#shoto vs deku

[yanisproduction34]

[cryiling]

anyways ive decided if deku doesn't get his ass over to bakugo's corpse in the next 2-3 episodes im gonna cave and just read the manga. bc im sorry but i do NOT care abt any of these other fights right now 😭

[loverln]

im so convinced the only two people who know about bkdk’s feelings for each other, including themselves, are denki and shoto.

denki is calling katsuki kacchan to make fun of him and izuku’s relationship light heartedly because he knows they’re in love. he’s playfully teasing like oooo that’s your crushhh vibes.

shoto hasn’t said anything because he’s shoto, but when izuku inevitably realizes what’s happening and goes to him he just looks confused. didn’t you know?? he thought you knew. his bad!

[benevolentspidey]

rewatching my hero academia from the beginning because it’s been awhile and i have nothing better to do and mha was like… really fucking gay from the start

[chiihara]

[todorokies]

sometimes you gotta throw in the towel and admit mha has goated ass moments

[dekusheroacademia]

musical vs manga: Protecting Kacchan

[mazu-art]

Shouto Vs Deku animation or something

[izurot137]

I colored a panel of My Hero Academia again

[ben-talks-art]

Hot Take, Deku vs Shoto is the highest point of My Hero Academia

At least in my opinion...

My Hero Academia has honestly quite a lot of moments that could be considered as "highest points." It has the battle with Stain, the rematch of Deku and Bakugou, the "United States of SMASH!", Deku at 100% vs Overhaul, and others... But when it comes to the closest thing to a perfect balance of emotion + some really solid writing, in my eyes, I don't think anything ever topped the fight of Midorya vs Todoroki.

The thing that brings this moment to such high standards for me is that this is the series' best showcase of really strong motivations clashing with each other.

Motivation is the defining trait that sells me on a character, and my favorite aspect of a story is seeing how a character's motivations are portrayed through their actions and behaviors.

Shoto's motivation is that he wants to prove to his father that he can achieve success in life without his help solely because he developed a hatred towards him after the way the man treated both him and his mother.

Meanwhile, Deku hears this story and starts feeling insulted by Shoto's mentality, as if he was saying that he was going to achieve success with an arm behind his back while everyone else is using both arms, both legs, and everything else they have to win and still weren't even coming close to the amount of success he had.

You can especially see this in the way Deku needs to constantly break every part of his body just to stand on the same ground as Shoto, and yet Shoto claims he will win using just half of his power.

It feels like that Invincible meme, "Look what you need to mimic a fraction of my power!"

Shoto is trying so hard to obtain victory that he doesn't even realize how arrogant he sounds, and how disrespectful he is being towards everyone's efforts. Imagine giving 100% in a fight and still losing to a dude that just gave 50%.

But what is so good about this is that you still get where Shoto is coming from. You see how his anger completely blinded him to the world around him and made his father turn into his obsession.

That's the wonderful tragedy of Shoto at the time, he wants to prove so bad he doesn't need his dad that he indirectly turned his dad into the center of his universe. His entire existence revolves around the man he hates the most.

So while Deku is fighting with Shoto, Shoto is in truth fighting with his father. And everything is portrayed so well!

Deku's frustration, Shoto's obsession, the shadow his father cast on him and how it continues to haunt him, the complete disrespect of all the other players, everything is shown through just the right amount of very simple words.

And all that continues to build up to a great climax where after constantly getting pushed by Deku, Shoto finally decides to stop looking at the man that tainted his past and instead looked at the boy that's right in front of him.

As he himself puts it, he forgets about his father and just accepts to use the power he gained from him to fight at 100% just like everyone else... And most shocking of all, he ends up winning!

This fight just has so many great themes.

How sometimes the way you keep holding onto your hate towards someone ends up making them become a bigger part of you than you wish they were.

How Sometimes just being happy and moving on is the best revenge.

How when you keep your eyes focused only on the thing you think you want you end up closing your eyes to the things you actually need.

