#the BNHA fandom needs more theories

[deusvervewrites]

Regarding the current discussion about why Aizawa often gets the Dadzawa treatment in fanfics, I actually have a theory:

When we first meet him, we are primed to dislike him, after all he is an asshole teacher and specifically an asshole towards Izuku who we all like. But he accepts Izuku after the latter proves himself and we are given the impression that he is this "hard but fair" type that just wants to make sure everyone does their best. Not saying that thats what he is, thats just the impression most readers got from his earliest appearances.

And then, at the USJ, we see his cool side (at least for a short time) while him being an asshole gets overshadowed by Shigaraki and the Noumu being way, WAY more dangerous + he gets a sympathy bonus for getting beaten up while defending the students.

Also, despite being an asshole to Midoriya during the QAT, he also held back Bakugou, another asshole that we all wanted to stop fucking around and start finding out.

All of this I believe did two things:

It gave the impression that early Aizawa, despite being a hardass, is a good and committed teacher (stopped Bakugou, fought the LoV), especially compared to teachers (and adults in general) in comparable Manga and YA media who are often utterly incompetent, shitty, or worse. (Reminder that the likes of Korosensei are sadly the exeption, not the rule.) Obviously this image is undermined by... almost everything he has done since then, but we all know how powerful early impressions can be.

The second thing is that if opened the door for "What-If?" scenarios in which Aizawa wasn't an ass, or, more specifically, not an ass to Izuku. The constant underdog thing was already pretty obvious there, and, as stated above, characters like Bakugou or Shigaraki were liked less/seen as more dangerous, so the idea of an Aizawa that was still a hardass, but instead off going after our boy Izuku focussed his ire on eg: Bakugou, who was generally seen as more deserving of that treatment, was just very appealing. Both for Bakugou to meet consequences and for Izuku to finally catch a fucking break.

This is obviously just my opinion and heavily influenced by my experience with the first chapters as well as my earliest BNHA fics, but I just wanted to share this.

Also, there is obviously more to this, eg many Dadzawa stories are also Quirkless!Izuku stories that still propose that the man fights essentially Quirkless and use that as an obvious connection. Also, also, some fo the most famous/biggest BNHA fics, like most of Clouds works, feature Dadzawa heavily, and if you have limited knowledge of canon or forgot some aspects when falling into this fandom it's easy to just follow along what sounds like widely accepted and liked versions of characters.

But yeah, anyway I need to get some sleep so I'm stopping here.

TLDR: It was imho kind of a perfect storm of lots of different things that turned Canon!Aizawa into the Dadzawa that now stalks Ao3.

It fits with the "If I'd known you'd only just gotten your Quirk, then I would put in my duty of care" trend you see a lot.

[ravelights]

So I've been out of the bnha fandom for a bit, but with AFO biting the dust finally I kind wanted to talk about my perspective with the deal with this situation.

Mostly about AFO and Izuku story as characters, because I don't think you need to look far to see that there is or was something bigger to both their characters, that connected them in a way outside of OFA and that story line. Now for a long time a lot of fan thought of the DFO theory but I've and plenty other I think have gotten to the point where that's been sadly debunked.

That being said I don't ever regret being apart of that theory fandom, it was an awesome community to be apart of and they stories, fanart and theories that have been made were incredible. and A lot of us even die hard believers knew it was a far fetch theory even at the best of time's, but that the reality of following a story it doesn't always turn out the way you expect, but it was still a blast to be apart of.

The thing about the DFO theory was that it handily tied two very real plot threads in the story in a clean knot. Which is who is Hisashi Midoriya, and what the weird foreshadowing with Deku and AFO but now it seems their separate I want to talk about the later theory.

From the beginning of the manga AFO has a had a presence in deku Life, as many fans know the doctor who diagnose Deku quirkless is AFO doctor who also turned his grandson who played with deku into a nomu. We also have gotten what went down at Kamino and AFO general off handed attuited when it came to deku for most of the story. The multiple quirk's deku could spawned without dying and even that chapter 217 the basically compared Deku to AFO. Not to mention two different official artwork of them interacting. Despite some pretty big foreshadowing that something was going on with them, after this newest chapter 410 many fan are scratching their heads in what his all means. Because DFO aside there was something more to their story that know seems to have just been left as a dead end.

Now of course this story is not over yet and this could still be explained. but it is a lot of build up for two character who will have never interacted face to face (as far as we know). And frankly I'm at a complete loss as to what it all meant, it's possible it could have been a story line Hori wanted to change, which i don't blame him if that's the case, BNHA has been going on for a decade now, ideas that happened at the beginning of the story certainly haven't made it to the end. For example Hori just revealed that Endeavor was meant to die earlier in the story, and that Tsukauchi was meant to be a traitor. not to mention there have been a lot of other family reveals he might have felt he overloaded the story if he had decided to do DFO at some point.

That being said it's not the only plot thread that's been left unanswered (for now). For instance we still don't know why Gran became a hero (anyone remember that plot thread from the stain arc). We have yet to know anything about Nana husband and of course we still have no idea who Hisashi is. and Their seems to have been a slightly dropped arc with the doctor, the nomu and his grandson.

so what does this whole ramble mean in the end? well it's the fact I'm a little stubbed as to where these character are going now and a little disappointed they never got to fight. That being said there is still a way to go before the manga ends, so I have a feeling at this point we all just have to wait and see if these plot point tie up or if they where dropped.

And Who knows, maybe it's something Hori has planned for later down the track outside of the main manga. Should he ever want to do a sequel to MHA or maybe possible a prequal.

[codenamesazanka]

There was that joke in the fandom about Horikoshi looking through fanfics to see what theories to make canon like the "Dabi being Touya" or "the UA traitor" (even tho most of those were just stuff hinted at in the canon before hand). Since we're doing the whole "sharing memories" bit, the one fanfic trope he can definitely throw in the manga right now is the "Spinner tells Shigaraki he used to have a tail that got cut off by bullies"

Is that a popular trope? Enough to be a thing Horikoshi would pick up on. I don't think it's anywhere near the same level as 'Dabi is the lost Todoroki son' and 'UA Traitor is _____'… but it would be interesting if Spinner Tail Trauma is made canon.

Though at this late stage, I don't know if I want it, to be honest! If it's a memory, it's angst fuel to develop characters other than Spinner - guy wouldn't even be there for it. It would a real iffy choice to show something deeply personal and traumatic that happened to Spinner, something so unjust, without Spinner there—and really only for the benefit of the contrived connection between Shigaraki and Deku.

I guess because Spinner is still unaccounted for, he can still show up so it doesn't have to be just a memory, but. Still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. HeroAca resolutions are less about the victims and what they're owed, and more about how cool and merciful the Heroes are for saving them. This would be that, but even more so, and infinitely worse.

Plus, it would make the heteromorph riot mini-arc even more of a mess. Not to say there's levels of suffering that can be compared, but in-universe and in story, Shoji is kinda framed as having been worst off - his parents weren't heteromorphic like him, he got bashed in the face with a rake and was heavily scarred for life after he saved a girl from drowning, then he even has to wear a mask to prevent people from thinking he's resentful for being the victim of a hate crime. All that, but he came out of it with a strong and golden moral core, ready to be a great and inspirational Hero who protects the status quo.

Shoji's positioned as being in the right: here was a kid who suffered terribly, but he still managed to overcome the odds and be a Good Person, who thought deeply about the Right Way to end discrimination and is putting it into action (which is being a model minority). So what's everyone else's excuse?

Meanwhile, Spinner's backstory is that he only gets sprayed with pesticides, succumbs to being a NEET hikikomori, and goes running off to join terrorists without a single original thought in his head. For the narrative to work, he needs to be the selfish, hypocritical loser who didn't try hard enough to overcome his hardships that were comparatively mild.

If Spinner was revealed to have a tail cut off by bullies, the bnha balance of heteromorphic good and evil would collapse. A young boy's classmates mutilates him as the apex of heteromorphobic bullying, and the victim was left to languish as a high school dropout shut-in? That's not something that can be fixed by waiting out generations (just wait for the adults to die! their mindset would go with them—oh, but the perpetrators are the new generation…) or having the victim change their behavior (there's just no excuse for chopping off a child's body part). That reveals something much darker in the fabric of society that Heroes' plucky 'work-harder! plus ultra!' optimism are unequiped to handle.

