#and Toga knows even less about ochako

[problemswithbooks]

God can hori be any more heavy handed with the "DONT YOU WANT TO BE NORMAL NORMAL NORMAL" bestie, shes drinking other kids blood, thats not just "not normal". This weird retcon thing is annoying, Idk why hed bother putting her backstory in when he didnt give much of a shit about it 😭

The thing is, I actually don't think trying to say Toga's blood drinking is normal is necessarily bad or something that can't be done well. Quirks are a major part of the world and the story overall--it's not that far fetched that blood drinking might be a normal thing a person with a Quirk would want to do. If people can accept people that can make explosions which could also be dangerous to kids and people (and very much was for Izuku) then it's not a huge stretch to accept that blood drinking for Toga is normal and she should be accepted as such.

The issue is that Hori didn't really make that the issue. I don't think he really sees it himself given how he wrote Mineta, but Toga's main problem and why shes not accepted is a matter of consent not because she's seen as a creep.

This is why her backstory doesn't work very well, besides the fact it's way to late and very short. Yes, her parents freak out about her Quirk and obsession with blood. The problem is that they don't freak out for zero reason and are the only ones who reject her.

No child should be drinking the blood of birds. Whether she killed it or not, birds carry many diseases and parasites harmful to people. Her father shouldn't have hit her (because, I guess he did even though it's poorly conveyed), but the shock given what she's doing is understandable. Especially if they think she killed it (which is weird, and suggests she might have done something they found disturbing before this or were bad parents regardless of her Quirk).

Then they yell at her because she's biting her finger bloody. That's self harm and something you would want to send a child to therapy for. Sure, the counselor didn't help, but it's not like they can give Toga what she wants.

That's hammered home when they yell at her again when she drinks another kids blood. Hori messes up and doesn't show us what happens so we don't know if she hurt this other kid, or if they were scared of her or if they were fine with it.

Just giving us a look at her parents reaction doesn't give us any idea how she was seen by her peers. Because of that it's hard to make the case that she was only rejected for her Quirk alone, rather then her actions. In fact the only time we see other students they say she was popular and well liked until she attacked a boy in the class.

Given how young she looks when her parents yell at her for sucking another kids blood, and the fact she fled school after she attacked her crush, it appears these were separate events. If that was the case people in her school might have already heard about her sucking a kids blood earlier, and clearly not cared. In the very least we have to assume they knew her Quirk involved blood because Hori doesn't make any suggestion that it was hidden.

And that's why the theme of acceptance and Toga being normal because blood drinking is a part of her falls flat. No one ever said shit about her Quirk ever, except for her parents in sparse flashbacks. Ochako never thinks her blood drinking is gross nor do any of the the other Heroes or class 1A students. Hell, Tenya doesn't even bad mouth Stain for drinking blood even though he hated the guy so much he wanted him dead. This doesn't make it seem like the world rejected her for her Quirk.

No, the entire problem is that Toga doesn't understand consent or boundaries. We never see her ever ask anyone, even as a kid if she can drink their blood (that would have been a better scene then her drinking birds blood imho) and get rejected and told off and bullied/ostracized for her desire. Which if that did happen would explain why she never asks again and feels no one will accept her.

And, you could blame her parents and the therapist for this, but I'd just wager Hori doesn't really grasp that consent is the issue here. Mainly because Ochako never addresses it in anyway, even though she does bring up Toga's crimes. She offers her blood to Toga for life, but does not say that difference between Toga drinking her blood as opposed to anyone else's is because she is giving permission.

In the end Toga doesn't learn anything and just gets what she wanted given to her. Maybe Hori will address this next chapter but it really should have been brought up sooner. That or he should have had Toga actually not be accepted what-so-ever and shunned by all her peers for her Quirk even before she attacked her crush.

And this is part of the reason I really don't like the queer reading of the chapter is because by doing so it is suggesting that queer people are dangerous. If we read Toga's blood drinking as the same as kissing--which she seems to say (though her expression while drinking blood suggests something more...problematic) then she has been going around kissing people against their will to fulfill her own needs. If we read this as queer, is the story not saying that repressed gay people will sexually harass people because they can't understand consent when they inevitably snap?

I'm not saying this was or is Hori's intent. I think it's pretty clear he just didn't see how big an issue of consent there was with Toga and her Quirk. He wanted it to be all about how she wasn't accepted as normal, but didn't put in the work of showcasing that well. He has a lousy track record with female characters getting way less attention and with his rush to finish on top of that, Ochako and Toga got screwed with a half baked climax. Unfortunately that's also left it with less then great implications if you think about it for a coupe of minutes.

[dolche-tejada]

You know, I think this ending would have been slightly less of a fucking disappointment if the heroes hadn't been so unfairly favored by Horikoshi compared to the villains. I mean, seriously

Deku destroys every bone in his body multiple times throughout the story and is warned that if he continues, he'll permanently lose the use of his limbs ? Everything's fine, his body's just got used to being reduced to a bloody pulp somehow so there's no consequences for him. In fact even when he literally loses his arms to Shigaraki, he gets them back two minutes later thanks to Eri because guess what ? Her horn still works even when cut off from her body. How convenient.

Gran Torino gets his ribcage obliterated by Shigaraki ? Don't worry guys, he'll survive that despite his old age and injuries, and this to have no particular role in the plot afterwards.

Bakugo dies heroically trying to buy time before Deku arrives ? Lmao, did you really believe it ?? No of course not, Edgeshot just uses his last-minute Deus Ex Machina to save his life at the cost of his own and- Oops nope he's fine too, my bad !

Hawks murders a criminal fleeing for his life in cold-blood ? The best Hori has to offer is him completely free and in charge of the HSPC.

And no, losing his quirk isn't a real consequence for him because not only it literally played a major part in saving the world with Vestige!Hawks raising an insurrection among AFO's quirks, but also because his quirk has always been the element through which people exploited him.

Endeavor abused his family for years and completely destroyed his eldest son ? No jail time and no media backlash for that, the only blame he received was due to the heroes' failure to stop the League during the Raid Arc.

And don't even get me started on this bs about facing hell or whatever for what he's done : He's literally free and wealthy ; he have Rei, Fuyumi, Shoto, his sidekicks and Hawks on his side ; and all the difficulties he's apparently going to suffer are off-screened.

Deku had to sacrifice OFA and his future hero career to save the world ? Guess what, Bakugo invested all his time and money to make him an Iron-Man suit and now he can still be a hero with everyone else.

There are plenty more examples of this but I think you get the idea. Now let's take a look at the villains' ending :

Toya is now a piece of charcoal kept artificially alive for the few years he has left, unable to move a finger, and whose few minutes a day during which he can stay awake will be spent talking to his father who abused him as a child.

Toga, a literal teenager, killed herself to save Ochako and because she knew it's still better than rotting at Tartarus her whole life.

And not only did she die but she did by bleding to death. Let me repeat for those who have trouble grasping what I've just said : In a manga where the heroes can survive having their heart blown to bits, being impaled Kakyoin-style or smashed against buildings like a fly on a windshield, one of the main antagonists died of a fucking hemorrhage…

As for Shigaraki, after learning that his very birth and all the tragedies of his life have been orchestrated by AFO, after all this development and narrative promises about him being saved in the end... Deku just kills him.

Because despite all his speeches about saving him, it seems like the best he could do was beating him both physically and mentally until he crumbles to dust…

Compress on his side is apparently locked up for life and kept alive by machines too.

A begging Kurogiri tried in a desperate attempt to save Shigaraki, only to be unceremoniously blown up by Bakugo and dying off-screen without anyone giving a shit, including Aizawa and Mic.

And Spinner will now spend the rest of his life struggling with the extra quirks inside him that affect his body and mind, while having to cope with the thought that his boyfriend best friend and companions have either died alone or are locked away for life in horrifying circumstances.

Clearly not the same as with the heroes...

Now don't get me wrong, even if they suffered just as much from the consequences of their actions or the plot as the League, this ending would still be a disaster in terms of writing but AT LEAST it wouldn't reek that much of hypocrisy.

[aashi-heartfilia]

Deku and Ochako: Two threads running in parallel

MHA has a vibrant cast with each character having its own quirks and perks. We often find ourselves shipping them and rooting for them to become cannon but in the midst of these shipping wars, we often overlook their personal journeys become true heroes.

One such pair is IzuOcha.

People often view it as a straight vanilla ship and ignore everything that makes it special/different from the other so-called vanilla ships. The fact that their journeys were always running in parallel, fighting side by side, inspiring each other in a give and take relationship...but let's start from the very beginning....

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Chapter 3: The first time we meet Ochako, she saves Deku from falling on his two feet. She's nervous, but not as much as Deku. She wishes them both good luck and leaves. Now, this was their first meeting, and this is where their "Do your best" starts.

They both did their best in the exams, where Deku saves Ochako from the giant robot and Ochako in turns saves Deku from falling, like literally saving his life this time around.

Chapter 4: Then, the next time we see her, she was vouching for Deku, even at the cost of her own points. This also parallels her speech later in the manga.

Chapter 7: They enter UA, finally meet each other again, and become friends. In fact, on the very first day, Ochako says that she likes the name Deku, as it kinda gives a "You can do it!" vibe. Another fun thing to note here is that in Japanese she refers to 'gambare' which literally means "Do your best!".

She changes the meaning of his name, from an insult to something inspiring and it might have looked like a comedy gag moment at that time, but when you look at future chapters, it was much more than that.

Chapter 8: The very next chapter, we see Deku facing off Bakugo and saying "He's the Deku who does his best!". And we even see the importance of what Ochako said as she inspired him to do his best. In that test, they both pass with flying colors.

Chapter 22: Then not after too long, we find out about Ochako's motivation to be a hero, which was to earn money so that her parents can have easier lives. Some might say, there are other ways to make money, why choose heroism?

Well, you need to look deeper into the character, especially for someone like Ochako that has layers to her character. She's not someone you can tell by looking at first glance. From outside, she might be all sweet and cherry but from the inside, there's a storm. She has an iron will, and that she depicted again and again, be it her battle with Bakugo in sports fest or her quirk awakening and battle with Toga in the 2nd war. She has always been like that.

On the surface, she presents herself to be your average girl next door, but when you look behind that facade, you'll see a plethora of emotions.

She laughs with everyone but cries alone.