How one simple small action can reflect negatively on multiple people, like choosing to fight with a handicap while everyone is fighting and giving everything they have.

How using just the right amount of words can deliver a much bigger message. In particular, I freaking love the line "I forgot about you."

And then we have Deku who, honestly could probably have won the fight if just kept his mouth shut and continued to fight Shoto while using only half his full power, but in that moment he choose defending his ideals of helping someone in need and self-respect of not wanting to be looked down upon over the actual victory, and that's very admirable.

This is such a short and simple fight but there is such much weight inside of it, all because you get where both of them are coming from. These two have just perfect motivations and seeing them clash highlights everything about it that makes them so interesting.

Like, without wanting to dunk too much on other people's favorite moments, I never got what's so interesting about the motivation of All For One and All Might during their fight. One wants to create chaos and get revenge and the other wants to protect people. They're good motivations, but to me, they're not really that complex or interesting. I was invested because I like All Might and want to see him win... But I never felt there was much to talk about when it comes to their rivalry.

Or Deku vs Overhaul. It definitely has emotion because you care about protecting the little girl that has been imprisoned her whole life and you want to see the guy that hurt her get trashed... But I don't even remember what Overhaul's motivation was... He was just some guy I wanted to see getting punched.

Honestly, the closest I ever got to a really strong clashing of interests was Deku vs Gentle. Their fight itself wasn't anything out of this world but I at least was invested in why both of them wanted to win, I could buy their motivations, and I could see how much they wanted to beat the other.

I just feel that My Hero never managed to reach the same level of quality as Deku vs Shoto. Again, to me, that was the closest thing to a perfect balance of clever writing + emotional investment.

It felt to me like it had the best themes, the most emotion, some really solid messages, and just portrayed both combating sides as equally relevant in a way no other scene after managed to achieve.

This to me is the highest point of My Hero Academia.

[eclecticfurywhispers]

I don't think Hori was staying that victimizers who had become victimizers could never be saved. I think Toga, Dabi and Shigaraki were killed to remind the audience that there's no guarantee that those who have fallen to the cracks can be reformed. However Ochako and Deku did mange to give their adversaries closure. Besides I don't think the story would be realistic if Twice was the only Anti-Villian who didn't live long enough to do better.

"Heroes can't save everyone" We already knew this! Repeating what we already knew isn't a satisfactory conclusion to anything.

If Ochako started off as naive girl who thought that everything will work out in the end, then coming to terms with the realities of heroism could have been a fitting ending. But that is not her story at all! Ochako's arc was kick started after carrying dying Nighteye in her arms. She is well aware that heroes can't save everyone. Because naivety wasn't her character flaw, the failure to save Toga doesn't develop her character in any way nor does it showcase her growth as a person. And it's not meaningful for the story to end with an answer to something that was never the question. Her character flaws were the sense of powerlessness and emotional suppression. Saving Toga in a confrontation of raw emotion would have broken her out of that suppression and helplessness and thus would have been a powerful culmination of her character.

Secondly, we already had "Heroes can't save everyone" when Hawks failed to reach out to Twice. The death of Twice made Toga question what Ochako wants to do to her. I thought that was set up for the cycle of violence to be broken by the new generation. Apparently not. Toga dying despite Ochako doing everything right, coupled with the fact that Tomura died and Dabi is dying too, makes it feel like heroes cannot save those who have fallen through the cracks, no matter what. Isn't that just awful?

Ochako's arc ends with the person she wanted to save dying in her arms. Again. The hero failed to save the villain. Again. On top of all that, the poor girl is suppressing her feelings. Again.

It's redundant and unsatisfying. Makes it feel like we didn't progress at all - just repeating the old failures.

Also I don't want to hear about gritty realism when this manga has this fucking thing lmao

In the same chapter where Ochako has a breakdown over Toga apparently dying from blood transfusion no less. Unhinged.

