#and when i ignore urarakas arc

[catkettle]

dabster

[kainagant]

an underrated fact about toga is that she's really smart and observant, underneath all the crazy. because she clearly has screws loose, we just assume that she's also stupid, but she proves time and again that she always has her wits about her.

risk assessment - during the summer camp arc toga proves that she's good at assessing risk to herself, and making a decision based off of that. she goes in without hesitation to attack uraraka and asui, but as soon as midoriya and their other classmates arrive, toga realizes that she'll lose and "be killed" fighting against such a large group, so she makes a hasty retreat.

parkour and stealth - curious points out during the deika city arc that toga is really agile and stealthy. literally she has secret ninja powers. what is underrated is that according to her backstory, she never had any formal training, so she apparently developed her technique for hiding her presence all on her own. she has a lot of innate talent that people don't talk about.

schoolgirl disguise - toga herself mentions during the deika city arc that she dresses like a schoolgirl on purpose, because people are kinder to her when she does. it is debatable how much of that is a conscious decision, and whether she discovered it incidentally, but she's self aware enough to recognize that people underestimate her when she dresses a certain way.

basically. yeah, toga may be off her rocker, but crazy does not equate to dumb or ignorant. there's something to be said here about mental health stereotypes, but that's a different post. i honestly just think it's really neat that toga is pretty smart, but it always flies under the radar because we associate her acting "yandere" with being dense, stupid, and socially inept. but toga is well aware of the way people perceive her, the way that social situations work, and she's keenly aware that what she feels doesn't fit into the "normal". and she's always made the conscious choice to be fine with that.

[stillness-in-green]

Not-Really Chapter Thoughts BNHA 424

You know, I really think there should be a point at which Deku rushing in with no plan and doing whatever he thinks feels right should become Heroic Malpractice.

Just me?

Because, like, Shouto had a plan. He spent the time between the two war arcs specifically developing a brand-new combat technique that he planned to use to shut down Dabi's combat advantage without killing him. He convinced his dad not to change the plan like Endeavor was hesitantly sounding him out about[1]; he went out and talked and asked questions, and even if they weren't the right words every single time, he did his best and he did it with intention. If Dabi proves to be dead, it won't be because of anything Shouto did to him; it'll be because Dabi himself chose to stand back up, take a warp gate across the country, pick a fight with the guy who doesn't have the power set to shut him down without unduly hurting him, and try to replicate an Ultimate Move specifically tailored for someone with a balanced power set Dabi doesn't have.[2]

And if Dabi lives, it's still going to be because Shouto booked it across the country and used that same technique to stop him again.

1: Dabi surely would have preferred to fight Endeavor from the start, and it probably would have been the more "just" choice if it had to be one or the other, but Shouto is the nominal focal character between the three of them, so, critiques of the broader Hero-side decisions aside, Shouto's arc has to come first. This is one of those places where you can clearly see how much the decision to let Endeavor survive where Horikoshi originally planned for him to die hurts the shape of the later story.

2: Obviously ultimately if Dabi dies, it's going to be because his family and Team Hero made repeated choices to ignore and neglect him, culminating in the entire family swearing to deal with Touya together only to passively accept a battle plan that involved splitting them all and letting the kid who knows Touya the least be the one to fight him. But like, in the context of that fight, Shouto isn't the reason Dabi takes all that hurt.

Uraraka may or may not have had much of a plan, but at least the words she said to Toga reflected that she had been seriously thinking about Toga in the here and now, what Toga's told her, what Toga needs. If Toga dies, it will be because Toga chose to give Uraraka an unsupervised blood transfusion with no intention of stopping it. (With the same general caveats as in Footnote 2.)

But Deku? From the very beginning, Deku has been valorized by the manga for how much he doesn't plan. All Might tells him specifically that it's a sign of greatness shown by future "top Heroes" that, in some crisis situation, their bodies moved before they could think. Bakugou's Rising chapter is defined by him reaching that same state.