Her crying after Deku leaves (ch 37) or her thoughts about "who saves the heroes", or her "I didn't know the first thing about Toga" thoughts...

She has thoughts and emotions that are deep and not for not everyone can comprehend them. Some people might still see her as nothing more than a blatant love interest but we know that's far from the truth and that's why we'll deep dive into her character a little more.

Ochako has a lot of self-respect >>>

Despite what inspires her to be a hero, she refuses to take help from anyone. This is depicted when she refuses to take help from Deku in the SF. She felt embarrassed when Iida challenged Deku as that made her question her own ideals.

They were all there to become heroes and that makes them all rivals, even if they are friends and thus she challenges him to meet her at the finals.

I think that was a very underrated Ochako moment. (can't present all the pictures because Tumblr only allows less than 10 pics, but you can see it in the collage above)

From the very first day, her "let's do our best!" moment to their battle with Toga in the final war, she has been challenging / inspiring Deku but due to her soft personality, it gets overlooked very often.

It parallels Bakugo in a way and I love the parallels between Bakugo and Ochako but that is for another day.

So it's safe to conclude that just like Bakugo who has been a hardcore rival in power and ideals, Ochako has also been a friend / rival both in terms of power and ideals, although it might be more of her morals that inspire him the most. He even thinks about her in his final battle with Shigaraki, because she was the only one that resonates with his idea of saving villains but more on that later.

Chapter 37: After her loss, Deku goes to check on her and it turns out she was doing fine. She has taken it very positively or so it may seem but as soon as Deku leaves, she starts crying and Deku overhears her. He even feels guilty about not being able to do anything for her.

And that shows you how perceptive Deku really is. He's not some dumb, dense MC that has no clue how others are feeling. He's very sensible and wouldn't cause unnecessary trouble.

Chapter 45: After the sports fest, we see everyone choosing their hero names and Izuku chooses Deku. We even get a reaction panel of both Ochako and Bakugo. Bakugo always looked down on Deku and used it as an insult to call him 'useless' but Ochako changed its meaning to some positive, more meaningful.

Then in the following chapters (ch 46) they both go for their internships where Deku learns to control his 5% from Grand Torino and Ochako learns combat from Gunheads and I might say, IzuOcha might be the only people who learned the most from their internships, lol.

From then onwards, they both continue to grow in terms of power, as the story starts focusing on other characters as well, and we see less of her. Plus, her slight crush starts to develop from that point on, which made most people overlook her entire story.

But let's go over some of the key moments from that time:

Aoyama and Ochako vs 13: Aoyama teases Ochako about Deku, and this might be the first mention of her having a crush on Deku (ch 67)

Izuku encounters Shigaraki at the mall: If it wasn't for Ochako, everyone in the mall, including Deku would have died, making it the 2nd time Ochako saved Deku's life, quite literally (ch 68 and 69)

God knows what would have happened if Ochako didn't come back at the right time. She called the police and alerted everyone. Ochako doesn't get enough credit for her responsible and mature nature.

Chapter 76-77: Deku vs Muscular and Chapter 80: Ochako and Tsuyu vs Toga 1.0 where Deku and gang's interference saved them kinda like how Ochako's presence in the mall saved Deku from Shigaraki, although that was more serious.

Chapter 100: Ochako, Iida and Deku meet Hatsume. Yeah, that iconic encounter that has another parallel.

Chapter 102: Ochako realises her feelings for Deku.

Chapter 105: Deku realises it's not Ochako.

The thing is, Deku knew from the get go that the stranger is not Ochako. He even says "Ochako has been training to use her quirk and now she can float herself for some time, ignoring the side effects. In a situation like this, she wouldn't forget to use it and to reveal herself to the enemy without a plan?"

No, you're not the Uraraka I know.

And that, says volumes out there relationship! Even though, we saw how Ochako had romantic feelings for Deku in the previous chapters, she still kept on improving and Deku acknowledged that!

Even if we don't see him analysing her quirk again and again like Bakugo, he always keeps an eye on her, because note that in the manga, she never specifically tells him about her improvement but he still noticed it!

He knows Ochako enough to know that she's smart and strategic and that she would never reveal herself in front of the enemy without a solid plan. So when he saved Toga (disguised as Ochako) he knew that it wasn't Ochako!

And that's pure respect.

It is one of the examples of "Show, don't tell".

Chapter 107: Ochako quickly followed Deku's idea because she trusts him so much.

Chapter 109: And later, we see her struggling to keep her feelings under check. Because she's so inspired by Deku to do her best, it becomes an internal battle of emotions. At one point, she wants to compete with him, on the other, she has feelings for him that she can't control.

After that, it's a brief period of self-reflection from Ochako. We start seeing her less and less. She gets busy with her internship with Ryukyu and the team and we later see that they help defeat that giant villain in ch 156.

We later see that one of the biggest developments of Ochako comes from ch 163, where she regrets not being able to save Sir Nighteye.

In the class 1a vs 1b arc, she saves Deku when his quirk blackwhip goes haywire. If it wasn't for her quick thinking, again God knows what would have happened.

She may not have numerous power quirks like Deku but she's a capable hero in her own right and that is depicted in the Joint training arc when not only does she save Deku, but also manages to KO 3/5 people in the opponents team (Monoma, Rei, Poltergeist). She was literally the MVP of that arc.

Plus we get to see more of what runs inside her brain. Her ideology about forms the basis for one of the greatest arcs in the story.

"Who saves the heroes when they are in pain?"

After JTA, they again go to their internships and when they come back Deku apologises for what happened during JTA. Note that even though it was never shown, he was still concerned about Ochako.

He was sad that he unknowingly hurt her (much like how he says thank you very later after her speech). But Ochako on the other hand brushes it off, saying it's not a big deal and it inspired her to use wires much like Sero and Deku.

So, we see this relationship of give and take come into play again and again where they both inspire the other to do their best. Then they share a cute fist bump.

On Christmas, out of pure coincidence (wink** wink** Horikoshi) they both receive each other's presents.

Also note that, Ochako gets her hero costume upgraded after JTA, where she starts using those grappling hooks to grab and throw stuff, much like Deku and also attaches tiny rockets in her heels for more mobility.

Plus, that cute tiny pocket where she keeps her AM plushie❤️(that she got as Christmas gift from Deku). I think, after Bakugo and Deku, she has the most useful costume upgrade in the entire class!

Also, when Deku has a battle with Shigaraki in the 1st war, there is an entire chapter dedicated to Ochako vs Toga. Plus, she also gets to witness the aftermath of the war and her face, even now serves as the highlight for that chapter (ch 295).

The ragged blanket of heroism shed that day and what was left was the remains, of what it means to be a hero.

And for someone who was initially there for the money, it is especially important that she gets to witness this. It was the true horrors of hero society. She witnessed all this and still chose to stay in that line of work already says that she is way past her old thinking.

She's not some government agent like Hawks or Nagant or training to become the No 1 hero like Deku, Bakugo or Endeavour. Her life is simple, much like the citizens she saves, but it still matters.

And that's what makes her a People's Hero.

And finally after the first war, Deku leaves UA and Ochako rethinks "Who saves the heroes when they are in need?" and after that point onwards there was no looking back as her character arc takes a great turn!!

We get an entire arc of Dark Deku, indulging more and more into the darkness of his own powers and almost 10 chapters later we see a completely different Ochako.

I still remember people talking about it when ch 319 dropped.

This Ochako is ready to take action and takes shit from no one! One of the greatest character developments if you ask me. Ochako in a way is more like Lucy from Fairytail. Gets ignored most of the time but their moments are just as important.

Even though Deku went around saving people for days, people started viewing him as a villain. Ochako's speech brought him back to being a human.

Not a hero, not a villain, just a human.

And then we see her thinking about Toga, and how she didn't know the first thing about her in ch 342. She had a chat with Deku, where she confided in him. I think that kind of emotional intimacy is what makes their relationship interesting.

Her morals matter a lot to Deku, believe it or not! And that's why when she asks him to leave and take care of Shigaraki in ch 348, he thinks back to this conversation and unwillingly obliges.

Because he has faith in her, the kind that cannot be expressed in words. That comes from a long time understanding of each other...that is beyond comprehension for many people and that's why her "Do your best!" matters because that's what they have been doing since the day they met!

~Sunshine

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 425: New Normal

Previously on BnHA: Everyone was all “and with that we conclude our final battle for better or worse!! We will now commence our slow return to the new normal, beginning with our protagonist and deuteragonist who are miraculously more or less intact, albeit exhausted and mildly traumatized. Also the words ‘more or less’ are kind of doing a lot of heavy lifting there.”

Today on BnHA: The Big 3 and Aoyama are OUT. Shinsou is IN. The Tododrama is PENDING, and the mysterious figure in the shadows is UNIDENTIFIED. Also class 1-A finally becomes class 2-A and it only took them 425 chapters and TEN LONG YEARS. Can you imagine if this series had actually run throughout their high school experience like people once expected. “THE YEAR IS 2044 AND MY HERO ACADEMIA IS FINALLY WINDING TO A CLOSE.” There’s an alternate universe somewhere where this actually happened and we were all so very, very tired.

This is once again a shorter than usual reaction summary post, as opposed to my typical page-by-page liveblog. Not gonna have time to do those for a while yet most likely, but like hell am I gonna miss out on the last days of the series, so here we are.