[dreamsailor]

i wish class a vs deku was izuku vs shoto part 2

[arceus-insanity]

So When Did Things Start Going Down Hill

I don't mean everything is shit after this, but things looking back started getting (steadily) worse starting with. Check bottom for more indept view on each option

A) at first I wasn't going to include this one as it happened before most of what I considered shit started happening, but with how much it blatantly favours this lazy-ass child abuser, how could I not include it. And of course, it shows so much evidence that he hasn't changed at all, like only even offering to teach Midoriya and Bakugo to manipulate his favourite victim Shoto

B) when it first happened I was devastated but expected this to lead to greater change to the hero system and society. But no, just a meaningless footnote to the heroes epic battle

C) literally no one questions how a top hero was just so eager to kill someone, or buy a wife, breed her, abuse & neglect his kids to the point one of them was believed dead. Only citizens whining about how Dabi is bad for them

D) here's this apparently big shot hero from the States we've never heard of before and immediately dies. If they wanted to keep Shigaraki from having too many powers they could of just chalked it up to the heroes interupting the process

E) the Todoroki family all blames themselves, this isn't to go into the complexity of abusive households, but to absolve Endeavor's responsibility and guilt. Despite the fact that as the one who created and was in control of this situation, he should be held accountable for theirs as well. The only backlash for his shit is framed as ohh poor Endeavor, he didn't mean for the child he threw away to create consequences, and now people are being mean to them

F) what was the point of this arc? Deku barely asks a villain three questions before giving up. He learns the HPSC had Lady Nagant acting as a secret assassin against any undesireables for them, covered up her arrest and got a replacement assassin (Hawks who has at least one confirmed extra jurdical murder under his belt). Witnesses an innocent woman get attacked for her appearance and was turned away from multiple shelters for said appearance. Deku: Hero Society is the Best, Nothing needs to change, because not every single apple in this basket is rotten to the core! Looking back he just looks worse for this

G) so this child, who due to his parents mistake was blackmailed under great threat & risk, into giving information to the blackmailer, deserves to be chained up and forced to take further risk by the heroes. Remember Endeavor never faces any consequences, nor does Hawks, but this child, Yuga, gets treated like this.

H) once again what was the point? How does Edgeshot know he can do this? How does he know how to do this? Why is he a top hero who has never interacted with Bakugo before this, sacrifices his appearing to be unharmed self, for a random hero student in the middle of a war? Oh and Edgeshot is revealed to be alive at the end of the manga, because Heroes have no consequences and live in magical fairytail land. Again what was the fucking point!

I) This was originally going to be two points, Oh poor Endeavor, victim blaming part 2 and the hospital battle. But I ran out of options and Endeavor doesn't need another personal option. So we got the whole Todofam blaming Dabi/Touya this time, and Endeavor being a whiney responsibility dodging coward again. Then we see the heroes knew that the villains were going to go after Kurogiri, kept him in a hospital. We see that the people aren't going after doctors or patients just trying to get to Kurogiri, get demonized for it. We have victim blamer/ pick-me Tentacole say that their kids will be attacked for this (already happening), and that it's up to them/ him to inspire the violent quirkests to not constantly attack, assualt, and otherwise discriminate against them, no need for the quirkists to be given any responsibility or consequences for their own actions. Oh and Spinner has major brain damage because how else was Tentacole supposed to win this arguement. Bonus points for Hawks calling for Toga to be murdered, doubling right back down on his previous murder

J) in this already overcrowded 3rd act lets make sure all these background characters get a scene! And despite the fact it took years for Deku to get a powersuit in the epilogue, All Might just randomly gets one, no build up or anything. AFO's backstory is left in the past so no one has to consider anything

K) I had hope going into this, but at every turn they kept on making it worse. Deku only tries punching and attacking, rather than make any attempts to actually talk unlike what Shigaraki has been doing since his introduction. Is randomly able to enter Shigaraki's head, doesn't have to see just how fucked Hero Society is as it gets cut short by moral scapegoat AFO coming in and revealing he orcastrated everything! Oh and he flat out kills Shigaraki. Living up to his name and not his goal. Deku that could my ass