At the very least, it's something that "Stop holding a grudge" and "Sorry for not realizing earlier" (as the rando hero tells the PLF guy in Chapter 373) and "Shine bright until your torments feel ashamed" are utterly insufficient and unconvincing in resolving. Not quite as inspirational, you know?

I'm sorry anon! I know you were asking as a joke, offering a fun idea. And I do like it! I'm still not opposed to Spinner having that canon backstory if the writing around it was to suddenly radically change the story and expand it by 300 more chapters to fix everything. I still love the idea that Spinner had a tail. I just took it too seriously and overthought it. My apologies. Thanks for the ask.

[sneezemonster15]

I'd give you an analysis, but frankly from what I've seen from your own "analysis" you're not very good at reading

also if you'd be so kind to tag this as mha spoilers, or screenshot this ask and put it under a read more so i dont spoil anyone who's interested in reading mha. it'd be greatly appreciated

(also thanks for getting rid of anon, this time i will include pics !)

anyway, this is the "straight dude who is having a typical cutesy high school het romance with a girl in a taken for granted het world." you're talking about;

also i wont lie, calling mha a het world when these are real dialogue is highkey stupid:

and i know the topic at hand is s/n/s and bk/dk but lets pivot to tg/chk bc theyre more relevant to what im saying

theres a lot to say but honestly, the manga speaks for itself :)

oh and also, you're right, bk/dk has no romantic subtext - it has romantic text. no subtlety needed! :) that is, if you have read the manga - my favourite example is this:

and then shgrk then proceeds to kill bkg, who "dies" (sort of) thinking about izuku in his final moments:

and then izk loses control when he sees bkg "dead" on the ground

and these are from recent chapters! imagine the rest of the series, ey

well! that got long. i'd tackle your crappy assessment of deku's character, but then I'd be here all day!

anyways, if i were you, I'd reread mha and really really understand the text you're reading. you might end up seeing something you missed at first!

Aiyyo someone got triggered! Hehehe. Ah it was inevitable that the moment I talked about MHA and rejected shippy head canons from the show, some delusional hardcore shipper would get all up in arms. Sigh.

You think what you wrote is analysis? Hehehe.

So just some random panels and chapter covers from the manga prove Bakugou or Deku is gay? Lol. I have seen fans like you in Naruto fandom as well. But you are right, I am not as invested in MHA, because it just doesn't have the versatility and genius of Naruto and Shippuden, it is actually quite a straightforward story and I don't need to burn a lot of my braincells to 'get it'. Lol. I am not saying it's bad, but as compared to its contemporary mangas, it just isn't at par for my tastes. It's good for entertainment but it doesn't affect me like other mangas that it takes inspiration from. Some silly shipper telling me I can't read, I would tell you my credentials but nah, too much work for disproving silly ass headcanons.

Fans make comparisons between Naruto and BNHA because Horikoshi is inspired by Kishimoto, definitely some similarities are there, but it misses on the most crucial point. Naruto and Shippuden are love stories. BNHA is simply your typical shounen manga. Naruto and Shippuden use the narrative tool of subversion to tell a love story in the restrictive genre of shounen. It has multiple layers and you need presence of mind to see them. Naruto is gay and you see comphet in his character, his interest in Sakura looks superficial from the beginning and then in kage arc, it is concluded as a mere cover to run from confronting his dilemma, and closetedness. His character is consistently shown as having an internal fight, a dilemma. Sasuke is just on your face, he is clearly shown as having no interest in women, but with Naruto he is especially intimate on his own accord. Ya know, using random panels ain't gonna help, you need to establish it in the narrative. Headcanons are all nice to entertain when that's all you watch media for, shipping. But please to be showing more maturity and media comprehension when sending me an ask, I am not very sympathetic to gaslighters whose heads are filled with shippy shit and cheap self gratification. When I talk Naruto, I make comparisons with other clearly gay media, and point out the common tropes, it's a result of expansive research. Not just random panels that prove nothing. Little one, you need more than that to prove your theories. I have watched a wide range of media, including gay media, your ask is just representative of your ignorance and lack of knowledge about how storytelling and character building works. Heh. Or do you think BNHA has its own concept of homosexuality, its own private language that cannot be compared with how other media establishes homosexuality in a given universe? Yeah, solipsistic ideas like that cannot be taken seriously.

Conformity is one of the pillars Japanese society is built upon, so it's not surprising that Japanese media talks upon how anything that doesn't conform to the norms is rejected. Their media is representative of their society. Mha also touches upon that and there's no surprises there, but again, you need more than that to prove it in the course of plot building and narrative. Some random out of context panel about some character saying something about conformity proves your point? You need to SHOW it and not just tell. But where other mangas, great mangas, popular and critically well acclaimed mangas have explored this idea in detail, MHA is just touch and go. It doesn't entertain a balanced proper discourse on it. It is truly shounen in that sense. Again, I am not saying it is bad, it is just more age appropriate. Which is totally fine. Do you know how heteronormativity is established in the narrative? Like this. Show me where this happens in MHA. Lol. Sweetheart, if the writer had made any attempt to write this world as heteronormative, where gay characters face challenges, I would have seen it. But mha is just not that deep. Sorry to burst your bubble. But that's just a fact.

Seriously, you are going to give me the example of Toga? I haven't gone through the recent chapters yet. I have only watched the anime. But it is clear that, that girl is medically insane. Her idea of liking someone is to kill that person and drink their blood, for her own pleasure. She ain't a homosexual, more like hemosexual. Hahaha. Again, you gotta show me the trajectory of her character, start with the base and show me how it escalates, how does she learn better about herself, her own feelings, the world from her perspective. No character is isolated, any writer who is talented enough to write multimillion franchise knows that. Don't project your assumptions on the story and the characters, work with what you have and draw the meaning from what's given, not the other way round.

There is no doubt Izuku and Bakugou have a strong relationship, even if it is mostly rivalry. But one can see that Bakugou cares about Deku and vice versa. Before telling me how to read, perhaps you should have done it yourself. Lol, I see this type of behaviour a lot from typical silly shippy shippers. "What, did you just say my ship makes no sense? 🤬"

Read.

Do you even know what subtext or text is? Hahah. This is text and subtext. So just because Bakugou and Deku talk about their rivalry in their vulnerable moments, that the audience knows as congruent since we have already seen they have a hot and cold relationship but that they are friends nonetheless, that proves they love each other romantically? You obviously don't know how romance tropes work. The dynamic between two men who respect and admire each other is always shown with a lot of empathy in Japanese media. It is one of the founding pillars of shounen, a genre meant for teenaged boys. They are certainly closer to each other than they are with women they are interested in, but a lot of fans such as yourself misinterpret it as romantic, because headcanon goggles. No, you gotta have more than that. Where Naruto and Shippuden have it in truckloads, none of that in BNHA. Deku is heterosexual af. If he is so interested in Bakugou, how come he reacts the way he reacts to Uraraka? Where is his conflict? Where is his dilemma? His affection and romantic interest in Uraraka is genuine and sincere, not a cover to hide his more private feelings. Unlike in Naruto's case. Kishi uses clever narrative tricks and tools to tell his love story in shounen and he does it skillfully. His motives and intentions are clear as water. He uses inventive smokescreens and red herrings to escape from being too controversial and colour inside the borders of shounen, nothing like that in BNHA. To begin with, Horikoshi doesn't even delve into the sexualities of his characters, because his story is not about that. There's no context, no set up, nothing. His worldbuilding is simply conventional, by which I mean heteronormative, there's no talk about sexual orientation of characters. You see the usual shounen perviness by Mineta and Kaminari and typical straight girls going kawaai over good looking boys like Todoroki, what impression does that give? If Horikoshi wanted to establish his characters being gay, he would have set up the context mindfully and carefully, like Kishi did. Gay relationships and characters can't be shown so explicitly in shounen as that would jeopardize its distribution in the west. Reason? Censorship. That's why Kishi had to be so careful, his target audience might not get it, but the adults do. Well, unbiased adults do, at the very least. So the boys in bnha are gay just because? Because you want them to be? Storytelling and character building doesn't work like that.

Seriously everything you think works as 'analysis' isn't even valid. I honestly didn't even want to respond to this ask, given it's so surface level and ridiculously simple minded. Perhaps you are a tween or teen who thinks every time two boys or girls smile at each other or rescue each other, they are gay and in love. Lol, watch gay media. Like actually watch it and see where your arguments stand in the scheme of things. I will tell you, nowhere. Juvenile kiddy stuff. I won't entertain anymore asks like these, they are a waste of my time.