Once again basing this off of @pikahlua’s spoiler translation summary here!

watching the eighteen inch tall Rat Principal standing at a podium overseeing this graduation ceremony is surreal in the most wonderful way. it’s like receiving your diploma from a sentient Funko Pop

I love how they established that Mic sitting there screaming at the top of his lungs is also a beloved U.A. graduation tradition, and that the senpais just roll with it while everyone else is in varying stages of trying to decide if it’s too late to transfer to another school

ngl sometimes I forget that Ochako and Toga were actually the second canonical f/f ship in this series. shoutout to Hadou and her adorable girlfriend whose name I absolutely cannot recall

absolutely wild that Horikoshi gives credit to Rat Principal for coordinating the entire disaster recovery nationwide. are you serious. the “world-famous” Principal Nezu?? you’re telling me this little capybara is effectively the secret president of Japan now or something. when does he even sleep

“the principal made great contributions to quirk morality education” is also a VERY interesting tidbit that I really want to know more about. “hey guys what if we did a better job at teaching people not to be dicks with their quirks” AND JUST LIKE THAT JAPAN WAS SAVED huzzah

“we lost many things, but we gained nothing” is both HILARIOUS and soundly depressing, but I can see what he’s trying to get at. still an odd choice for a graduation speech though. “our job is all about harm reduction, and we couldn’t even do that this time around, but in the future we hope to balance things out and maybe even get some net positive impact going!” lmao. again it’s all true, and in all honesty it’s spectacular that they managed as well as they did, all things considered. and I guess it would have been disingenuous to just ignore the reality of everything this particular school body has been through and pretend like everything is great right now. but I still can’t help feeling like there was probably a more inspiring way to get this message across lol

regardless of what he says, Aizawa 100% either bribed or threatened Rat Principal behind the scenes in order to stay with his class. and will do so again next year. he can and will keep getting away with it. he is never leaving these kids

and the sheer relief from all of them upon hearing it is all the justification he needs. these kids have four thousand nine hundred and seventeen accumulated traumas among them. they don’t need a four thousand nine hundred and eighteenth. this man is their father ffs. MINA WAS CRYING AND EVERYTHING

Kacchan watched that YouTube video about a dozen times until he managed to tie his tie all on his own with the one hand. and he did an amazing job. he’s such a model citizen now

also it looks to me like he has his right arm hidden in a sling underneath his shirt, which is interesting. if I’m not mistaken (and I very well could be, since it’s been a hot minute since I did any BnHA timeline math), the final battle took place sometime in early May, so this chapter is taking place roughly one month later. the hospital chapter took place about a week after the battle, so it’s been about 3-4 weeks since then. I really want to know what kind of shape Kacchan’s arm is in, but I guess Horikoshi will get to it when he gets to it

also, “we all gotta be together today” was a real wakeup call to me in that it gave me just an absolutely ridiculous amount of feels. just a totally unreasonable amount. and it’s like. listen, self. Kacchan has completed his character growth arc. he’s a team player and a leader who loves all his friends and they all love him in return. we’ve known this for years now. it’s an established fact. you can’t keep bursting into tears or whatever every time he shows it. this is no way to live your life. I need an intervention

anyways later this evening class 2-A is gonna have a celebratory movie night in the common room, and Kacchan is gonna fall asleep two minutes in peacefully surrounded by all his classmates, and they’re all gonna nudge each other and smile fondly and cover him with a blanket and stay up until 2am and Aizawa will have no mercy on them the following morning. it’s gonna be so wholesome you guys

(ETA: I decided to go back and have some more feels about this one tiny Kacchan panel, because apparently the four paragraphs I already wrote about it weren't enough. so the thing is, Sero's wonderment at Katsuki being out of the hospital initially read to me as half bemused awe, and half "oh boy, time to get back into our usual rhythm of antagonizing Kacchan!" but my second time around, I can't help remembering that all of Kacchan's classmates got to watch this kid getting tortured and strangled and stabbed through the heart in 4K. like, even if they were busy with their own fights at the time, there's no way they didn't see the footage later on afterwards.

and that had to have been traumatic for them. their friend literally died and was just lying there so still for so long afterwards. and him getting better and going back to his usual asskicking self later on doesn't just erase those memories, you know? especially with him having lasting, permanent damage afterward. not just his arm, even! like who even knows if his heart is going to be okay long term. when people get organ transplants they have to go on immunosuppressants afterwards because otherwise their body will try to attack the replacement organ. so I wonder how exactly it works when it's still your heart, but it's being held together by various bits and pieces of a spindly little floss man. idk, but I bet you it's still pretty rough.

anyway so long story short, I'm now reading this as one-third bemused awe, one-third joking antagonism, and one-third genuine "no seriously, is it okay for you to be here, please don't do anything to put your health at risk because we seriously cannot handle you dying on us again." and Kacchan's not even disagreeing with him lol, which has to be the most concerning thing of all. "they said it's okay if I rest." even he knows he's pushing it, but it was too important of an occasion to miss. anyway please take it easy kiddo.)

Aoyama leaving makes me sad but it makes total sense for his character after what he’s been through. he needs time to sort things out and continue down his own personal honor-regaining journey. respect

also glad to hear that it was his own choice and that both Rat Principal and Nao would have supported him if he stayed. I still to this day do not understand Naomasa’s actual level of authority lol. like, he’s supposedly a detective, and yet he seems to be personally in charge of every single important police operation, on like a national level. and he has the authority to make decisions like letting Aoyama go free. he is the law, literally

Aoyama trying to feed Deku some farewell cheese also took me out. like he just walked in there and was all “sorry everyone, I’m leaving, but I’ll still aim for the path of a hero and will one day return, don’t you worry!” and at some point in the midst of this tearful speech he made a beeline directly to Izuku and tried to give him some cheese that he apparently just had in his pocket or something. and Izuku was all “YEAH!” all solemnly but HE DIDN’T EVEN TOUCH THAT POCKET CHEESE. like he loves you and accepts you for who you are Yuuga but COME ON

at this point in the chapter it also became clear to me that Aizawa has his hair up in some sort of loosely assembled messy bun and that’s why it looks so especially flowing and gorgeous today. this is great cinema

and then AT LONG LAST, the admission of Shinsou into class 2-A. they tried everything they could to keep him out, BUT NOT EVEN THE END OF THE WORLD COULD STOP HIM. his rightful place

Ojiro’s scandalized response to hearing Fuwa refer to Aizawa as “Era-sen”, and then Fuwa subsequently revealing all of Aizawa’s secrets and Aizawa getting flustered and kicking her out, was one of the most delightful sequences I’ve read. “nooooo don’t tell them that, what the hell am I gonna threaten them with now”

Izuku has not even attempted to crack a smile since the final battle, aside from when he was frantically trying to reassure Kacchan in the hospital. I’m worried about him but also loving this a little bit, ngl. I am content to wait for you to eventually have a proper breakdown, mister Greatest Hero

also I singled him out on the whole not-smiling thing, but really this is true for just about all of them. my heart aches :(

were there really so many people freaking out over Izuku’s hair that Horikoshi felt compelled to throw in that “HEY DEKU-KUN, YOU SHAVED YOUR HAIR LIKE THAT DUE TO AN INJURY, RIGHT? BUT IT’LL GROW BACK, RIGHT!?” line in there lol. the hilarious thing is that this chapter was already in the books before 424 was released, so it means that Horikoshi anticipated the backlash ahead of time. the man knows his audience

and now for this mysterious little barefoot man randomly emerging from some rubble somewhere. who are you. fandom already thinks you’re everyone from Tenko to Hisashi lol. my personal theory is that he’s just a random citizen who’s hurt and traumatized and needs help. and unlike what happened with baby Tenko once upon a time, this young man actually will be helped by a hero in his moment of need, and it’ll be all hopeful and stuff because SOCIETY IS CHANGING FOR THE BETTER NOW HOORAY

or maybe he really is Tenko, idk. what do I know lol. don’t listen to me

lastly, Shouto out here immediately leaving U.A. after class and ruining my dreams of a class 2-A movie night. FINE THEN. GO AND BE WITH YOUR FAMILY my precious little life preserver. and I’m actually really, really excited to see what their endgame is actually, so yes, Horikoshi, bring it on please and thank you

[serxinns]

Hi! I was wondering if u can do a normal class 1a x reader platonic hc’s? Like readers quirk is like briar from league of legends and readers pretty sweet but scares class 1a a lil

I haven't did fucking headcannons In a WHILE I hope you enjoy them!

Disclaimer I do not know much about this character so if I mischaraterize something then I'm sorry

•ever since you transferred to Ua, they always thought you were a bit weird, especially when you 1st introduced yourself. It was a wild one.

•"Hello, the names y/n l/n and I think blood is tasty!" There was a sudden silence in the class a couple of sweat drops formed on some of the students while you just casually smiled like what you said was completely normal... oh boy it was gonna be a long but fun ride for sure

•your 1st ever companions were Mina and Denki the three of you matched each other's energy and chaoticness it was like 2 dumbasses and one less of a dumbass the 3 of you would get into the most shit like one time you convince Kirishima that he could be a hammer so you somehow got a big nail and test it out resulting in Kirishima knocked out and you 3 getting scolded by and yelled at by katsuki , making iida realizing he has to deal with an extra chaotic person now

• Next was Kirishima your victim I mean your friend you can count on Kirishima was quick to like you due to your lay loose and enthusiastic behavior making him want to be you at times two whenever the two of you trained together you were encouraged each other Kirishima especially and whenever he feels insecure you would encourage him and make sure he's a strong manly man he is! Yall two are just loveable idiots

•Shoto and you had a strange yet wholesome friendship at 1st. Shoto was uncomfortable and cold towards you, which you didn't mind, and you respected his boundaries, but it all clicked when he saw you eating soba. "You like soba?" You turned to face the expressionless boy with a bright smile. "Of course! I even like it with sesame oil, grilled chicken, and a yummy fried egg! Want some?" You reached into the fridge and handed him an extra soba pack and that's how your friendship began even without the soba he thinks ur a pretty interesting person to talk to even with your bizarre talks

"Omg bro you look like that penguin dude from sanrio!"

"I have a cousin name sanrio?"

•next was Ochako she's a tiny bit scared of you at 1st worrying you might get her blood (cough cough flashbacks with toga) but you quickly reassured her that you wouldn't do it without permission which makes her feel a bit better after a bit of time and communicating with each other she starts to feel a bit comfortable with you like would invite you to her room for advice and stuff and the two if you would go out at night to watch the stars with some other students like tsuyu or maybe Tokoyami her most favorite activity is to tell space facts to you (I hc her as a space geek)

•Momo was always your go to whenever you need help with a test and she acts like she's annoyed with it but she genuinely enjoys your company you may the studying sessions fun and interesting for her whenever there's a big test that you forgot to study about all you had to do was go to her dorm and give her the puppy eyes and if she sighs you know that's a instant she then help you study mostly you just copying her notes and make SURE you get a Good grade if not she's gonna make you test the test again untill you get a good grade but outside of studying she spoils you with gifts and more to show off to your other classmates and invites you and the girls for a tea party which ends up quite chaotic

•Jirou was your music bestie you and her trade music Playlists like it's Halloween candy you like cutely but with disturbing music types of songs while jirou like cozy, calm, and peaceful genre but she admits your types of songs are amazing! But you sometimes scare her with your type of music one time she overheard your headphones blasting some sort of innocent cheery music talking about "we'll be together forever!" She thought it was cute so she asked you what song it was and you told her the lyrics and..

