragiri’s 2 for 1 protection deal where he prevented Aizawa and Yamada from falling to death while also getting them away from Shigaraki.

Like I keep imagining all the various places he might have portaled Aizawa and Yamada away and I keep coming back to that park we see the three of them at in the flashbacks. Which might not be near any of the battles possibly.

So now I keep imagining Aizawa and Yamada plus the Twice clones falling about a foot off the ground onto whatever remains of this busted up park with the wind knocked out of them

[midgardianqueenreturns]

Imagine having such bad reading comprehension that your takeaway from Aizawa recognizing Kurogiri’s care for Tomura as part of Shirakumo’s nature is “Kuroboro doesn’t really care about Tomura he is only programmed to”.

[mobolanz]

Haven't had this much fun since making someone i knew once read bnha shortly after the shiragiri reveal 🤭

[bluecryptic]

I didn't expect for that many people to like my Kuroboro/Shiragiri concept and the positive reception makes me want to draw more so...

I want to name him, should I call him Kuroboro or Shiragiri?

Or maybe something else entirely?

[class1akids]

BNHA Chapter 425 - Thoughts

So I guess Hori did decide to just skip the end of the battle, my hospital academia and go straight to UA graduation?

It was teased back in Ch 360, so yeah it needed to happen and it seems like drawing Neijire is a special happy place for Hori (also the sketch he couldn't even wait until Sunday to drop, lol)

Mic DJ-ing right after ShiraGiri's death is sort of odd, but on top of the gags, there are some more serious moments.

What stood out to me was Mirio's comment about how the heroes' fight "is always for the sake of returning the negatives to zero on the whole." It reminded me of Ch 341 - The Story of how We All Became Heroes Minus ① which featured Touya, Toga, Spinner and of course Tomura suffering the transformation. So I can't help but feel it's related to the LoV's fate.

The class is together 😭 crying like a proud parent (whose tumblr handle just became obsolete).... and Aizawa is staying. Yay. After 400+ chapters they made it to second year!!!

Bakugou omg, out of the hospital in a tie which he somehow tied with one hand, being calm... (it's still odd to the others? - but I guess his apology happened like 3 weeks ago in-verse). It seems like he might end up with a scar, just like Izuku (and it's a bit like Kudou's, of course).

Aoyama leaving - I talked about this in one of the asks, but for me it's ok that it's his choice being respected and that the class clearly would be happy to have him stay. Though I wonder if his parents are just suddenly given amnesty for being "AFO's victims" and what that may mean for other villains.

Shinsou joins Class A long at last. Yay! Is he going to get Aoyama's room or join the 5th floor boys? I do wonder if the kids are still in the dorms even.

The Fuwa-stans are getting fed. But Class 2-A (can't get used to this...) will take a year long field trip around Japan. Reminds me of the 100 million tour newpaper sketches.

I liked Shoto mentioning AFO - how he was born in an era of turmoil (which I read as him saying that preventing the rise of such villains is now). It also seems to contradict what All Might said last chapter about Deku already being the greatest hero to everyone.

But also Shouto speaks. Normal speech bubbles. Has a normal voice! Yay! (still don't get it why he didn't speak in Ch 422 though)

Izuku looks troubled. Either because of what Shouto said or because of Fuwa senpai's comments about needing to experience a sudden death to understand why you'd want to be a hero. He certainly is not ready to run celebratory circles.

Watch them all walk together (TDBK covered by Iida's speech bubble, but I recognize them from Shouto's messenger bag and Katsuki's loose pants)

OMG, these guys are a total disaster. I don't know what Deku wanted to say, but Ochako obviously shut him down (and thought it was about her "let him rest" speech which apparently the class keeps teasing her for). Also Hori is using her to explain Deku's haircut.

And here, she looks weirdly happy compared to last time, but it could be just a front...

poor Deku though... he thinks she hates his haircut

No idea who the new guy is, but looks like someone escaped / let loose from a medical facility. Could be regenerated Tenko I guess or someone similar to him who can be saved by Deku this time. I prefer it to be the real Tenko because I want to see Tenko Rising. I think he looks too young to be Deku's dad tbh.