[pockethep]

I personally liked the jjk ending and IMO think a lot of the dislike is misinterpretation, nitpciking, and the leaks. I think a lot of Gojo stans are just mad they wasted time theorizing he’d come back and taking it out on the ending. If you didn’t like the ending how would you have written it.

Disliking something doesn’t mean failing to see the intent behind it.

As much as it sucked when Choso died, I still recognized the moment for what it was. One of characters who embodied the meaning of being human (love and redemption) dying to the King of Curses and in that instance all the other characters started to lose their humanity just to win (Yuji going crazy on Sukuna in visceral anger (while not even bothering to call out for Megumi), Yuta putting himself in Gojo’s body, etc.).

I’m not even a Gojo stan but while I did agree with some of the evidence that he could come back I didn’t particularly want him to. More importantly there was no way in hell Gege would bring him back. I’m glad he didn’t come back but the way everything was handled afterwards is what I didn’t like.

To go a step forward, I enjoyed the death. Gojo's status as the strongest and being seen as a weapon to be exploited is one of the most consistent themes within the series. (Honestly the most consistent). The balance of the world literally shifted upon his birth and we get several examples of how this impacted many people (I.E. Toji, the curse users during the HI arc, etc.) His death was to be just as impactful and if he had to face defeat to anyone, it would have had to have been Sukuna.

And 100% agree on the leaks. LEAKS SUCK. I hope no other series allows leaks to pervade their fandom like jjk did. Same thing happened with BNHA, a mistranslated line went wild through the fanbase and ruined a lot of peoples perception. I am glad that the Undead Unluck leaker recognized peak and stopped so they could read weekly when it dropped and that the Kagurabachi leaker got ran out of the fandom and I hope the trend continues.

Now the question.

To be honest I’m not particularly sure how I would have wanted the series to end.

Sorry if you were looking for a straight answer under the "Keep reading" tab.

Not to cop out but I really enjoyed the dream theory by thatpersonperson, however realistically Akutami would have needed a chapter or two to fully accomplish something like that. With the limited time, I don’t think he’d be able to wrap everything up unless it was a longer chapter than normal.

But besides that…I really don’t know.

Walk with me.

I mentioned that my enjoyment for the series waned towards the latter half but, aside from Yuji, Choso, and Maki, one of the main reasons I stayed was because I’ve always been intrigued with the story Akutami was trying to tell. 

Is jjk about the perpetuation of generational trauma? About how soldiers (sorcerers) lose empathy because of the horrors they face? Is it about a cyclical tragedy? Is it about the inescapable nature of fate?

Ending the story on a bittersweet finale is for the best given its subject matter.

So how does this story conclude in a hopeful way? A meaningful one that makes sense given all the loss over the course of the series.

(And hopeful is not synonymous with happy. There was never a point in time where I thought JJK would get an outright happy ending. The Chainsaw Man Part 1 ending might be one of my favorite endings period. But it wasn’t particularly happy, it was hopeful.)

The point I’m trying to make is that taking into account what jjk is and how Gege wrote it, I don’t have a set way I wanted it to end besides that fact that I wanted Gege to give me a reason for the strife and see a few things before it did end.

Like yes, jjk was never going to erase cursed energy or even really do anything to stop children/teens from being drafted into jjk society to fight curses at a young age (Naruto didn’t do it either). But I think it’s still valid to dislike keeping the child soldiers especially when in a very pivotal moment Megumi literally mentioned wanting a peaceful life.

JJK had a chapter literally titled ‘Premature Death’ (Chapter 76) which condemns the exploitation of youth as disposable pawns within jujutsu society and sets forth very important events….yet the series ends with the characters still trapped within that cycle of exploitation. People have been arguing that with the higher ups killed and the Zenin Clan gone, the old age has caved to the new but I would have loved the adults left behind to actually address how jujutsu society would move forward with the void the higher ups left behind. The characters seem to still operate on the ways of the old system. And I understand how changes were shown by not executing the curse users but I guess I wanted more.

The only form of reflection the characters had on the traumatic events of the Sukuna fight was strategy based. And this is what I meant previously by Gege has a very clinical writing style at times. The lack of introspection or rumination after catastrophic and almost world ending events weakens what could have been sincere. There was no proper weight given to everything that just happened. Like Yuji who watched Choso turn to ashes in front of him and Megumi who’s body killed both his Tsumiki and Gojo out of his control while also dealing with the damage from previous attacks. Also from Yuta.

Yuta STILL HAS STITCHES ON HIS HEAD. There was an elephant in the room, a physical reminder and constant weight that was never addressed by him especially. Seeing how it affected him and retroactively affected his relationship with Gojo would have been amazing to see. I think that, although a nice decision in the moment, the follow through of the decision to put Yuta in Gojo's body was incredibly weak.

Also, Megumi only getting a chapter dedicated to his closure with Sukuna, who'd taken his body and killed both his sister, Gojo, and many others...I wanted more.

If you wanted a straight answer on how I would write it, it would have involved time that sadly I know Akutami didn't have and more moments to sit with the characters post-battle. I'm not of the belief that just because I didn't like a thing, I'm automatically better qualified to dictate a straight ending. I just have things I would have liked for said ending. I would have liked more follow through, especially regarding jujutsu society. How are they going to rebuild the system that prevents that exploitation as well as the events that led to the series? Also, I would have liked more discussion on ending the cycle of curses that Geto and Yuki brought up. I knew it wasn't going to be achieved, especially after Yuki died as well as any sign of the merger, but I wanted something it was an interesting in-universe dilemma.

I am glad that you, and many other people, enjoyed it. I don’t think it’s all bad or even terrible I just wasn’t left satisfied. And that's fine, it would've been impossible for such a series to satisfy EVERYONE. Someone else asked me if there was anything I liked and I will say, I did enjoy the final scene with Sukuna.

I like the idea that Yuji did change Sukuna. That ideology Sukuna has in believing in strength crumbles at his defeat by Yuji. In a way Yuji proved himself and his ideology correct in Sukuna’s eyes and so in death Sukuna gives Yuji’s viewpoint a chance. I think its a good ending for Sukuna, who decides to choose walk a path with Uraume. The acknowledgement that he lost was also great, I didn't see that coming.

I will say that the response to the ending is overly volatile. There’s a lot of anger being thrown around on both sides. A lot of people who enjoyed the ending are throwing around “media literacy” and a lot of people who didn’t like the ending are calling those who did “Gege glazers”. I think both sides are overreacting but this is what happens whenever an immensely popular, long-running series ends. **Cough Cough** Naruto and Bleach.

It was to be expected no matter how it ended.

I haven’t seen it as much here (Twitter is hell right now) but I do think people need to calm down. I don’t expect any of what I didn’t like or what I wanted to affect someone else's opinion of it so there isn't a point in screaming at anyone over it.

Anyway I really do hope that whatever Gege writes next, he gets to do it at his own pace without the meddling and deadlines of WSJ and hopefully he gets a monthly series. (And a break)

[bi-fi-network]

Hiii :]

Hey! I´m Moonstone, but you can call me Moonie, and I want to start making Content on Tumblr.

Please don´t judge my writing as my first language is not English [It´s German] and I´m also just not that good with grammar in generall. :) I would like to keep things like my Name or Age privat on this account, but I want to say, that I am old enough to have an account here, so don´t worry about that, haha :).

This account is 13+ because I´ll also be writing gory and smutty things on here.

Now to the fandoms I´m in and will write for:

- FnaF (fon´t request animatronics or children for romantic or nsfw headcanons/scenarios)

- Bnha/Mha

- HunterxHunter (no NSFW headcanons/scenarios for the children (yes, this includes Gon and Killua)

- Helluva Boss

- Terrifier 1+2 (Yes, I´ll write for Art too. No, I am not ashamed.)

- It (no NSFW headcanons/scenarios for children)

- Girl from Nowhere!!!

- Sonic the Hedgehog

- Kase-san

- Whisper Me a Love Song

- Sanrio (no NSFW ofc)

- Pen15

- K-12 Movie and my Melanie Martinez theories before the Movie releases :)

- when it releases definetely the Portals movie

- Avatar 1+2 (yes, the one with the blue aliens)

- Stranger Things

- One Piece

- Sally Face!

- COD!!! (mostly MW2 but you can request other stuff too)

I can´t come up with more for now, haha, but I will update the list!

If you want to request something, but you´re not sure if i know that one, you can still request it. I´ll text you if I don´t know that one and if i do, I´ll put it on my list and write for it.