"Hey y/n what's the title of that song is sounds catchy?"

"So you became the moon!"

"Awww that's sounds pretty cute whats it about anyways?"

"It's about two kids drowning in a frozen late and they became together in heaven!"

"...you know what that's probably one of the tamest songs you played knowing you I'll take it"

Yea let's just say she was used to your kooky creepy music but she didn't mind, as long as that song slaps she's jamming it with you!

•Bakugo and you were fucking CHAOTIC rivals like yall two would never get along especially when the two of you 1st met you and bakugo would make a competition out of everything to the point he stopped paying attention to izuku at times which he doesn't know if he should be worried for blessed maybe both but the two of you will cause a storm one time yall wanted played Mario party with sero, and sato to see who was the best and it esuclated fast everyone in the class were rooting for you or bakugo even most of class 1b joined in on this making bets and momomeven making merch of this, shit was like a football game but unfortunately it was cut short by a angry aizawa with fuzzy bunny slippers with a hello kitty pajamas (don't even ask) but after thst night the two of you became popular

▪︎ but aside from then bakugo secretly respects you your determination and you wanting to give your all makes him admire that somehow so be bugs you everyday for now on wanting to see that determination again even the rest of the class started to notice and tease him about it which pissed him off

• Izuku isn't at all scared by you but rather is intrigued by your personality and quirk when you 1st introduced yourself he asked alot of questions about you, how your quirk operates, kind of quirk is it, do you drink animal blood-? He wants to know everything and you let him, you and him will chat each other's ears off about your favorite pro hero's and sometimes even go out to hunt for rare hero merch, you even helped izuku by participating in the black Friday event to get a all might themed ice cream maker that he has this day thanks to you if it wasn't for you punching that Karen, he cherished that ice cream maker to this day and even host ice cream parties here and there the two of you basically shared it

• But overall you were their chaotic sibing that are willing to protect, defend, and come to your aid even if it's your fault and out on the battle field you were a beast out there that one time when you, jirou, momo and denki, beat a bunch of villians you didn't know your arm was broken untill you pointed out momo and jirou freaked out while denki ran to get some aid but strangely you weren't bothered by it rather you were joking about it

Momo- "it's ok y/n help it's on the way stay put stay calm"

Jirou - just take deep breaths and count to 10-

"I wonder if I can sling it around will it spin freely"

Both- wtf-

• Yea you were a werid bitch but you were there werid bitch and they wouldn't trade you for the world

[darkonekrisrewrite]

This can't be the final "End", for both the heroes and the villains

(Spoiler warning, long post)

Deku and Ochako's stories didn't end well, and not just for the shipping or not keeping One For All.

The narrative endings they got, either don't make sense or flat out don't work at all.

The end of Ochako's arc doesn't work because it conflicts with what we've been shown to be true.

She does try to help others after hearing PARTS of Toga's backstory, a natural progression of her character.

But the problem is that it leads to this:

"Uravity to expand access to Quirk Counseling"

EXPANDING Quirk Counseling...

Not REFORMING and then expanding Quirk Counseling.

Remember that this is Quirk Counseling:

"Where they attempt to hammer out any bumps in your understanding of the world and program you to fit neatly into society's little boxes.

It's a far from perfect process, the counseling ends up emphasizing the inherent differences among us all, and that's one bug they've yet to work out of the programming."

Stated by Curious during the MVA Arc, then confirmed later in a flashback featuring a counselor talking to Toga and her parents:

"Let's straighten you out so you can be "Normal".

Deviance is common in children with strong Quirks.

We'll fix it. It'll be like it never existed."

Focusing only on repression and the appearance of being normal, not actually helping the child at all.

So yeah, knowing that this is how Quirk Counseling really is, how exactly does expanding this help??

THIS WAS WHY TOGA STAYING CLOSE TO OCHAKO WAS SO IMPORTANT

(Not being with her in the shipping sense but working, talking with her and just being together.)

Anything good about this project that Ochako is creating is only implied not shown, and it doesn't mesh well at all with what we already know.

And even if Ochako did do things right, it still wouldn't be a satisfying payoff.

Ochako wasn't fighting so hard and struggling so much to help random, unnamed, unseen people from the villain life.

She was fighting to help Toga Himiko.

Her failing to save Toga and only (implying) saving others we don't even know, will never carry the same weight.

It won't feel right in a story that's supposed to be "Hopeful", because there's no solid connection left for that sentiment to be attached.

And there was no saving going on between Deku/shigaraki and Ochako/Toga after their battles were over.

This is the sentiment put forth by Nana Shimura (and at the time agreed upon by All-might and Deku), on what a true hero saving someone means:

"When you have to save someone, they're usually in a scary situation. A true hero saves not only their lives, but also their hearts... That's what I believe."

"Saving" is supposed to be both the life and the heart.

Not just one or the other.

And even if Gran Torino was supposed to be the one in the right -

(The narrative sure as hell made it look like he was supposed to be in the wrong and Deku was going to be the one to prove that.)

- in that killing can be a form of saving.

Deku and Ochako didn't even save the villain's hearts.

Not fully.

Shigaraki tells Deku that he still needs to be a hero to the villains and that he fought to destroy until the very end.

Only giving a snide encouragement to Deku at the end of the fight because he's literally crumbling into dust and got his world view rocked by the "It was AFO all along~" reveal.

Toga tells ochako that she didn't make "the bad stuff", the pain in her heart go away.

Only telling ochako that her efforts and words made Toga feel happy, but that's it.

They couldn't save their lives, only partially saved their hearts, leading to the results:

100% - 50% - 25% = 25 % (final grade)

FAIL

The rest of Deku's conclusion doesn't fair any better.

Deku's heroic finale ends the exact same way it ended in every filler bnha movie, only with even less payoff.

He didn't succeed in his goal, with who he wanted to save and he just goes back to doing what he always did at the start, being a hero.

He doesn't develop in any noticable way until the OFA embers run out off screen.

Even the symbolic saving of the scissors boy, Deku doesn't get.

It would have been a world of difference if deku had seen tenko's full backstory, then told it to the world.

Telling the civilians that they needed to do their part to help those in trouble.

(Knowing that there's no AFO left to potentially get in the way.)

Resulting in many civilians coming together to help the scissor boy.

That would have delivered on everyone's narrative payoff.

But instead the theme doesn't work here because the single old lady who does step up to help, does so out of guilt (Not helping tenko) rather than because it is the right thing to do.

Nobody among the civilians besides the old lady stepped up to help on top of that.

So it looks less like a societal shift and more like the redemption of one single person.

The narrative makes a half-hearted attempt to tie this back to Deku but it doesn't work there either.

Because how exactly does Deku punching shigaraki into powder inspire the old lady to extend a helping hand to someone who represents that same villain??

It doesn't.

Even if the sentiment is: that everyone must do their part to help, there is a giant disconnect between:

Everyone seeing the heroes helping each other, fighting and succeeding in destroying the scary villain.

and

Realizing that someone has to help the person who looks like a scary villain.

It doesn't add up together.

Doesn't flow narratively at all.

The 8 year time skip makes more problems with Deku.

The line of: "You too can become a Hero."

Is meant to be the payoff callback to All-might giving those same words to Deku in bnha's beginning, so now Deku says the same thing to another kid that has doubts about his ability to become a hero.

It is kind of sweet but thinking about it for more than 5 seconds should give pause because:

Deku was about to receive the most powerful quirk in the world from All-might.

And the kid Deku was giving those same inspirational words to could throw plates from his head.

It's not even confirmed whether or not the kid could control their size, telepathically manipulate them or something like that.

So if what that other loudmouth kid in the final chapter said is true, about how only the most capable can become heroes in the current time.

The entire conversation, just like many other things in this ending, reads like false hope from the heroes.

Not like Deku has to deal with any of that or the kid himself anymore because he gets a tech suit, allowing him to be a hero again.

We don't know if he keeps his teaching job or not, maybe he did, maybe he didn't.

But still, once again Deku avoids any difficult questions that the story puts in front of him.

And all of this doesn't even cover the other issues that the story brought up:

The popularity poll expanding instead of ending, as if that would prevent the Endeavor/Dabi situation from happening again.

Lack of social/government help for anyone who gets dealt more than a couple of bad hands in life, those caught up in hero/villain conflicts or other disasters (quirk based or not).

Remember how twice became a villain?

THE QUIRK SINGULARITY DOOMSDAY

Now that AFO, shigaraki and the doctor (all of his research and technology) are gone, what's going to happen when children start wiping out whole city blocks?

(The doctor may be alive and imprisoned but with AFO dead, the doctor likely won't help anymore because AFO was so important to him.)

With the power and complexity of the quirks inevitably increasing, think Eri unintentionally killing her dad X10.

Then the next round of kids, make it X50 then X100.

And finally, in the last chapter it's stated that there's a: "Decline in the villain emergence rate."

Why exactly that is isn't said, but it's implied that it's due to the efforts of Ochako and Shoji.

Let's put aside the suspension of disbelief and assume that it's true, that what they did worked in stopping villains from being made enough to have a real impact.

What happens to the people that are already villains??

The ones currently on the run or in jail.

If the hero kids made that big of a difference in the demographic of villains just by expanding counseling and nonviolent resolution, then that only reinforces the truth that the villains are easily preventable victims.

The implications of that aren't doing the heroes or hero society any favors.

We don't know what happens after because Rehabilitation was never offered to anyone who wasn't a small time criminal (Gentle Criminal) or a former assassin of the state (Lady Nagant).

Are the other villains still currently stuck in their circumstances just out of luck, help came too late for them too just like the Lov?

We don't know.

You can assume, imply and head-canon the solutions to all these issues, with what the hero kids might do, as much as you want to.

But if you have to do that with the big questions and plot points, then the story hasn't delivered on what it said it was going to.

Maybe horikoshi isn't that good of a writer but it's hard to believe that.

Horikoshi put so much into this series and all the characters in it, the central villains and the hero kids being the most important ones.

That he'd just fumble everything and pull a Falcon and the Winter Soldier: "You need to do better" and then they did'-Type ending.

This can't be it.

Maybe the "Ending" endpoint of this narrative but not the end of the overall story.