TDDK scene !!! Yay!!! (I wonder if Deku tries to talk both to Ochako and Shouto because of his feelings about Tenko... I really badly want a saviour squad scene)

Todoroki looks hopeful but not sure if it's genuine (it could be putting on a front to stop Izuku from worrying). But his foot is like when he went to see his mom the first time, so I tend to read that right now as a good sign.

"っし" (?????) - there is definitely a shift of emotion.

Endeavor is sitting in front of a giant tank / or secure room window. (?) (Probably the same window Shouto was looking in last chapter.

From the context and framing it's clear that it's Touya. For now alive. Endeavor is finally keeping his promise and is watching.

And the editorial blurb also suggests we may get Hellish Todoroki Family 3 after the two weeks break. I'm very worried, but also since we are strapping in for a longer epilogue it seems, I don't expect things to go smoothly for them just yet.

[lemongogo]

i really hope they end up animating the vigilantes aizawa and mic backstory bc i feel like the tartarus scene w kurogiri is really lacking without the context of the depth of their relationship w oboro you know? just a couple panels showing they knew this guy doesn’t do a great job at showing how hard this hits them and how much their lives were impacted by his death.

i agree! even though its an unrelated situation, i felt the same about the compress reveal. we only ever heard about ouji once (with extremely minimal information at that), making the “reveal” pretty lackluster SFKJHSDF 

i’m not saying it’s the same as kurogiris since i feel like his has the inclination to be more relevant and actually Has a vigs storyline but. i do wish some of these plots were more involved in the story as well. thats something i feel like bnha suffers with a bit,, especially when considering the pace of these high profile arcs

but yeah !! back to the mic / aizawa / kurogiri thing. im right there with you. i think vigilantes, from the little i’ve read, does a really good job in providing aizawa the proper characterization for his motivations. like, the essence of the tartarus reveal aside for a second, i think the shirakumo incident does a rly good job of explaining his teaching style, his caution, hesitance with the hpsc, etc. his experiences as a student alone are so pivotal to who he is Now that it just feels incomplete w/o that inclusion. but YEAH, its even more important for the shirakumo/kurogiri reveal bc otherwise like?? anybody who hasnt read vigs isn’t going to care or feel like they should care,, aside from that v v v brief comment mic made in joint training, he’s just some guy the two knew of and thats abt it. theres nothing that rly compels you to sympathize w kurogiri or understand the scope of the situation. plus, not to mention the impact extends to afo and ujiko as well? and shigaraki? and a larger part of the cast than just aizawa and mic alone (shinsou, for another ex)? , so its like... yeah . i hope they end up including parts of vigs in the upcoming season(s) too

[wolfcrunch]

Chapter 254 - More than anyone you should be a hero / should have been a hero

Aizawa Flashback

The three of them discuss starting a hero agency together. But then the incident happened right after that.

Shirakumo: I think we can do anything as long as we're together. Mic: No arguing about money okay guys!

They all look at Kurogiri

Mic: We were called the three idiots of Class A, I don't get why this happened! 

Gran Torino: I assume his body was taken befor being cremated and he became this crazed toy they call Nomu... there's no meaning to it, DJ.

Tsukauchi comments how the Nomu that Endeavor fought in Kyushu had a human personality.

He tells the two of them he wants them to try and awaken Shirakumo again, and Aizawa and Mic are lead to where they are monitored but can speak with Kurogiri alone.

Kurogiri is curious about Shigaraki.

Kurogiri: My mission is to take care of him.

Mic: What do you mean it's your mission to look after that brat

Kurogiri: I don't mind it, I can't leave people like that alone.

Aizawa remembers how Shirakumo picked up a stray cat and lent him his goggles to protect his eyes.

While removing his goggles Aizawa then says, "Shirakumo, if you're still in there then let's do it... let's be heroes! The three of us!"