What I´ll write:

Sfw, Nsfw, Angst, Fluff, Romantic stuff, platonic stuff, Comfort stuff and more :) Character x character, character x reader, poly relationships

What I won´t write:

Incest, Pedophilia, Vore, Zoophilia, NSFW for children or people I don´t feel comfortable writing this for (like Chopper), Orgys (3-somes are okay but I just don´t know how to write an Orgy)

________________________________________________________________

Another thing i want to do is talk about disturbing movies (like you tell me to watch them and I´ll explain them and/or rate them on how disturbing they were)

I´d do the same with famous or not so famous gore or just disgusting videos because it´s not that I enjoy watching them, It´s because I can watch them because I´m not sensitive.

________________________________________________________________

That´s all you need to know :]

Anons I already have (irl/online friends of mine): 🎨🎭🐾🎅🧜‍♀️

Stay safe :D

[scary-grace]

20 questions for fic writers

I was tagged by @nocompromise-noregrets and @the-red-butterfly, and since I have some time this evening I figured I would get into them!

1. How many works do you have on Ao3? 67!

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count? 2,230,943. I don't know if that's actually a lot but it feels like a lot.

3. What fandoms do you write for? I write for the Tolkienverse (almost exclusively The Hobbit) and for My Hero Academia.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

i ain't changed, but i know i ain't the same (828)

Kairos (759)

seeking a friend for the end of the world (702)

Show Me My Silver Lining (532)

more than words can wield the matter (429)

The weirdest part about the answer to this question for me is that 'more than words can wield the matter' is a one-shot. Love Like Ghosts is only three kudos behind it and has been up for a significantly shorter time, but it was still strange to see.

5. Do you respond to comments? I don't usually respond! I always thank people who commented in the author's note of the next chapter, though. The times I'm most likely to respond are if somebody points out a mistake that needs correction (like the fact that I double-pasted the last chapter of Enough to Go By) or if they've asked for a fun fact I can't resist sharing.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? There are a few candidates, although the fics that qualify for this the most are still at the WIP stage. The best candidates at the moment are probably i'll follow you into the dark (in which Bard and Thranduil face the beginning of an alien invasion together) and Gravity (in which the theory of relativity puts a real damper on their relationship). Apparently space = tragedy to me.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Like @nocompromise-noregrets who tagged me, I write a lot of fics with happy endings. The no-holds-barred happiest endings are probably in Show Me My Silver Lining and Yamada Hizashi's Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Hanukah. Something about when the found family hits just right...

8. Do you get hate on fics? I've gotten some semi-antagonistic comments and some rude bookmarks, but otherwise, all the fic hate I've gotten was back on fanfic.net, when I was writing canon character x oc fics and giving everybody superpowers.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? I indeed write smut. I used to have to be intoxicated to do it, but that's changed, and now I can write a full scene while chilling out on my break at work. As for the kind of smut, it used to be pretty solidly non-explicit, but I've recently branched out into more explicit stuff.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? I write tons of AUs, but I don't think I've ever written a direct crossover.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? I don't think so. If anyone is considering it, I hope you don't. For your sake. :)

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? I have not!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Yes! My co-writers include @dogblessyoutascha and @corndog-patrol, both of whom are awe-inspiringly talented writers and artists.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship? Barduil, no contest. Almost 1.5 million of my 2 million plus words on Ao3 are devoted to them, and although bagginshield started it all and erasermic got me into BNHA, Barduil's my number one.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? I've vowed to finish all my WIPs at some point, so I feel like answering this one will jinx me one way or the other. But the one that's probably furthest down in my list is Insight, aka the genderbent bagginshield/barduil The Village AU.

16. What are your writing strengths? Plot, I think -- I really get a lot out of setting up foreshadowing and twists! I also think I can write a mean action sequence when I really sit down and focus on it. And on several stories the commenters have informed me that I went pretty hard on the horror.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? PACING. I can't write a short fic to save my life.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? If I spoke another language, maybe, but I don't. Usually I convey that other languages are being used with italics in quotes.

19. First fandom you wrote for? Ooh, I'm going to out myself here -- it was for Thor (2011), a canon character x oc. The fic is still out there, since I don't believe in taking stuff down, but being reminded of its existence pains me.

20. Favourite fic you’ve written? I don't know that I can choose. My favorites tend to be the ones I'm working on at the moment. My greatest hits are in my pinned post, but I don't think I can narrow them down more than that.

I'm going to tag my collection of writer mutuals: @dogblessyoutascha, @corndog-patrol, @phantombstone, @palmviolet, @piyo-13, and @candycandy00! No pressure or obligation, just if you think it might be fun!

[miseria-fortes-viros]

follow-up for your poll- i read enough bnha fic to piece together the entire plot wo reading/watching anything official BUT because i was mainly going by 'if it's in enough fics it's probably canon' (ie big events like the usj, basics of quirk theory, etc) i thought erasermic were canonically married. for. wayyyyy too long. it's in EVERY FIC it feels like they just ALWAYS have a throwaway line about them being married. anyways i'm watching the show now and these guys have 0 chemistry. none. so you should read source material or you might get gaslit about gay

like honestly i don’t care what other people do bc it’s none of my business but initially when i made the poll it was reactionary on my part. apparently the aftg fandom (book series) has a TON of people in it that are just….writing meta and talking about how much they dislike x character for whatever reasons, without having actually read the books. which, i feel like i don’t even need to explain why that makes the fandom experience suck just a little bit more for everyone else. like first of all, how can you say you like something without having actually experienced it, in favor of letting other people experience and interpret it for you?? your opinions are all secondhand. you’re just regurgitating what other people have told you. it could be the best written fanfic in the world but it still won’t do the same thing for you as reading the series. and people who have actually read and loved the series are rightfully annoyed at this!! but yeah. that was the epiphany behind the poll. again it’s not my business what other people do, but if you have dogshit opinions about books you haven’t read, you can’t really be surprised if actual fans get upset with you. and also fanon/canon are two different things like you’ve said lol

[dearlydesecrated]

Notes about Tags & their organization:

Firstly; this posts is long as I can't seem to use more than one read more. Apologies in advance, but at least its only text!

I advertise my area of tumblr - this blog - as a safe + all-inclusive space; tags function as a sorter / sifter but also as a way to maintain comfortability while you look around. Most aspects of my blog have a general tag (Anything involving my Self-Insert and/or Self-Shipping has a catch-all tag, for example) you can use to seek said content or even keep it hidden or blocked. These in particular are worth noting;

(nightmares): Vents, Triggers, Dark & Upsetting Content

(lewdacris): Suggestive / Mild Sexual Implications

(creation): Original Content (if you only want fanart)

(dreamer): Self-Insert (previously mentioned)

Tags are made with the intent to minimize the amount but maximize the ability to sort and 'filter' what content you see on my blog. If a post lacks a comfort based tag (Maybe a post mentions self-harm but isn't tagged with it despite being the topic) please let me know! I try to be aware but mistakes do happen.

Fandoms won't immediately have tags but will be added as I take interest/hyper-fixate/mass produce fan content enough to warrant its addition. In any case all of them are listed with their full title after the tag so you can use a search page function on your device if you're looking for specific fanbase.

All of the fandom tags start with a prefix (denoting media type) with an easy-to-grasp abbreviation if not the full title and some - if applicable - have a modifier as well. In example, My Hero Academia / Boku no Hero Academia. Commonly shortened to MHA / BNHA; (a; mha) is the anime and (mg; bnha) would be the manga. Because it has two common abbreviations, if referencing the manga I would use both (mg; mha) AND (mg; bnha) as they're interchangeable. However the game, My Hero Academia; One's Justice,has a modifier to signify it as a game with a known / popular / recognized secondary media. A breakdown of how tagging with Prefixes & Modifiers works with games;

Games based on manga / anime / light novels as a secondary media counterpart will always have the 'animan;' modifier. It's a catch-all tag of sorts to cut down if more than one other media prefix is present. Since the game is part of a fandom with more than two medias I add 'm; MHA' AND 'm; BNHA' to note the fandom (or 'a; MHA' 'a; BNHA' but never both 'm;' & 'a;'!) THEN add a second abbreviation for the game title (if needed) with the 'animan;' modifier. They still have a prefix as the fandom hosts a sizeable following and/or is recognized / known in a separate media.