For the villains just as much as the heroes.

Toga dying to a blood transfusion, despite everything other characters survived (Gran Torino donut, edgeshot worm, Dabi charcoal skeleton) and things that she herself survived already.

Having curious bombs go off inside her body leading to internal damage and severe blood loss, yet she still survived until she received help and recovered just fine.

They got Dabi to medical and kept him alive.

Other villains like overhaul, muscular, compress and spinner survived.

It's not like she either had to die or go to jail, she could have just escaped.

Leading to her meeting up with Ochako again in secret or something, to finally fulfill both of their arcs and iron everything out for what would have happened in the future.

Then the Quirk Counseling ending could have worked.

Shigaraki dying after finding out his life was entirely manipulated by AFO.

Strung along like a puppet, mentally and physically manipulated to believe he is a force of destruction, so much that by the time the series starts, it's all shigaraki can believe himself to be.

Twice and Kurogiri fight and die trying to save Toga and Shigaraki, so they can live and be reunited with their friends.

This all just meant nothing in the end??

Ochako, Deku, Toga and Shigaraki's stories can't be over yet because they are important characters and there's too much left unresolved.

Ochako's resolution is incomplete and undefined.

Deku's hero ending feels disappointing and tone-deaf.

Toga completely disappeared before Ochako was taken by the helicopter, nowhere to be seen where she should have been if she had died.

And how is shigaraki a force ghost still walking around in the world if there's no quirks left tethering him as a vestige?

ALSO this recent interview with Horikoshi himself:

(Warning: Spoilers for the most recent BNHA movie)

"Horikoshi says one thing to pay attention to from the My Hero Academia "You're Next" movie is the relationship between Giulio and Anna and how it connects with Deku and the others' goals.

He writes:

"The relationship between Giulio and Anna is a part of the goal point where Deku and the others will eventually reach.

The movie as a standalone in itself is interesting, but if you watch the movie then return to the actual story, then you might feel 'oh so this is where the story leads to.' As such, please pay attention to Giulio and Anna in the movie!"

To give context, by the end of the movie, Giulio is able to cancel out Anna's quirk using his own, allowing her to live a life without being sheltered in fear of her quirk or used as a weapon. So Horikoshi's comment is probably referring to how they help each other accept their quirks or lack thereof and still be able to live in harmony.

In regards to their relationship, Giulio tells Anna he will always be by her side no matter what, they hug and then walk off into the sunset together at the end of the movie."

And another heavily lampshaded moment in the movie novelization when Giulio inner narrates this:

'He knew that killing her wouldn't be a true form of salvation.'

What was all this about??

There has to be more left.

[angy-grrr]

btw, im not waiting a whole week just to see izu///ocha confession, and tbh I dont think hori would spend that energy in it -he didnt before after all. I just think a platonic interpretation opens up the possibilities for closing more arcs -for example, the whole control your heart, the future of heroes and villains, etc.

Doing a confession would actually be too abrupt in my opinion, considering she is here crying over Himiko, this isnt about him and loving him.

EDIT:

btw this doesnt mean im dropping bnha. Im just saying I dont think it makes sense to wait two weeks for a confession of a ship that has not that much development in the first place -and this isnt about time spent with them. Its about emotional investment. Ochako and Himiko dont have the spotlight that much when thinking about all the manga chapters and arcs, however it got a loyal fanbase because the times they are together they are impactful. We didnt even know she was this invested in Toga in those ways, like the lovely smile and liking it ever since she saw it for the first time, until she said it. After only two chapters, they felt like a very beautiful and tragic ship because they care for the other in ways incomparable with others, and their dynamic feels extremely romantic. In another hand, izu//ocha doesnt have that feeling at all even if they have more panels together -there were many ways to connect them in a relevant way, but their moments arent as emotionally charged.

When Ochako jumped to defend Izuku for example; it could have been like that but instead we have her thinking about who saves heroes when focusing on him -this isnt emotional for them together-, and when she talks about smiles, her mind jumps to Himiko crying -this is personal and emotional at the same time. If we had her thinking "who will save villains" for Himiko, it would come out as way less romantic for canon; and if we had her thinking randomly about Izuku like she did at the beginning, with drawings of her face with an embarrassing expression or starting accepting it, it would be more romantic*

Its not that they have nothing in common, or dont care about each other in a meaningful way, its just that Hori decided to focus on other relationships instead of them together. The togachako confrontation in comparison shows us how he can focus on mainly the pair without forgetting about other important characters or feelings -she thought about him, and confessed she fell in love with him, yet it hit me way harder when she remembered her sad smile.

They just are... casual? It doesnt get me invested in them because none of their moments are intimate, I think (I mean Himiko and Ochako feel way closer than Izuku and Ochako even when they share goals and have cute moments, maybe bc some of the themes that hori seemed to introduce in the beginning for them got dropped after Katsuki was chosen to remain as a supportive pillar for Izuku. I hope the phrasing comes out as I intended!)

*I guess the closer to this would be her wishing him to give his best when she was at the helicopter, but personally I dont count it as random because everyone was feeling the same -and Iida is the link to this, narratively speaking. It wasn't her in the helicopter in a different scene with nobody else discussing these topics, neither it was Izuku thinking of this aspect of her on his own. So it doesnt come off as impactful.

[todomitoukei]

what’s the spoiler for the final chapter? 🤡

It's a lot of dumb stuff so I'll just focus on the lov, which technically isn't a lot because we don't get any actual info on them.

First of all, there is a time skip of 8 years.

There is a tiny panel of Spinner's book, which is simply titled "League of Villains", next to it is a panel of Compress reading it (where? We don't know). And Shigaraki appears as a ghost in front of Deku in one panel but he just stands there 🕴️without saying anything. Aizawa and Present Mic are seen praying at an altar, suggesting that Kurogiri died (EDIT: it could also be Midnight or anyone else because they don't mention who they're visiting exactly). Ochako started some kind of quirk counseling project (in honor of Toga I guess).

No one actually mentions the lov in any way shape or form.

The chapter starts with the quote from the first chapter: “People are not born equal. Each of us has a different form or shape but, despite of that, we still care for others. And these differences, both internal and external, allow us to run towards other people and search for a point of intersection”

And ends with: "This is the story of how we will continue to reach out."

While these quotes are supposed to come across as inspirational, they ultimately feel shallow as the heroes that committed crimes are continuing to live life while their victims are either dead and/or their ending not even explicitly stated. There is one panel of Endvr in his wheelchair, surrounded by Hawks and his sidekicks, Shouto is a pro hero who is being called Endvr's son less and less these days.

This story about caring and reaching out unfortunately failed at getting anywhere with that as the people that needed help ended up dead/in prison/probably dead.

So while we spent so long arguing about whether Touya would live or die, Horikoshi simply decided to give us the middle finger by not showing him or revealing what happened to him. Is he alive? Did he die? Kurogiri at least had people come visit his altar, however, what happened with Touya, how long did he live if he died, what became of his relationships with his family members? That and more we will apparently never know because why would any of that even matter, right?

Essentially, Horikoshi should've just killed him at the end of the second war and let him go out on his own terms instead of keeping him alive for... what?

[epickiya722]

It's hard to believe that people actually dislike Izuku for "What he stands for" or the fact he's a flawed character when for years, years now people will hate on him for less.

This is the same fandom I have seen some people say Aoyama, a child who didn't actually have a choice, got off "too light".

Same fandom where some people will call Horikoshi a misogynist and then turn around and reduce the female characters to nothing but love interests and future wives. Some of you still only see Ochako as a girl with a crush. Some of you like to bash on Miruko's uniform and people only being horny for her and yet still won't say anything about the male character's costumes and are also horny for those characters yourselves.

Same fandom, now, that will ignore a character's development and that character has admit to being an ass and still be like "He didn't develop at all" and even worse? That character is a child. A child who never even is awarded for his behavior. In fact, often times is punished by the narrative in some way. And yes, I am talking about Katsuki.

Same fandom where some people will attack others over ships. And with shipping, that's the only time some of you will "care" about these characters. Izuku is the main victim of that!!

Same fandom who will be like "fanon is better" when fanon is actually worse.

Same fandom who at a time actually hated the villains, still do and even going as far as to making fun of some of their appearances (like Shigaraki and Dabi)... and really only started to "care" when they "showed out" during the Villain Arc. And by "care" I mean, only finding Shigaraki and Dabi hot as hell and still don't understand their characters. And even if you get why the villains do what they do, some of you still won't acknowledge they're in the wrong, too.

What about the minor villains who just want to cause havoc? For all we know, some of them may come from good homes and just want to be menaces to society. The heroes aren't completely good people either, but don't act as if it's every single one of them who do it for fame (Rock Lock is an example of a hero doesn't actually sees being a hero as a JOB) and every villain has some "excuse" because they don't.

In the case of Izuku Midoriya, some of you will say that Vigilante Deku was the best version of him. No. No, it's not. It was the worst version of himself.

It's not because he was a vigilante. It was because he wasn't taking care of himself. In what way is that the best version of anybody? Neglecting your health?

BNHA: Vigilantes is a perfect story that shows vigilantes not neglecting themselves and still doing what they needed to do to save people.

Often times when I do cross Vigilante Deku fanworks, it's like a totally other character.

My grievance with people "criticizing" Izuku isn't because of what he stands for. Their attitude will come off like he shouldn't have flaws.

Yes, he is a teenager who can only do so much and even as he gets older he can only still do so much because he is still just one person. But he can learn. He still has a long way to go even after however the story ends. Is he not suppose to learn or what?

Question: If Toga dies, will you hate Uraraka? If Spinner dies, how about the other characters? Will you hate them?

Kurogiri is gone but I don't see people hating Aizawa and Yamada.

"But it wasn't their fault! They were trying!"

And Izuku wasn't? Was it Izuku's fault that Shigaraki turned out the way he did?

Izuku wasn't the problem. He tries to be the solution and yes, sometimes it's a flawed solution.

But he shouldn't be the only character the fandom chooses to criticize and hate on for his flaws.

"But he's the main character!" Played out excuse. Played out, it's ridiculous. You're telling me that you're choosing to hate Izuku because he's a flawed main character?

Bullshit. So a character's position in a story is why you're choosing to hate him?

Even though other main characters before and after him have are loved and practically fucking worshipped and yet will have just as much flaws or even more?!