Sorry if this comes off as super negative but I've been wondering this for a while, and well I'm pissed at the ending. Here's some people I want to hear the opinions of:

@moodyvoid @nagitosstolenhand @codenamesazanka @shortstrawberryshake @darkonekrisrewrite @nothingofinterest @itsnothingofinterest @villainsandvictimsalliance

Feel free to @ more people

[that-one-fran-fan]

A Shoto arc retrospective

Can I say something really mean about my hero academia? Can I??

I got into mha when I was a 14 yo girl, I saw Deku vs. Todoroki at the sports festival and I was immediately sucked into the story.

I was a little girl being physically abused by a parent at home, and when I saw Shoto, the first ever character I came across in TV who was being abused in a similar way as me, it sparked hope deep in my chest. That he was going to be saved, that he was going to be believed and helped and rescued and maybe, just maybe, that meant that there was a chance for me too.

Maybe I was going to be saved.

For years, I daydreamed about the time when the truth of Endeavor would come out, when Shoto was finally going to be safe. Sometimes it was my only comfort when I dissociated during or after being hurt.

Then it happened, and Shoto wasn’t saved, and Endeavor faced no consequences with the law or his reputation. Shoto’s feelings on the matter were never addressed. He never got to cry, his friends never got to comfort him, Aizawa or any other adult in his life never got to save him like I had imagined so many times.

Maybe it’s selfish of me to project my desire to be saved onto a fictional character that isn’t mine.

But I was 14, and I was still scared to call what was being done to me ‘abuse’, and Shoto was my anchor through a lot of pain. Because he was like me, isolated and hurt. And I hoped that I could be saved like he was going to be.

And then he wasn’t.

Now I’m 23, and mha is ending, and I’ve never been more disappointed by a piece of media in my life.

[shadowed-dancer]

Villains and Their Fates - A Tragedy Would Have Been Fine By Me

I've seen a lot of people who try to write off frustration with the league's fates by saying "you just wanted them to survive" or "you're just upset your favourite character died". And while that may be true for a few people, I know that it's at least not true for myself (which must mean there are others who feel the same way). So today I'm here to share my thoughts. Despite liking the villains and wanting them to be redeemed, I was also willing to accept a well written ending if they died. I just wanted to ramble a bit about the three main villains (mostly Toga) and how I felt a tragic ending could have been improved.

The only villain I felt should have lived is Dabi, but that's more because of the awkwardness his unconfirmed death caused for Shoto (read this beautifully written analysis for more). If Dabi had to die, he should have died on the battle field OR in the hospital surrounded by family where he gets a few last words in. Leaving his fate unconfirmed leads to the ruined Shoto arc, but is also just weird for a character who has existed for so long. You're telling me that even Overhaul gets a confirmed ending but DABI doesn't?

I've also talked a bit about how Endeavor's survival ruins the subplot, and in 426 he continues by making Touya's final appearance about him (rather than the two brothers) but that's something I've talked about too much. If Endeavor has to be alive and hogging screen time, the least Hori could do is imply Touya will survive rather than die, so at least Enji isn't literally stealing time from his other family members to have some interaction with Touya.

If Touya has to end up in that machine, an ideal ending would have been the doctor saying "it will be a gruelling and near-impossible uphill climb to recovery" and then Shoto can smile and say "he's done it before". Boom. Simple as that. Leave it open, but at least on a positive note so we can assume that the family will have plenty of time to reconcile, as opposed to an unknown (but limited) amount of time that Enji vows to use to talk to him (yeah I know it's supposed to be a sweet gesture but even Touya calls bullshit on it). Let Shoto and Touya eat their soba, damn it!