Games with live action or written media counterparts (Movies, tv shows, live action [lol], books, or novels) will get the 'l;' modifier to signify / represent live. As the 'l;' modifier denotes it as such with a stand-alone tag, these games still receive the 'g;' prefix. In this case the modifier is a two-birds deal that tells of a separate media from the game AND identifies the fandom it's part of while the prefix carries the game title.

Games with a singular media, said one being the game (including ones with multiple media but widely 'hidden' or 'obsucred' viewership outside the game for whatever reason) will always have the 'g;' modifier with the game title (with or without abbreviation). Example for each modifier:

⭕️ "My Hero Academia: One's Justice('s)" Tags would be: #a; MHA, #a; BNHA, #animan; ones justice

⭕️ "Harry Potter: Hogwarts Legacy's)" Tags would be: #l; hp, #g; hog legacy

⭕️ "My Time at Sandrock('s)" Tags would be: #g; mtas

General Tags:

General Rambles, Updates & Text Posts: (chatting)

Information & Guidelines Posts: (notice me)

Answered Asks: (gremlin greets)

Digital Art: (paint)

Writing: (ink)

Commissions: (cashout)

Art Trades: (exchange)

Character/World/Lore Building: (thinking)

Head canons, Theories, Ideas/Prompts/Plots: (whatif)

Story Plotting / Planning: (cooking)

Monthly Challenges: (dared)

Original Content: (creation)

This tag contains all Characters, Stories, etc that don't belong to a fandom / are standalone / belong in a verse -  outside of public media - of my creation. Blocking this tag will remove any original content made by me (art, writing, lore, and design wise) from view!

Self Insert: (dreamer)

This tag is present anytime my S/I and Self Shipping aspects are relevant or discussed about as either the main focus or with significant involvement with or without F/Os. Blocking this tag removes everything self ship from view!

Suggestive / Mild Sexual Implications: (lewdacris)

Any post with something spicy mentioned or with jokes of that nature (always implied or slight) gets this tag. Sometimes it's a joke, an innuendo... others a character appreciation post that becomes a thirst essay. Blocking this tag will removes everything deemed slightly spicy!

Vents, Triggers, Dark, and Upsetting Content: (nightmare)

This general tag is used in all cases of unsettling, triggering, darker posts/art/etc. Blocking this tags removes everything dark, triggering, upsetting/unsettling from view!

(tw; content) - phobias (the official term AND the subject would be included when phobias are involved because not everyone knows those terms), dark topics (self-harm, substance abuse, etc) will take the place of content as specific triggers

⭕️ Tag example if spiders where included and drawn / visually depicted: #nightmare, #tw; spiders, #tw; Arachnophobia, #paint

Fandom Tags:

Modifiers:

(l;) live action / literary counterpart

(animan;) anime, manga, and/or light novel counterpart

Prefixes:

(g;) game ver

(a;) anime ver

(ln;) light novel ver

(la;) live action ver

(m;) movie, tv show ver

(mg;) manga ver

(mw;) manwha ver

(b;) book, novel, literary ver

Fandoms:

TR: Tokyo Revengers

OB: Obey Me

OmN: Obey Me, Nightbringer

MHA / BNHA: My Hero Academia / Boku No Hero Academia

JJK: Jujustu Kaisen

PKMN: Pokémon

GI: Genshin Impact

[daryascurse]

Rules and regulations...

DNI

I. Minors, ageless, blank blogs.

My writing is always of adult characters for adult readers; if not clearly adult at some point in canon then they are aged up. I block minor / ageless / blank blogs. "Not a minor" doesn't cut it for me, sorry. I don't have enough time or energy to actually check every note, but if I feel like looking at notifications closely, I will, and I do block liberally.

II. General DNI criteria.

DNI: minors, character purists, rpf reader/ writers, pro-ed, bigotry in any way (racism, antisemitism, homophobia), bringing bad vibes. it's an oversimplification but I really don't think it needs to be spelled out, and if you need someone to tell you "hey no Islamophobia, no zionism, no terfs, no transphobia" to figure it out, you aren't someone I want to associate with.

How this works

I. What I do here.

I do not consistently tag spoilers, partially because I may not know something is a spoiler myself! I do tag franchises in every post (either by Japanese romanji / English names: jjk, aot, kimetsu no yaiba, bnha, etc.) but I do not tag characters in reblogs.

I might interact with / may post dark content - maybe? I feel like specific definitions of that phrase varies. Again, I do age up in my writings as appropriate, and any reblogs relevant to the principle assume the same.

A. What I write. I write "character x reader" smut often in second-person reader POV, never using "y/n." Reader's appearance is never described beyond being AFAB; and gender pronouns are specified per piece as feminine or neutral. Most non-serial pieces are intended to be one-shots, though I may add sequel/ prequel chapters. Though I tag my work thoroughly using ao3, I am open to writing works that could veer into dark content, including dubcon / themes of dubcon, degrading language, sex under the influence, breeding kinks, etc. YMMV. All characters in my fics are adults.I also do not have a specific list of fandoms I write for; while there are certainly some I have more fics for, there are also characters/ series I love that I just haven't written yet. B. What I do not write. I do not take requests for fics unless specially stated; but I am always happy to talk about hcs/ short imagines / participation in ask games that may include writing blurbs for requested characters. While I am mostly open to any content, there are certain things I will not write: this includes fics about real people (actors, musicians, etc.); excessively grisly depictions or scenarios; scat/ watersports; "furries" (i.e.: if a character has the ability to turn into an animal or is part-animal, they will only be described in their human state and/or any animal characteristics will not be used sexually); food related play; any bigotry or like, slave-play (differentiated from dom-sub relationships). This is not an exhaustive list. Additionally, if I have an open game involving smut writing, I may decline to answer anon; this will be made clear in the game.

II. What I ask of you.

Do not repost or share my work on other social / writing sites especially tiktok! And please don't plagiarize. Please be respectful in the inbox in general. I'm most always down to discuss anime theory, fics, headcanons, and do drabble games.

[wander-wren]

sorry to yoink your tags into the light @avalonjoan (hi again btw) BUT!! i love shiver and i have been nurturing my Theory On How Fandom Forms for like, a year, so here we go!

it’s been a hot minute since i made my list, but i think i decided that the main characteristics of fandom were shipping potential, worldbuilding potential, and oc potential. plus of course amount of content—very few standalones gain fandoms. and i say POTENTIAL bc fandom is transformative, it’s about filling gaps, so sometimes ironically very well-done media doesn’t gain a fandom bc there’s nothing to add/change.

if there are exceptions to this rule, like fandoms that ship mostly canon ships, it’s usually because those ships are queer (Ronan/Adam from TRC, Jesper/Wylan from SOC, Cecil/Carlos from WTNV), or because they’re het ships with a lot of, again, unexplored potential bc of where the story cuts off (Blue/Gansey from TRC, Kaz/Inej from SOC). i point out shipping specifically bc it is the backbone of fandom. genfic is also good and important! but shipping is pretty much always first.

*note that it also helps to have a large cast for max ship potential. and also max blorbo potential, in case someone finds the protag(s) annoying, boring, etc, but can latch onto major side characters. wolves of mercy falls has four pov characters that i remember and they pair off with each other. ofc i love them all, but that’s besides the point

so if you don’t have a lot of ship potential, as you don’t in shiver bc there’s no love triangle and the main couple are intensely in love for all three books, you need a lot of worldbuilding and oc potential. the two are pretty linked. this is like your Warrior Cats or BNHA fandom, or Divergent if you want to go farther back. the ability to make a character that fits into a specific group or has specific powers is very appealing. what faction are you? what clan? what’s your quirk? the worldbuilding is also important bc fans LOVE to play with that. BNHA, for example, has taken hints of quirk discrimination and expanded them into multiple theories/aus that are popular fanon now. Warriors is infamous for it’s bare-bones worldbuilding that fans take in a million directions.

shiver/womf doesn’t really have this. and again, there are exceptions to EVERYTHING, but i actually can’t think of any media with a fandom presence that doesn’t have at least one of these going strong for it rn, so. but yeah, while werewolves exist, there aren’t really distinct packs you can classify yourself/an oc into, no special powers, nothing cool like that. if the mercy falls pack were more established rather than rapidly degrading during the series, maybe there would be something there, but they’re all aging out so again, it’s mostly just sam. and a few others later but they don’t really count as pack.

so to answer the first question, no, gay people didn’t latch onto the series, mostly bc there’s nothing queer TO latch onto (except for werewolves as a metaphor for queerness, maybe, but i don’t take it like that and given the narrative around sam vs the wolf i think that’s a bad idea). maybe you could ship grace with one of her gal pals, or with isabelle. but her friends just don’t show up that much and she’s SO so in love with sam, dude, like that’s The Whole Point.

okay but like, what about twilight, that took off pretty hard? someone called shiver a twilight ripoff and i briefly wanted to go full darrio’s dogs on them but i am calm and rational (look i did a shiver reference are you proud). basically, idk much about twilight, but from the rules above? there was a love triangle. ship potential. there were a lot of extra vampires and werewolves to play with. vampires all have unique powers, right? oc potential! plus i think that fandom was mostly teenage straight girls with crushes on edward which is a fundamentally different kind of fandom. no one has a crush on “bakes bread, makes origami birds, recites german poetry” sam rilke. well i do. but he’s not a bad boy, okay. he’s actually never done anything wrong ever in his life, thanks.

so shiver is a prime example of a very commercially popular fic that didn’t take off in fandom because there wasn’t much for fandom to dig into. but also, if you got this far, you should read shiver maybe. it’s one of my comfort books even tho i have cried over it before.