There are folks who love a character despite being gross as hell and they're not the main character. So that "main character hate" is bullshit.

For me, I will hate or love a character not because of their position in story but because of how they are as a character. Sometimes, it just so happens they are the main character. Sometimes, they're not.

Of course, their role can play a part as to how they're written.

Honestly, again, it's hard for me to believe people are "criticizing" Izuku for what he "stands for" when this fandom has shown me countless times the amount of bullshit it will pull. This fandom? Really? Same fandom who will adore other characters for less? Hate characters for less? Who come up with cold ass takes that do not make sense?

What? Exactly what kind of character Izuku Midoriya is meant to be? I'm curious, I really am! (No, no, I'm not.)

Because what it seems to me that even if Izuku was "perfect", the fandom will hate him no matter what.

"BNHA is cop propaganda!" Really? Because the police force here seems pretty "useless" to me. (A lot of the work is done by the heroes.) Sometimes, I forget they even exist until I see like Sansa or another police officer. (Actually, I be forgetting Sansa is a cop.) They're not even the main focus. Maybe it's just me, but BNHA comes off as a story that shows the ongoing cycle of what a previous generation's actions will do to shape the next generation and what that next generation may do to change. It's just that it's being told through heroes and villains and in between.

[irontragedyreview]

People who are saying "you can't criticize Horikoshi, it's his story and he can do whatever he wants", etc. Yeah, it's his story but he's made it public so I can do whatever I want and if I want to be a bitch and I call hi, mediocre I’ll do it. Like I love Naruto with all my heart and I have defended Kishimoto over certain criticisms in relation to female characters, etc. I have also criticized him for the absolute shit that Boruto is, even considering that as a manga Boruto isn’t 100% his work considering that at the beginning he was involved in the movie but on the manga he was only a supervisor. What I'm trying to get It’s that if you believe that just because a mangaka creates a story it should be free from criticism then you aren’t ready to get involved with any type of media or sincerely the public believes that consuming a movie, book, etc. means being a passive subject without critical thinking.  

That being said, Horikoshi largely deserves as much criticism as he can get because these chapters were truly a shit show since this last arc began. Let's just start listing first, AFO vs Endeavor and every hero in existence was too long and repeated for a large number of chapters the formula "villain takes the advantage, heroes take the advantage, the villain takes the advantage again and finally wins and move on to something else", all of this perhaps understandable to give some prominence to characters who were forgotten for entire arcs.

Shouto and his arc plus his relationship with Dabi, Shouto had a very interesting arc and incredibly much material to exploit but his arc and his relationship with Dabi never managed to take off because he was so tied to Endeavor that the interactions between them felt empty. 

Ochako and Toga were honestly the only thing that was worth it, you could see the commitment to giving them both a great moment and the way she wanted to approach Toga and truly have a conversation. The only thing I can criticize about their ending is that obviously there is no completely satisfactory closure in giving Toga an answer to what happens next, apart from Ochako's offer of understanding, there is no easy way out of what the other heroes will do, therefore which I can’t criticize her for not giving an answer to a complicated situation in this way. 

Also Horikoshi added things to his story that in the end he didn’t finish closing or that surely even if he touched them again it would no longer make sense, what happened to Spinner? What happened to everything about heteromorphic discrimination? I have to believe that everything is fixed by the good heart of Shoji telling Spinner that his way of doing things only makes the "achievements" of equality go backwards by giving them a bad image. In other words, we know that quirk society is discriminatory, especially in less urbanized towns, that those heteromorphs who reach places of power are the least and no real change has been achieved, but of course the victims of discrimination have to keep quiet and be good. So, maybe in the future they will no longer be discriminated. I'm going to be fair here, touching on issues like discrimination is complex, but putting an idea like this in the manga and then going for a simplistic or rather completely ignored resolution, because while a person may not share Spinner's actions, it’s understandable why he does it and simply saying that you have to be better because then people will see that you are good and not discriminate against you is stupid, Horikoshi covered a topic that he honestly didn’t know how to deal with or wasn’t interested in doing so. 

Kurogiri/Shirakumo being just a plot device for Aizawa and being resolved in 5 panels, I'm going to be understanding and say that this arc had the least to explore, but in the end it was meh. Tbh I'm not going to criticize this because it is so empty of content that it is no longer worth criticizing it. 

About Tomura and Izuku, the truth is what can I say the most that I haven't said in previous posts? from all the fights or confrontations it’s the most ignored, neglected and rushed of all, we don't know anything about them other than loose panels for a whole year, they barely interact and now Tomura dies, Izuku is "well, I honestly don't give a damn and I want you dead", if no one who has followed these two characters realizes the damage that this chapter has done to their conclusions then I'm not going to explain it. If Horikoshi felt incapable or was tired of his story he could have ended it with something else, however perhaps this was always the plan, we are talking about a guy who said that the second movie was the end of his manga,that is Midoriya without quirk giving it to his childhood bully. It's obvious that he doesn't care about Izuku as a character and I think he did care about Tomura but he didn't know what to do with him, which is why we have this ending.

Final note for any comments I may surely receive for calling bk a childhood bully. Don't waste your time replying, commenting or trying to argue, Horikoshi took it upon himself to make bk a gary stu who never faces real consequences for his actions (dying is not a sign of karma) and his abuse is never treated seriously by the author, because his victim never reflects on himself, which is ironic considering how many BK fans recognize that Midoriya has self-esteem problems, contempt, and poor self-care but do not recognize BK's role in this or minimize it.

[yonkokraven]

I am glad I found someone that is highly critical of the LOV, because I have to be honest, that’s all these guys needed up being: destroy the world because we want to! If they wanted to prove the glaring flaws in society, I’d be willing to at least understand why I should care about them. But nothing about their actions makes me care about them. Yes they had sad backstories, but that only goes so far.

I wanted your opinion on something.

I have been especially critical on Toga, because no matter how many times I try to understand her, she only seemed to harm and ruin Ochako’s character more. In my perspective, people always seem to criticize Ochako for being nothing more than a satellite character to Izuku (where THAT honor goes to Bakugou), and I feel Toga’s part of the problem for this critique because that is literally their ONLY connection together: their shared feelings with a boy.

People will say both of them have repressed feelings and that Toga helped Ochako feel she can express those feelings.

As if Ochako isn’t surrounded by other characters that are expressive and outgoing or that she doesn’t have alternatives, like I don’t know, her parents, a teacher, Tsuyu, or Mina. People a lot more stable and less murdery in “expressing themselves”. Their whole reason for being foils just seems so forced and it drives me up the wall what happened to Ochako.

And the stans of Toga and the shippers don’t help. Especially when they seem so content on reducing Ochako to being nothing more than a love interest for Toga that is just meant to be her personal food source and to make it all about her.

I don’t hold it against Ochako for wanting to help her as she is a hero, but how it was written and how she feels responsible for Toga when it was in no way her responsibility for Toga’s actions.

Am I wrong for thinking this way?

Absolutely not!

One of the things I criticize most about Horikoshi's writing aside from the contradictory character development lines, is not having a consistency outside of panels when it comes to ALL the characters.

This theme of Uraraka and repressed feelings also enters into Hawks' plot which consists of heroes being able to have free time (i.e. personal lives).

From the first year she represses her feelings and adapts to the current conditions of heroism which are reduced to serving the public as a security tool against villains of all kinds and catastrophes

And she's not the only one, the entire class stops having a personal life and extracurricular activities from the moment they start at UA, and it's something that Horikoshi points out in SBS mentioning that those who enter the hero course can't even enter UA clubs.

In order for Uraraka to realize that what she does is wrong, since the performance of a hero is not tied to his feelings or relationships, I think the right people would have been Midnight and Mic.

And I don't say this only because they, unlike Aizawa, know that students are still children and not soldiers, but because they are already experienced heroes who were unable to properly build a life after graduating.

Furthermore, it wouldn't be out of the ordinary if thanks to those two the things changed for class A. In canon, Horikoshi makes the teachers stay out of class A's problems because Aizawa is the Homeroom Teacher, but logically and according to the personalities of the teachers, Aizawa should have been dismissed from his position between the final exams and the provisional license tests.

Having Midnight or Mic as Class A's Homeroom teacher means that they could slowly vent about their responsibilities and worries.

(Yes, Aizawa "helped" Yaoyorozu with the trust issue, but other than that it was a "fix your own problems" thing.)

With them being treated like people her age, Uraraka would realize that being a hero doesn't exclude you from having at least a moment of life and lets her feelings be free like her whenever she can, and this triggers the doubt in Uraraka's head about "who saves the heroes if they are also people?" little by little transforming into "how is a villain born?"

This is shared with Midoriya (at this point you can imagine that they are a couple in their first steps or that Uraraka is preparing to ask him out) and from here both of them do introspection on the subject to the point where they ask themselves a question that they should have asked since the camp arc:

What happened to the league to end up like this?

I'm not saying anything about them immediately deciding to save them, but that with time and thanks to Tsukauchi and All Might they discover on their own the origin of Toga, Shigaraki, Spinner and Twice, and think about those problems sharing it with the class in their free time or among themselves

You can imagine that over time they both decide to help the league, but with the same result, since as I said Horikoshi has written to the league to point out the flaws in the hero system and still die because his characters don't have the common sense to have a logical evolution.

[duendepika]

MHA Chapter 423 Commentary

I want to start by saying that I love the series. I really do. That's exactly why this chapter is so damn heartbreaking. What drew me to this series were the themes of saving everyone, of atonement and understanding and compassion. All of that was abruptly thrown away this chapter. I can’t take anything else in the story to heart because it’s lost its heart.

Only some of this can be explained by the terrible pacing of the chapter, as the content should have been in 5+ chapters. What it comes down to is the way the deaths of Shigaraki and AFO were handled by both the protagonist and the author. It’s not that they died, as I expected both to and take no issue with that. It’s how their deaths were written. AFO’s in particular leads to the crux of the problem: when the main villain dies alone and unloved, it calls into question the story’s message and themes.

Under a cut because this is long, but I'll start with Shigaraki before moving onto AFO and the general themes.