For Shigaraki, my grievances extend to the writing of the entire final battle between him and Deku. As such, I don't have much to say aside from that because it really is just a product of poor writing. Neither were really allowed to talk before the big moment (hell, the vestiges were narrating Deku's emotions half the time like "he must be upset, this quirk meant so much to him". Why not let him tell us???) and the back-and-forth of Shigaraki being destroyed and then not only to be destroyed again was too much. It felt sloppy and hard to follow, and once you figured it out it just felt dumb. It's as if each chapter needed some massive reveal, but the story had done it so much at this point that it just felt tired and like it was happening "because Hori said so", and that should never be what drives a story.

Speaking of "because Hori said so"...

Oh Toga. Out of all the villains, I actually liked her confrontation the most. (Lies. If Dabi vs Shoto was the end of Dabi's fight, THAT would have been the best. But the Endeavor fight ruins it). Despite having limited screen time, Toga and Uraraka had a surprisingly well-built dynamic. Their few interactions were actually meaningful and created a strong foundation for a fight, and at the very least they had more of a personal connection than Deku and Shigaraki ever did. I think that Toga giving her blood to someone she loves (as opposed to drinking/taking their blood like she had said the whole series) is a beautifully tragic end to her character, but still something that could have fit.

To me, the problem comes with how she died. Let me replay the scene for you: Toga stabs Uraraka in the stomach and Uraraka bleeds too much because she keeps moving around. Toga then realizes she doesn't want Uraraka to die. To save her life, Toga has to do a blood transfusion with herself as a donor and she dies because she has to give ALL her blood.

Now... sure. Ok. Fine. Yeah. Maybe by real-world logic this makes sense. I guess. Whatever. But within the world of MHA, this setup is laughable.

Here's a list of things characters survived (or at least, they survived LONG ENOUGH to get to a hospital rather than dying on the battlefield): Deku shattering his bones with 1 million percent, whatever happened to Best Jeanist when AFO attacked him, Nighteye getting a massive spike through the torso, All Might with "his entrails strewn across the ground", Bakugo becoming Swiss cheese, Grand Torino being punched so hard a crater forms beneath him, Touya being a literal flaming skeleton, Bakugo's heart exploding, Edgeshot becoming a worm. Mirko getting a limb ripped off and then running full speed at Shigaraki. That's just off the top of my head, I know there's probably more.

But you want to tell me that Uraraka getting stabbed and then moving was a fatal wound that required ALL TOGA'S BLOOD? ALL OF IT? The reason Toga's death bothers me is that the setup cheapens the actual moment of sacrifice. It feels preventable, so when she tells us that Uraraka is going to die without her blood, all I could do is roll my eyes because I'm not allowed to use critical thinking skills, I have to just accept what Hori says and take it at face value.

If the author wants you to live as Edgeworm despite saying you were gonna die, you can. But if the author needs a stab wound to be fatal and require ALL of someone's blood? Well tough luck bud, that's just how it goes. Mirko can run and move all she wants after having a limb ripped off, but moving a bit after one stab wound is fatal. Why? Because I say so.

If Uraraka's wound was actually serious then this ending would have been a beautiful tragedy. But as it stands now, the ridiculousness of her wound makes it all feel preventable.

Oh, there's also the fact that Toga switching blood types when she transforms was never established, but I've rambled enough.

That's it. Thanks for reading!

[bibibbon]

The way Deku’s dynamics with the rest of the cast have taken a nosedive in act III is so depressing, there’s SO much missed potential.

He doesn’t reflect on Endeavor (beyond a brief moment protecting the Todoroki’s on PLW)

He doesn't reflect on Hawks actions being exposed for everyone to see, the safety commission conveniently evaporates so Hawks and Nagant’s roles on society have already been taken down, leaving his desire to change society feel shallow.

Hawks interacts with Deku on Villain Hunt but him murdering a Villain that was actually a good person isn’t explored, and neither is wanting to save Shigaraki or the way he’s gonna go about it when you could easily contrast what Hawks DID with what Deku should have done.