[OH I FORGOT TO ADDRESS THE BLUEY THING!! idk shit about bluey so idk what happened there but i’m gonna say at least a major driving force is that it became pretty popular and a meme. i guess that’s your exception to the rules??]

you know. i find it so interesting how mstiefs arguably much more commercially successful series (wolves of mercy falls) which is now getting a movie adaptation has like. zero fandom presence whatsoever. did gay ppl just not latch onto that series or what

[skystreaka]

BNHA Theories

“Il faut se mèfier de l’eau qui dort.” 

AKA what is Aoyama trying to tell Midoriya. 

(Manga spoilers). 

Our blonde, sparkly prince definitely knows more than he lets on. 

Since the release of Chapter 167, many fans have already theorised that (A) Aoyama is the traitor and (B) Aoyama was born quirkless. I haven’t seen anyone push the theories further than that so here we are. 

Let’s start with the phrase Aoyama chose to burn onto the wall, 

Aoyama wrote, “Il faut se mèfier de l’eau qui dort,”

Which translates to, “Still waters run deep.”

FUN FACT: This phrase is commonly understood to mean that unassuming people are secretly the most passionate i.e. don’t judge a book by its cover. However, the phrase means that the quietest people are usually the most dangerous, or ‘beware the snake’. 

We don’t really know much about Aoyama. He has spent a lot of time lurking in the background or just out of sight. He claims he’s from France, he prefers to eat alone, he likes to show off his quirk, and he has a bit of an inferiority complex which he covers with his overenthusiastic personality.

What are the facts?

Aoyama has never been seen using his quirk without his belt. During the Sports Festival, Aoyama was the only student from the Heroics Course who filled in an application allowing him to use ‘special equipment’ during his match.

In fact, Aoyama has never been seen without his belt, period. In Chapter 71, he doesn’t bath with the other students, and in Chapter 73, he isn’t seen sleeping with the other students. In Chapter 168, Aoyama claims that if he doesn’t wear the belt, he’s a danger to those around him because his quirk ‘leaks out’.

During the USJ Incident and the School Trip Attack, Aoyama avoided both the villains and the other students. The first time, he plays it up as his being mysterious. The second time, in Chapter 82, we see him hiding and scared out of his wits. 

During the Sports Festival, Aoyama’s belt malfunctioned. He could no longer shoot lasers and he subsequently panicked and lost the match.

Nearly every time Aoyama uses his quirk it causes extreme nausea.

In Chapter 108, Aoyama states that he is different from everyone else.

In Chapter 108, we see Aoyama as child, unwrapping and trying on a belt and revealing that he feels lesser than everybody else.  

In Chapter 168, Aoyama reveals that a doctor told him that he needed the belt because his body and quirk were incompatible.

In Chapter 168, Aoyama emphasises that he was born with the quirk and that it didn’t develop later in life. 

In Chapter 168, Aoyama claimed that he’s worn the belt ever since he was a child.

In Chapter 168, Aoyama tells Midoriya that his quirk is incompatible with his body and pretends to smile before looking away, sad.

He definitely has another secret. 

  THEORY 1 (plausible): Aoyama is innocent and looks up to Midoriya. 

Aoyama was born quirkless to an affluent family. His parents were so ashamed that they bought him the navel laser utility belt and created the story that Aoyama was so powerful, that he needed to wear the belt at all times to protect those around him. To uphold this image, Aoyama never takes the belt off in front of other people.

Aoyama experiences pain and nausea every time he uses the belt because it’s pressing into his stomach rather than channelling power away from it. Note: when the belt that supposedly suppresses and redirects his power malfunctioned, it just stopped shooting lasers. It didn’t explode or leak.

Aoyama avoids the other students because he feels like a fraud. Furthermore, he never helped his classmates engage the villains because he believed that a fake quirk wouldn’t hold up to a real one. Aoyama never learned any other types of fighting and doesn’t feel that he is worthy of being a hero. He only joined UA to uphold his powerful and prestigious image.

When Aoyama told Midoriya that, ‘still waters run deep,’ he was emphasising the fact that both had dirty secrets.

  THEORY 2 (angsty): Aoyama is an unwilling accomplice to the League of Villains. 

Aoyama was born quirkless to an affluent family. His parents had secret connections to villains* and managed to make a deal with All For One to give Aoyama a quirk. In return, Aoyama was groomed a la Draco Malfoy to help All For One locate and take down the chosen successor of One For All.

*We already have our suspicions about a local quirk doctor and his connections to All For One, and Aoyama’s vague reference to a doctor telling him that he needs to wear the belt at all times could be very suspicious indeed.

When Aoyama uses his unnatural quirk it breaks his body, much like Midoriya using One For All. He was able to recognise this in Midoriya and therefore knew he was the successor. He’s been watching him ever since the entrance exams. Alternatively, Aoyama’s quirk isn’t even Navel Laser but some sort of charm or memory wipe.

Consider this, we know that All For One likes to monitor Shigaraki with one-way video feeds. A piece of equipment that can be worn anywhere without question and was constantly being powered would make a very nice bug.

When Aoyama told Midoriya that, ‘still waters run deep,’ he was trying to warn him that he was the traitor. 

I look forward to reading more fun theories. 

[passionpluto]

The more I think about it, the more I think that good storytelling captures the same feelings children get when they receive gifts. Shaking a gift to guess what’s inside is a natural extension of a child’s curiosity, and in the same way, fan theories are natural extensions of fandom. Theories capture the same sense of wonder that many of us had as children, and in the hands of a good writer, a reveal is never 100% disappointing.

When a child opens a gift, they will either find that it is A) exactly what they expected and wanted, B) something they wanted, but didn’t expect to get, C) something they wanted a little less that they still like, D) a completely unexpected item that still caters to their interests and hobbies, E) something that you expected and didn’t want, and F) a completely unexpected and unwanted item. Say, for instance, that you asked for a guitar for Christmas and see a roughly guitar-shaped box. Your six options here are:

A) expect a guitar, get a guitar

B) expect your parents to get you a banjo from the pawn shop, get a guitar

C) expect a guitar, get a bass

D) a lamp made from an old guitar

E) that old banjo from the pawn shop

F) a life-size cardboard cutout of a guitar

For many, A is the most satisfying option. You got what you wanted and you expected it, leaving you with a victorious feeling of “calling it.” B comes pretty close, even without the feeling of “calling it.” But even C-E aren’t entirely disappointing, even if they come with feelings of initial disappointment.

You still think basses are cool in this scenario, and figure it’ll be easier to find a band that needs a bassist than one who needs a guitarist. The lamp can’t play music, but it’s pretty funky and impresses your friends. You can’t stand banjos, but you know your parents don’t have much money and maybe there weren’t any old country singers who wanted to pawn their guitars where you live. But even that’s okay—it can make music and it shows you that your parents care.

Just like this scenario, I like to think that A and B are the options that truly make fans lose their shit. Sure, the “X is really evil/Y/Y’s sibling/Y’s parent” twists are pretty predictable at this point, but they can give the same feeling as the guitar in this story. That feeling of either “I called it” or “I was hoping for it, but I never thought the creators had the balls to actually do it” fuels fandom. At first glance, you’d think this would disappoint fans, but often, this just fuels them to ever more passionate theories. For instance, “we know now that Y’s brother was evil, let’s predict how he became evil” is a common fandom line of thought because it uses the sort of engaged reading and prediction-making commonly taught in schools. Children who are able to pick up on subtle foreshadowing and make accurate predictions are hailed as “bright,” while authors who use these sorts of details in children’s books are seen as “classics.”