I’ll discuss Shigaraki first, as this one is less of a problem (though still very much of one) for the story as a whole. Shigaraki's death scene was far too short and remarkably callous, and he will remain forever incomplete even if "revived". We have seen very little, if any, introspection on his part during this entire war. We didn't see him grapple with learning AFO controlled even his birth. We didn't see him interact with his grandmother. We never saw him learn anything from Deku. We never saw him confront AFO. We never saw him come to terms with anything. Right up until he died in 419, then formally died in 423, he held the same rage. Realizing "wow, I was an angry kid after all" only to follow it up with bragging about being destructive to the very end is not character development. His death was not heroic, as he was more or less “killed” by AFO earlier and he only rallied for one hit. He didn’t sacrifice himself in any way, and it’s hard to consider his final punchdown on AFO particularly heroic under the circumstances.

Deku's final conversation with him was fairly cold, especially considering how he's spoken of him up until now. Saying to the very end that he'll never forgive him and mysteriously failing to say he wanted to save him was very damaging to both characters. Not once does Deku mention his goal of trying to save him. It's as if his goals suddenly changed when they no longer became possible to attain, as if he'll magically be shielded from any failure (a common theme with all heroes except for Hawks and Ochako, though the latter may well be negated if Toga lives). Some recognition of the goals we've been told about for the last 300+ chapters would have been nice, even if Deku just made a casual apology for not being able to "save" him. He seems almost dismissive of Shigaraki in the end despite repeating tirelessly throughout the story that he will do everything in his power to save him.

I also see a lot of assumptions that Tenko will simply return. If this happens, which is always possible, it would be the most outrageous asspull in the series. His body is completely gone. Unless he regained his original quirk and it's "Resurrection", it's not going to be believable in any sense (and a suspension of disbelief is necessary for fiction; we all know it’s a superhero story, but that doesn’t mean the author can do absolutely anything and we have to accept it). That, too, would be absurd because if AFO had that quirk all along he would have used it here. An argument can be made that he used it 6 years ago, but this is also questionable because a] he only used it once, b] given the Oboro/Kurogiri situation, it seems that Garaki can actually raise the dead. I don't know what Tenko returning would even do. We saw his dying words, and they were unrepentant, and Deku's final interaction with him was cold and detached (unlike, for ex. Shoto and Toya which was only hostile on one side, and Ochako and Toga which was openly affectionate). Coming back isn't going to undo any of that.

AFO dying with no character resolution whatsoever was an even bigger issue in terms of the greater narrative. As with Shigaraki, his death is not the issue; it was clearly going to happen. It’s the how. He died begging for his brother to love and look at him. His brother died condemning him. AFO died as he was born - unloved - despite having a very "human" awakening only a few chapters prior. This was made clear but how he changed how he told his brother he loved him. He shifted from the more formal and very rarely used “aishiteru” to the very personal “daisuke” because, after chasing him for a century only to lose him, he finally understood that what he felt for his brother was love.

He was vulnerable in a way he never had been before, but Hrksh opted to throw him away instead of bringing closure to his character. Consider how his original body died in 410, screaming about how he feels hatred. This time he died begging for love. It was futile either way. Yoichi, the only person he ever loved (albeit in a demented way), rejected him. All the other vestiges manifested faces, but Yoichi denied his brother this last chance to see him. AFO's last panicked meltdown clearly indicates that he simply can not conceptualize love in a normal way, which makes him more pitiable and, ironically, human, than it does make him evil.

The argument can definitely be made that this was a "fitting" end for him, and on some level I can appreciate that, but whether it’s satisfying is irrelevant. This ending does not fit the story of MHA, which carries certain themes. All other significant villain characters were granted some level of compassion, an attempt to understand them, by both the author and the characters. AFO was granted none of this. The main villain in a series about helping and saving others lived and died unloved by all. He might have been "born evil" depending on how one interprets chapter 407, but hrksh made it clear that he never had a chance in life. His backstory is objectively the most tragic and miserable of all, and he was the one character denied any compassion in the end. If the worst of the worst dies alone and unloved, then how can we say the story is truly about saving others, even those who don’t conventionally “deserve” it?

Furthermore, Deku's offhand comment about him being a lonely man comes across more as an insult and a mockery than any attempt to understand him. He "gave" AFO the chance to speak to Yoichi one last time, but it was a farce to distract him so he'd be easier to kill. There was no compassion there, only calculated manipulation. Granted, it's possible this comes down to pacing and what should have been 1-2 chapters was crammed into 1 page, but with no actual exploration of AFO's character on Deku's part, we have to take it at face value. Realistically, Deku should have sought to understand AFO hundreds of chapters ago anyway, if he really cared about saving everyone. In retrospect, not even considering the possibility of trying to figure out the why and how of AFO is a major failure on the part of the heroes. This goes back to how the author has set AFO up to take the fall for everyone without considering how it will compromise the central theme of the story.

Even as recently as chapter 416, Hawks remembers how important it is that we see everyone as united and understand one another. Strangely, nobody bothered to try and understand the main villain.

Ultimately, if the narrative is pinning all anguish and suffering in the world onto a single character, the origins of that character must be understood by the heroes to ensure someone like him isn't created again. By only bothering to understand and save those AFO supposedly created (even though he only created Shiggy), the heroes are healing symptoms and not the disease. There is no internal consistency within the story. He died largely a mystery. We will never know his true goals, as the closest we got was Aoyama's description, which AFO even said was not quite accurate. We also never learned his true motivation, as his reaction to Yoichi dying again indicates it’s not that simple. Which again, means it will just happen again because no characters made any effort to understand. It's like hrksh went for generic, mindless evil but screwed up with his relationship with his brother, ultimately turning him human. His goals and motives can be guessed, but given that this is a shounen, in-depth analysis should not be required to understand the final villain's goal.

This is made even more infuriating when you consider that AFO’s worldview is based on comic books. Shouldn’t this be something hrksh would want to explore, given the entire series is based on comic books? Without ever telling us the truth about his motivation, we lose the chance for the meta-analysis we were promised, one which had notable fan appeal regardless of character interest. AFO's abrupt ending also means we will never get any further explanation of quirks, the singularity theory, or their origin. AFO as the originator held all the mysteries there. Sure, maybe we'll get a monologue from the doctor later, but that's unlikely. And sure, you can argue that those things "aren't important", but they are. Many dropped plot points genuinely don't matter anymore, but these do given their significance throughout the series.  Essentially, all worldbuilding went out the window with AFO.

In the end, there is no sense of anything changing after this war. The chapter byline suggests that now with AFO dead, everything will be perfect, which is of course probably what we'll be told. The "cycle of suffering" has miraculously ended, because apparently all of it originated with AFO despite him having absolutely nothing to do with the creation of most villains.

The reality is that nothing in Deku's final battle addressed the failures of society and what can be done going forward to minimize people becoming villains. He completely ignored any attempt to understand the supposed root of all evil (AFO), suggesting he doesn’t actually care about fixing any deep-rooted societal issues and instead only cares about Shigaraki specifically. And even then, Deku did very little for him. When he entered the vestige world, he shielded Tenko from his father and tried to physically stop him from killing his family. That's it. Immediate, reactive, physical behavior. No reflection, no analysis, no acknowledgement of the deeper issues at hand (yes, it's a battle, but that never stopped hrksh from including that kind of thing before), no recognition of what Tenko went through in their final conversation. In this sense, Ochako and Endeavor have done a far better job at being heroes than Deku, which is a serious issue from a narrative perspective.

Rezzing Tenko might give us some flashbacks of neglected aspects of his character, granted with lost emotional momentum, but the bigger issue is how Deku handled his death. The same can be said for AFO, though unless Yoichi also returns, that's totally pointless. Giving Deku a second chance to redo everything with Shigaraki and/or AFO can't change the fact that the first time around, he failed to connect. He didn't know he'd get a second chance. Therefore we have to assume he was "doing his best" in 423, and that “best” was mediocre and contradictory to his character.

At the end of the day, we ended up with what should have been 5-8 chapters crammed into one, at the most critical moment of the series. Because of this, major plotlines and characters were thrown out the window and with them, the central themes of the entire series. I think there are ways it can be partially fixed to the point where the chapter is no longer a story-breaker, but given how this was handled, I don’t expect those paths to be taken. The only way to really salvage this is to have the chapter retracted, which of course won't happen.

[marimeeko]

I have a sudden, unsolicited opinion on the moment where Ochako admits that she fell in love with Izuku. Since it has been going around as one of those context-less, surface level articles on Google(I spotted it too)

So it's talking about the moment when Ochako is fighting Toga and she tells her that she fell in love with Izuku.

Does she use the exact wording? Yes.

Does that mean it's an end all declaration? Does it mean she is endgame with Izuku? I do not think so.

I don't think it's the final nail in the coffin to the argument for any other ship involving Izuku or Ochako. Here's why:

The admission is so anticlimactic.

We have known for a while that Ochako has complicated feelings about Izuku. We know that it has been a bit of a crush. And that has led to ANTICIPATION to see what becomes of those feelings.

But along the anticipation, we have also seen her going through some feelings of discomfort about the whole thing...unusual, for a supposed love interest of a Shonen manga!

So the audience has been waiting for a LONG time for something, anything, to happen between Ochako and Izuku that rewards that anticipation and that waffling on Ochakos part.

And for something like a supposed love confession, a line like "I fell in love with Izuku Midoriya", to heppen....

But NOT in a moment between Ochako and Izuku themselves, just also does not reward the anticipation that was built up.

She did not confirm and admit these feelings TO izuku. She admitted them to Himiko.

And that is the first time the audience hears her positively confirm that she had those feelings, blatantly.

But it TAKES AWAY from the actual relationship because Himiko received that confession...not Izuku.

We didn't get a charged confession between Ochako and Izuku. The relationship was STILL not mutually developed. It's still just a quality of Ochako, it says nothing about Izuku. The anticipation of Ochako having a crush, and changing, complicated feelings for Izuku and where that would eventually climax, where it would reach its peak for Ochako and Izuku both, instead is diverted. Kind of literally. Because it didn't happen at either chance they had to talk it out, to confess, she sent Izuku away when Himiko tried to trap him into a love discussion. She didnt bring it up before the war began even though they had such a calm moment to be able to do so. It didn't come out in the logical places. And now in the endgame, they have split up to fight different battles...Ochako has even exhausted everything she has right now to save Himiko and likely is out until we receive the wrap up.

So, the anticipation I mentioned, again, does not have a payout in the form of even a rushed battlefield confession because the two of them are fighting different battles.