Endeavor’s reaction to Izuku having All Might’s power, his relationship with AM is ruined, his relationship with his own class is barebones besides Ochako, it’s so sad to see a character that was known for learning from everyone around him suddenly losing all of the wonderful dynamics he had and could have had in the last stretch of the story

I would say that Izuku's interactions with other characters and meaningful interactions+intropsection that can directly help his character development has decreased in both quantity and quality since the middle of act 2 or much more accurately since the bakugo Vs izuku fight part 2 (is when I noticed it tbh)

I say this because it is exactly after those acts that we see less of izuku and all might relationship being depicted in a meaningful way or we don't have all mights problems with his successor being addressed, take for example the vigilante arc where all might and izuku meet after their falling out is framed as a gag or joke and we never see them talking it out. Sure the introduction could be played for a bit of laughs but what rubs me the wrong way is that there isn't a slow meaningful talk about this between the two (also I have just come to the realisation that all might and izukus relationship should of been built up a lot more before this moment and they're quite shallow in terms of mentor and mentee)

There's also Izuku's relationship with enji todoroki that somehow does a complete 180 spin where he first went from hating on enji for what he did to shoto and his family to then defending enji infront of touya and telling shoto that he is ready to forgive enji somehow even though enji has done unforgivable deeds. This moment just seems ooc for izuku and even after everything is revealed in more gruesome details like you said we don't even get a scene of izuku thinking about it or actually acknowledging that enji is a bad person and that touya has a point.

Or when the dark corruptness of society is revealed we only see izuku exclaim and almost berate lady nagant for killing her boss (who drove her almost insane because of the amount of killing he made her do) and it's so convenient that HPSC doesn't exists anymore so horikoshi doesn't need to make Izuku think about it at all (ultimately this ends up being bad because Izuku's dream of ripping up the realms of good and evil like a rug become almost meaningless) he k izuku doesn't thunk abkut how it was the hpsc and UA that sent both him and his classmates to war as child soldiers (actually none of 1A or 1B think about this)

Izuku and hawks could of had a meaningful conversation about how to go around saving villains and how their ideologies may clash with hawks believing that Jin needed to be killed to prevent tragedy and izuku wanting to save shigaraki. Izuku and hawks share some interesting parallels with one another but they're not deeply explored especially when they can be and lead to more izuku and hawks intropsection. Ultimately Izuku and hawks do have similar thinking styles with both of them believing that because a villain wouldn't back down that they can't save them, both of them being used as weapons by society, both of them wanting to protect, both of them being great analyst and having great intelligence. These are just some things that they have in common.

Or Izuku and his somewhat superficial or shallow bond with his classmates. I can admit that izuku and some of his classmates had a strong build up for some interesting relationships like izuku and iida (but due to iida being sidelined the whole holding hands moment and reaching out kinda falls flat) or Izuku and shoto (but Izuku's view of enji ruins it a bit and it's a shame we dont see izuku spill the beans to shoto since shoto is always the first to notice izukus emotional distress) or izuku and ochako (but it got muddled a bit because of the whole shipping thing and the way the narrative frames some of their moments). I think Izuku also needed more time with other classmates to build a proper relationship with them that's not based on transactional things that he did for them like encouraging jiro for the school festival or standing up for ojirou (I would of liked there to be more in between all of that)

Heck there are overall more character relationships that I want Izuku to have in deeper depths like izuku and shigaraki are pretty underdeveloped or Izuku and mei who had great chemistry or Izuku and shota. heck established relationships like izuku and kora or Eri should get more screentime and depth as they can for sure help Izuku's character. Izuku and his relationship with his mother could of easily been turned into an arc where inko realises that she is neglectful and steps up as a parent. Etc etc.

Ultimately it's a shame that these things never happen because what made Izuku's character so compelling to me is his parallels and foils with the rest of the cast and that he is a character who learns, adapts and also should of been one that questions and influences change within society but he doesn't!