So why is today’s media so populated by unpredictable, unexpected, and unwanted plot twists? This topic has been covered to hell and back on Tumblr, and I can’t claim to have any more of a definitive answer than anyone else on here. But here’s what I think—surprise, as an emotion, is becoming increasingly valued in our entertainment trends.

Think of gacha games and LOL Surprise dolls. There’s nothing inherently wrong with either of these two, but they both market themselves almost exclusively on the “it’s a surprise” gimmick, as opposed to past toys and video games that didn’t. They are, in a few short words, surprise for surprise’s sake. There is no guarantee of satisfaction when it comes to these objects—in fact, the rarity systems that many of them have practically guarantee that you will stay in the E-F slot unless you have a lot of luck or spend a lot of money. And make no mistake, these things are made to maximize profits—a giant LOL Surprise egg can set you back $205.00, and that’s just at Walmart.

So here we have a commodification of surprise taken to its logical extreme, where satisfaction is almost completely removed from the equation and disappointment is basically inevitable. Why does that sound so familiar?

Because a lot of places where we hear about twists ruining the plot are multibillion dollar franchises—Game of Thrones, Star Wars, Marvel, and so on. Now, I can’t say that any of these lack artistic merit—in fact, many of these are known for great scores, cinematography, costumes, and the like. Their writing is intensely flawed, but we still get bright spots from them where everything seems to come together. But at the end of the day, they seem to be built with the same principle as a gacha game.

Didn’t get the character you wanted? Spend more in-game currency until you do! Didn’t like that plot twist from the last movie? Check out the next one to see if it gets better! And on and on and on.

These plot twists aren’t inserted for artistic merit, at least, not most of the time. Mostly, they’re for the money, the social media buzz, the equivalent of seeing how many views the next great unboxing video can grab. Not to say that no lesser-known authors have ever relied on shock value, but as a whole, something about their twists often feels more genuine, because they understand that the world is not their unboxing video. It’s a home video of their son, daughter, sister, brother opening the gift they’ve spent months or even years waiting to give them.

Surprise, as an emotion, requires thought not just about your fans, but about your stories, too. It requires knowledge and passion about both, and a drive to make a twist make so much sense that if your fans don’t love it right away, they’re sure going to love it by the end.

Because at the end of their day, gifts and surprises are meant to touch someone’s heart, not the algorithm of things a website assembles for you. And the best gift-givers are the ones who find things that people’s hearts need, whether the receiver recognizes it or not.

[toadsbogblog]

I don’t know if I’ve said something along these lines before so apologies if I have or if someone else has, and also apologies if this is completely incoherent. I have a lot of feelings. There are lots of grammar mistakes. It is 2:00 AM.

THIS IS MY THEORY FOR THE ENDING OF BNHA, AND WHY I BELIEVE THAT IT WON’T BE LIKE THE TIME SKIP THE FANDOM HAS IMAGINED UP UNTIL THIS POINT. (this is long and slightly spoilery)

Part one: fandom expectations

So at the beginning of the manga, the general story is protecting the status quo versus disrupting the status quo. The villains are evil for evil’s sake and the heroes are good for good’s sake. People are heroes because they think it’s the right thing to do, they want to save people, they think it’s cool, or they want the status symbol. All the kids want to be heroes! It’s a massively popular job with very few people actually working it, proportionately. People that don’t end up as heroes end up disappointed (or at least, that’s what I imagine. We don’t actually have a lot of examples of failed heroes in the manga, or at least none that jump out at me). Quirks are common, everybody wants a cool quirk, and people without them aren’t necessarily discriminated against but they ARE an ‘other’.

People who have quirks that aren’t powerful and aren’t hero-worthy, or go against one of the other societal values of the BNHA world (which are the same as ours: we value beauty, money, power, and conventionality, generally speaking), ARE discriminated against. Take heteromorphic quirks, for example. They make people uncomfortable because the people with them aren’t conventional, so they are treated as ‘lesser than’. People with quirks that affect their mental state, or people with unconventional mental states who happen to have a quirk that’s easy to vilify, (such as Toga) end up as social outcasts who are more likely to want to disrupt the society that cast them out.

The way that the society in BNHA is so quirk-focused, and the way that it glamourizes hero work, has a lot of negative effects that are shown throughout the series.

If I asked the earlier BNHA fandom to picture what a time skip would look like after the manga’s completion, the general idea, at least to my understanding, would be that the main cast would be heroes at the top, and the villains would be eradicated and the status quo protected. The kids are at hero school, why the hell wouldn’t they be heroes in the end?

Now that we’ve seen the villains’ motivations, and seen the harm that the status quo causes, the manga has shifted in a direction where the heroes are also moving in a similar direction as the villains, but fighting the villains because the villains do it in a way that kills people. A lot of speculation about the way that the series is going to end is shifting.

What if I told you that I think that not only are the kids not going to end up as heroes, but there will be no heroes by the end of BNHA. In fact, I think there will be no more quirks.

Part two: the quirk singularity doomsday theory (QSDT)

For a series that happens in a relatively linear way, there's a lot of talk about the quirk singularity doomsday theory, which predicts an event that, if it were to happen, would happen decades to centuries after the events of the series. I think it's interesting how the warning signs of the QSDT becoming reality are already sort of happening: Eri and the kids at Bakugou and Todoroki's provisonal license make-up classes are there to show that quirks are already starting to mix to become too powerful for children to use them safely. While it's an interesting bit of world-building, this specific aspect of the story hasn't had a clear purpose yet.

Unless it does have a very, very clear purpose;

To show that the status quo of the BNHA world isn't just unsustainable in a social sense, but also in a physical one; that if nothing were to be done about it, the QSDT would in fact come true and doomsday would happen. I think it exists to show that even if villains weren't a problem, something needs to change or else total collapse is inevitable.

Part three: AFO and OFA

In a different (and worse) version of BNHA, the big bad villain would probably have a quirk like a crazy version of Bakugou's or something -- something big and flashy and intimidating but ultimately predictable. I find AFO interesting as a villain not because he's particularly unique as a character, but because he's unpredictable. We've never really seen the full extent of his power and he always keeps us on our toes.

According to an interview or something I saw somewhere (never quote me on anything) the original draft of BNHA had Deku as a quirkless kid for the entire thing, relying on his smarts alone to become a hero; apparently Horikoshi's editors thought this wouldn't sell very well as the protagonist needed to have some kind of flashy and marketable power, so OFA was born, alongside its mechanics and lore.

All Might, Izuku, and OFA are very direct parallels to AFO, Shigaraki, and AFO (the quirk). OFA is not only similar to AFO in the way that they were born from the same place and operate in a similar way, but also that they're both unpredictable. Horikoshi has purposefully left both the audience and the people in the story out of all of the complexities of what OFA and AFO can do as quirks, probably so that he doesn't end up breaking his own rules down the line -- but also for another reason.

Part four: what's happening in the manga??? (SPOILERS)

Right now, as of chapter 369, OFA and AFO are both going batshit insane. AFO and Shigaraki have melded together, AFO's body is regenerating and will eventually disappear, ShigAFO is mutating like crazy even under the effects of erasure, Izuku is using all of OFA and manifesting the vestiges in the physical realm, the rules of time, space, and death are being bent, shit's wild and I love it. It seems like nothing is off the table, and anything is possible at this point.

But where is it all going? What will happen once the battle is over?

My best guess is that once AFO's body disappears and Deku (and hopefully Bakugou dhjdhjd) wins the fight against Shigaraki, Shigaraki's body will like. Peel away or something and Tenko will be left. But that's like, really specific and I genuinely don't know if that's where Horikoshi is going or not.

Part four: where am I going with this?

I don't know the specifics, but either at the climax of the final battle or right after, this is what I think will happen. Either:

AFO and OFA merge, possibly when AFO tries to steal OFA. There's a consistent theme in BNHA about merging with other people, becoming other people, sharing consciousness, mind and body etc. I don't think it's a stretch to assume that if this happens, a cataclysmic event will occur (that could potentially steal every single quirk on the planet, therefore overloading AFO and destroying all of them) (It's been established that even the quirks that AFO has already are rebelling against him, so this could also kill AFO's consciousness, two birds with one stone).