Instead the audience is given the confirmation of "I fell in love with him" when he is not even present, when Ochako is not confessing to him or confronting him. It comes out with Toga, when she Is trying to reach out and level with her, it almost could read as a "I had a crush on the same boy" kind of statement. It comes out when saving Himiko is Ochakos main priority.

What I'm saying here is that Ochakos love confession for Izuku, which is usually a big deal in any story, is in the back seat to prioritize each of their other relationships and goals. Which is great that it is not forced upon us when there are bigger things happening, however it just does a disservice to the pairing itself when most of the feelings are expressed onesidedly, and an actual statement of love, if it's not even outdated because of changed feelings, means a lot less when it's not filling the gap between the two people in question. When the confession doesn't reach the other person.

(And I will go ahead and say that is kind of similar to how bkdk is right now as well, bc we have SO MUCH material on Katsukis side, about how he feels and how much he cares about Izuku, but not a lot on what Izuku feels or allows himself to feel about Katsuki. I will call that out as well.)

Like at this point, the best we could hope for, for Ochako and Izuku being a couple, is a very open note about it in the aftermath. Like maybe Ochako asks Izuku if he would like to get crepes with her. That's just enough given context clues to suggest to the audience that yes there are still some feelings there, she heard what he said about crepes and holding hands and took note of it, but also that Izuku himself is willing to explore those feelings as well. It would be Ochako finally choosing her feelings for Izuku, but without it being too sudden for Izuku to accept. This whole time we are not shown Izuku crushing on her at all it would be strange to have him suddenly initiate.

But anything more romantic and profound than that? Any dramatic reveal/confession of feelings, any chance for them to have a moment in the midst of war to have the "i love you" discussion? That has been bypassed time and time again. Horikoshi COULD HAVE WORKED IT IN, IF IT WERE A PRIORITY TO HAVE THEM ENDGAME. While no, romance doesn't have to be a priority in a Shonen, and Ochako has flipped the script on how she handles her feelings as a shonen love interest, Hori has demonstrated that threads and concepts of romance ARE part of his narrative.

And right now? Hot take, but the most romantic thread that Izuku, his main character, finds himself in, is whatever the hell is going on between him and Katsuki Bakugou.

You'd just think if the mc was going to be with a romantic partner, a girl, by the end of the story, something would have happened.

I feel like I'm going in circles past my point, but it boils down to Izuku not having any indication of interest in Ochako besides friendliness....the fact that the audience received confirmation of Ochako loving Izuku from her telling a 3rd party and NOT her subject, and the anticipation of that confession, built up for YEARS of this manga and animes run, of supposed feelings not really being paid off, if the two are meant to be the romantic end game. It also boils down to the fact that the anticipation of the confession had a CHANCE to occur with Izuku, the subject, multiple times. It boils down to again, ochako and Izukus relationship being romantic in anyway being little more than an after thought.

AND! it doesn't even guarantee that her feelings of love for him are still the same! We don't know for sure if she STILL loves Izuku!

So yeah. I hope this made sense, but it sure feels anticlimactic to have a love confession(supposedly) not even occur while the subject is present, where the audience can view it and celebrate that long awaited conclusion.

As always, these articles that pop up on Google leave a lot of context out, and are very face value. They saw Ochako say the L word and called it endgame. There is a reason I don't read them.

[yggdraseed]

My Hero Academia Ch. 425 Thoughts

To tell you the truth, I'm relieved. When I saw how the fight with Tenko/AFO ended, I was immensely disappointed.

I felt like we were going to smash cut to the final chapter, everyone in the LOV would be dead, and we'd get some smarmy shot of Deku clenching his fist and staring at the sky saying, "But someday, we'll fix these problems. Someday, somehow, this will be our Hero Academia." For me, that would have been the worst outcome possible. Like it'd make me depressed.

Seeing that we're probably going to get an actual mini-story arc to wrap things up is so important to me. And to be honest, I'm much more fascinated by the potential of this last little leg of the story than I was with most of the war arc.

This is something I've never really seen a Shonen do, follow up the big final slugfest with a stretch of story that's marked by so much uncertainty, less action and more focus on drama, suspense, and emotional content. I'm in a position where I don't know what the story's going to throw at me, and that has me excited. Especially with Horikoshi acknowledging that this set of circumstances can't be neatly tied off in just a quick batch of two or three chapters.

As for what's actually in the chapter, I love how even the gags have this morose tinge to them. Like everyone's trying to crack jokes or goof off in order to cope with the pain. Seeing Fuwa again was also really nice, since I love her design and personality so much. I think she's the kind of upperclassman the 2-A gang need right now - cheerful, laidback, but experienced and confident, too.

Getting to that reveal towards the end, I think the person with the dark hair is actually Toga transformed into another patient. I get the feeling she's trying to escape the hospital, and that gives me a lot to think about. She was sure she'd be killed if she was caught, so is she being taken care of? Or is she being mistreated? I've heard horror stories about mental health institutions even for patients without a criminal record. I wonder if Horikoshi is going to do something so dark as to show Toga being abused and Ochako needing to rescue her from that situation.

I also think it's pretty clear that at the very end, Endeavor is sitting in front of Touya inside some sort of regeneration tank like from DBZ. He's probably going to be in there for years, and it's probably going to cost the Todoroki family a fortune to keep him alive.

Overall, I think this is good. Really, really good, so long as Horikoshi takes a little more time to really deliver. Have the students confront the system head on and save the people who still need them. I hope after his break, we see Horikoshi really give the story the finale that it needs the most.

[shigararaki]

chat whats some hc you got for shigiraki🥳🥳

Actually not much!!! I haven’t thought a lot about headcanons, but I have about ships.. 😭

Although I’ve posted ? like ONCE. About it before but Shigaraki is a HUGE gamer nerd. He also enjoys splatoon & fortnite (Only when playing with spinner and toga obviously) He hates playing those games by himself because he finds it boring.

He’s too good at the games too. He plays alone but he’s been playing long enough to where he can (Thinking about fortnite) play similar to pro players, such as building n aiming n all that. Spinner is his duo btw they play like every other day.

Also I feel like shigaraki sometimes streams when he plays with spinner or alone. He’ll be muted and not have a face cam, but he’ll unmute himself rarely. He does it to make sure nobody knows it’s him (despite how much he’d like the attention and the fact he has only like 20 or 50 viewers LMAAAOO) The rare occasions are just random times but he mostly unmutes when he’s with spinner.

I mentioned toga up there, and just wanted to say she DEFINITELY loves playing roblox and splatoon. She’s all into octolings. (She has ochako added on roblox without ochako knowing its even her 😭😭😭 i love them)

Anyway, Shigaraki also probably has the most greasy hair ever. I just KNOW that bar aint have a correctly working shower 💀 That or its too hot / cold. Shigaraki likes cold showers btw, helps him with his itch.

AGAIN TALKINF ABT SPINNER AND SHIGARAKI CUZ I CANT KEEP MY MIND OFF OF THEM, Spinner and shigaraki are that typa “we dont care about the game, we just wanna have fun” duo 😭 They’ll lock in at times, but otherwise they’re causing chaos. They squidbag people in splatoon and run away from them or hide in ridiculous areas and stalk other players.. They definitely match as that stupid fucking fish outfit. The definition of “those splatoon players..”

AND IN FORTNITE THEYRE WORSE. Spinner is more of the talker, while shigaraki is the do-er, if that makes sense!! Shigaraki would box some poor player in and spinner would laugh and make fun of them 😭… They’d chase people in the cars or kill others in SUCH A DISRESPECTFUL WAY… Shigaraki definitely emotes on people after he knocks them, especially if they were good.

Dabi sometimes joins in when bored and bullies the both of them, but hes not as good as them at any of the games 😭 He’ll say something stupid and shigaraki would reply w a 200 pump LOL. They rarely play trios because dabi isnt much of a gamer and couldn’t care less.

[aashi-heartfilia]

MHA Headcanons#03:

Ochako will be the most popular pro hero out there?

I have seen a lot of people predict and write fan fictions where Uraraka is often depicted as an underdog and not as popular as her other fellow hero classmates. If Deku is no #01, she is #20 or something and she's usually very insecure about her weight, chubby figure, and personality and has low self esteem in general, which is kinda weird if you look at all the canon material we have...

From the get go, it is implied that Uraraka is strong, not just physically but mentally.

She is supposed to be the Ultimate Hero that will surpass All Might in terms of both power and influence she has on the mass of people.

She made it to the top 3 in the practical exams of UA entrance test and secured a position in the top 16 in the sports fest.

She might not be a prodigy like Bakugo or Todoroki, and she might not have All Might's legacy either but she is a strong hero in her own right.

In fact, from her internship with Gunheads to joining Team Ryukyu, she did it all on her own merit.

She managed to go toe to toe against Bakugo, who was the winner of the entire sports fest!

Plus, the strength and mental fortitude she showcased in the sports fest, helped her gain offers from various agencies, something that even Momo wasn't able to secure, because she hardly did anything against Tokoyami in their match.

I'm not saying that Momo's quirk is not powerful. In fact it's quite the opposite but it more or less depends upon how a person uses it.

Just like how Toga used Ochako's Quirk to kill numerous villains in one go, while Ochako resolved to not let a single person drop to their deaths and led her to her quirk Awakening.

And this takes me to my next point. Why wouldn't the golden girl Uravity be popular?

SHE CAN LITERALLY LIFT THE ENTIRE CITY!!

AND IT WAS ON LIVE TV!!!

She would be getting offers from various agencies in the entire world because who wouldn't want a hero that can lift an entire mountain?

She is not some low paid rescue hero, called over during the aftermath just to pick up the rubble.

She's THE HERO THAT SAVES EVERYONE.

Her words inspire people to take action!

Her actions inspire people to take action!

How could she not be one of the most popular heroes of JAPAN?

Plus in one of the recent TUM chapters, a guy was specifically charmed by Ochako's presence after seeing her in a commercial and the entire chapter was about that.

Plus, she's really pretty. Have I already mentioned in one of my blogs that Ochako is canonically one of the prettiest girls of class 1a? Her name literally means 'a beautiful day' and 'green tea girl'. Horikoshi himself leaves no opportunity to beautify her and he even considered himself a genius when he came up with her name!

So, she's not just strong but also beautiful.

So with all that being said, I don't know what people writing these fanfics are thinking?