Shigaraki (or Tenko) willingly works to undo the harm he's caused by removing everyone's quirk and destroying them, bringing about equality.

A third thing that combines these.

I think that an ending like this for BNHA would suit it. Not only would it subvert expectations and tie up loose ends, but it would also fit the narrative, at least in my opinion. Deku says at the very beginning that 'not all men are born equal', and throughout BNHA that philosophy has been one of if not the most important driving force in the plot. (It's why, in my opinion, the story fits so well as an allegory for disability, queerness, and the like). It would be almost poetic for everyone to end the story on equal footing. Deku and Bakugou don't have to compete for the spot of number one, because they'd both be the greatest heroes for bringing about a new age of peace.

I dunno.

anyway.

These are all just my thoughts. I'm aware that Horikoshi probably has a different plan for his series and I'm perfectly chill with that. It's just a theory. A game theory

if you have any thoughts I'd love to hear them!

[theophagie-remade]

(Warning: this is going to be a long long post)

[To make my life easier, I'm going to use "fanbase" to mean fans as a collective, and "fandom" to indicate those who are involved in shipping. Yes, I know that shipping isn't the only thing that makes up a fandom, but I need a quick way to differentiate between the two things, hence that "to make my life easier". Love and peace]

I've been spending a little more time on twitter these days just to witness the state of bnha discourse there (am I using it though? Ah! You'll never have me, hellsite [derogatory]), and man. It's genuinely... puzzling? Somewhat impressive, in a bad way? That such big portion of the fanbase appears to be completely unwilling to engage with anything that isn't surface level conflict, and completely disregards thematic elements, parallelisms, patterns...

Not that it's inherently wrong to be more interested in the fights, to want more action-based scenes or anything like that, and obviously it's not like bnha is the damned Divine Comedy, but the thing is, these are people who actively antagonize anyone who does talk about the [previously mentioned things] that it does have, and who do so in a scornful manner? What. Hello. I mean, shounen fans in general don't have the best reputation within manga/anime communities as it is, but to think that it has gotten this bad in there...

From my understanding things have turned especially sour in the past few months, but I do know that it has always been a thing. It was an eternity ago, but just to say one I still remember how a lot of people were genuinely convinced that Bakugou would indeed join the villains back when he had been kidnapped because... he has a bad attitude and is aggressive... When during the exam with Midoriya and All Might not long before that the audience was explicitly told what his objectives were, why he acted the way that he did, etc. Again, the problem isn't strictly that these people misunderstand things, but that they act like they know better and are so smart when canon (and theories by fandom swamp dwellers, but I'll get to this later*) has contradicted them again and again.

I'm going to half-recycle another post I made real quick. I know that to an external person it may look like I'm making up a Guy Type so that I can be mad at him, but well. It is a fact that the portion of the fanbase that I'm referring to is largely made up of young, straight men who invalidate the opinions of anyone who isn't like them, and that these guys are also very quick to turn to all sorts of bigotry whenever they have the chance, which... isn't a new thing obviously, but the thing with these guys is that oftentimes they're youtubers with a following, which can result in very nasty things. And after having had the displeasure of reading certain things, I do wonder why these men are even reading bnha anymore, what they're expecting out of it. It was obviously never going to be the dark manga that they wanted it to become. Midoriya was never going to be an ambiguous, emotionally distant protagonist. Bakugou was never going to remain a big, bad bully.

Recycling another post of mine again, but 💀 it literally is like this. Sorry for the bad screenshot but I don't want to worsen the length of this post too much lol

And speaking of Bakugou, something that at first really threw me off when I first exposed myself to this side of the fanbase (to the Dudebros™) is how vehemently they hate him. It's funny, because on paper he is most things that they've always wanted Midoriya to be. He's sure of himself, stronger than most since the beginning, has drive, is cool, isn't wHiNy. And then I began reading things like "all the teen girls and women in their 20s in this community care about is their stupid anime boy and their baseless gay ship" and I was like "Ah. It's one of those cases". And I don't like playing armchair psychologist, but from the way they're obsessed with bringing up his past bullying, and from how they talk about him in general, I do also think that they project hard onto Midoriya, whom they perceive as "the victim", "the underdog", hence why they wish he hated Bakugou, why they play down how important they are for each other, maybe why they refuse to accept the emotional weight of certain scenes and narrative choices.

And to tie back into *what I said earlier, this attitude that they have towards Bakugou, the way they act like he isn't a pivotal character (he's the damn co-star on set ffs), how they constantly and purposefully misunderstand him has had very funny outcomes, in which: they say A; the fandom (among which are the aforementioned brainless girls and women) says B; in the time that it takes for a chapter to come out, the dudebros revel in their perceived superiority; Horikoshi ends up delivering B, or as close to B as it could have been; ✨️the dudebros have a meltdown✨️, mayhaps they even have the bright idea of sending some death threats to Horikoshi himself here and there; repeat. And obviously the fandom has its own unlikely theories too, but in the case of these guys we're talking consistent levels of flopping, of completely misreading the manga and the characters. But no, it's the teen girls and the women who are stupid and ruin the fanbase with their disgusting gay🤢🤮 shipping (and any queer fan too, obviously 🙄, do any of you not know that shounen manga is supposed to be for us manly straight men who like pussy and want to see blood and guts 🙄) (why are you even still reading bnha if you're looking for that???)

The unfortunate coincidence that has made all of this worse was that, just as most people in the fandom like Bakugou and most dudebros dislike him, most dudebros like Uraraka and most people in the fandom... dislike her? Nope, not even that! (Un)surprisingly, there aren't many people around who express negative things about Uraraka herself. What I did read? Criticism (very understandable criticism, criticism that I fully agree with) of Horikoshi's writing, wishes that she had been given more agency, that she had been treated like the prominent supporting character that she is in a dignified way and not just as the mc's token future wife... Mhhh. Funny that. Funny also that most of this criticism indeed comes from women, who in turn are told that they should just shut up and stop complaining. :)

And wouldn't it be even funnier if the two characters that the fanbase is split over were both shipped with the mc, creating an even more polarised environment. :). And it's frustrating that it all circles back to that, izuocha isn't fandom-popular because people generally bring up its one-sidedness and the fact that Uraraka's feelings for Midoriya did have a negative impact on her growth, bakudeku isn't dudebro-popular because, and I'm listing things that I have literally read: it's gay and Midoriya and Bakugou aren't gay (a classic, an evergreen. Fresh); Bakugou abused Midoriya; Midoriya and Bakugou think of each other like brothers (note the paradox here); it's "sexualising children" (but shipping izuocha isn't?).

So Fun. Not one thing to not love in here 👍

Going back to Bakugou a second, but at this point it isn't even funny to read certain comments anymore for just how stupid they are. Bakugou dudebros pov encouraging him to win, keeping his secrets, wanting him to look at me, helping him train, constantly worrying for him, saving his life by risking mine, knowing him better than anyone else, apologising to him, being the closest person to him, acting like and thinking about him before possibly dying because I hate him 💢😠👊

And I mean, like I said lots of guys say things like these because 1) of projection and refusal to move on from the bully version of him from the earliest part of the story; 2) he's largely liked by female fans and Women Bad; 3) it's an extension of the bakudeku/izuocha ship war (🙄), but this pettiness and desire to be contrary for no good reason at all do leave me ??? Like, just how incapable of reading are you willing to make yourself look just because of how immature you are (if you are indeed faking it instead of the worse scenario, which is you not even misreading things on purpose but being that bad at it...)

[gentrychild]

another another another person who pretty much only interacts with bnha through fandom, there are things that while fun are obviously fake, such as the red shoe theory, there aqre things that seem both fake and stupid but are unfortunately real, such as the double pinky toe joint thing, there are things that could fall either way but it has yet to be revealed (and i will hear about it when it is) such as dfo, and things that i have no fucking clue about, such as the relationship status of first, second, and third, are they poly? who know? i certainly don't

(please ask me about the quirkless toe joint thing, i have so many opinions that i want to talk to someone about)

Listen, there aren't many heterosexual explanation to First canonically saying "Please, my hero." to Second to convince him to be nice to Izuku, followed by the awkward silence of a bunch of Vestiges who are "Five minutes. We asked you not to act like sickening sweethearts for five minutes. Was that too much to ask???"

And I was going to say we need to see the Vestiges once again to see more of Third but really, who need canon to confirm ships?

(Please, do bring the salt when it comes to the quirkless toe joint thing.)