Deku claimed he wanted to save Shigaraki; he's sad in the latest chapter that he couldn't save Tenko's[3] life. But did he ever have a real plan to do that? With all the quirks he had at his disposal - both his own and those who would be in the flying coffin with him, or classmates whose presence he could specifically request - did he think hard and come up with a technique that would let him stop Shigaraki without harming him? Did he try to connect with the Shigaraki right in front of him by citing to the future?

3: And I have nothing but scorn for Deku's insistence on that name when "Tenko" goes out very pointedly calling himself Shigaraki Tomura.

Well, no. Deku obstinately yelled at the phantasms in Shigaraki's mindscape that he had no plan whatsoever. The only plans we saw him carry out were ones handed to him by the OFA collective that involved "breaking" Shigaraki's psyche; the only plans he came up with himself involved more efficiently breaking Shigaraki's body.

Way back in Chapter 130, Nighteye harshly scolded Deku by saying that his way of thinking was arrogant. He said, "Go after him haphazardly and he'll slip through our fingers. You're not so special as to be able to save who you want, when you want. (...) This world is not so accommodating that you can act the Hero because you feel like it."

It felt like something that Deku should have taken to heart, a lesson to be learned and applied later, but I never much got the feeling that he did. Nothing he did in that moment, in that arc, or anywhere else in the series afterward indicates that he thought Nighteye was right. He just chose not to talk back, and the arc ended with Nighteye dead and no longer around to pose objections to Deku's mode of heroism.

But Nighteye was right. Three hundred chapters later, Shigaraki is dead because Deku could not be arsed to plan for how he could stop Shigaraki without killing him. Because he let Gran Fucking Torino give him the intellectual out that killing someone could be a means of saving them. Because he followed his gut instincts of prioritizing the phantom Crying Child that he always saw as more valid and real than the human being standing in front of him.

Because he haphazardly acted the Hero and let his body move without thinking.

And he wants to act sad about it now? I hope Nighteye materializes in his bedroom to sneer at him every night for the rest of his life.

--

Incidentally, fuck All Might, seriously. "Wow, Deku and Bakugou, you two are the greatest Heroes ever. Fuck me and everyone else who fought tooth and nail, arm and leg, eye and earjack, life and death, to contribute to the pile of damage that was necessary to kill and/or save Shigaraki and All For One. You two got the last blows in, so you're the only ones who get the credit for it in my eyes. Hero Society is definitely going to be different and better with you two around."

[maoam]

I have talked about this before but the "fujoshis hating on female character in the way of their ship" is really overblown and a lot of times not even true.

For example, I never see anything but adoration from itafushi shippers towards Nobara, and they were upset what happened at Shibuya. And I honestly have never seen tododeku or bakudeku shippers hating on Uraraka. Same way I also never see kiribaku shippers hating on Mina. I don't really agree with bkdk shippers saying Uraraka and Deku have no development, but disagreeing on ship dynamics is not the same as hating Uraraka. That's the thing, a lot of people mistake hating on hetero ship to hating on female character/misogyny. Probably because they think the only value a female character can have is in a het ship lol.

When it comes to Sakura, the reason why some ns shippers dislike her is because she is written to be an unlikeable character who never changes or grows. She treats Naruto, one of the parties in the ns ship badly (and Kishimoto even mentioned her actions in Kage arc were detestable) and she treats Sasuke, the other party in ns like an object (again, Kishimoto mentions that her feelings are self-centered and also used a word meaning toxic addiction to describe them). No matter how many times Sasuke rejects her, she won't listen. She disrespects Sasuke's family, which matters to Sasuke more than anything, more than once, as well as his feelings and wants. It's not shocking people who like Naruto and Sasuke would dislike her and find her ignorance irritating. And yet, there are many ns who like her (for some reason) and create fanon content where she is a totally different character in order to show their support for her. Also, both SS/NH frequently send threats a well as homophobic comments (I myself have literally gotten someone calling me fag and telling me to die lol) and they are far more vicious than ns could ever hope to be.

As for Mikasa, well, I see more dislike towards EM than towards her from EA shippers. But I have also seen them say Mikasa's obsession is annoying, that she's boring, that it's annoying how her one-sided feelings are rewarded. I don't think this is massive hate, and definitely not worse than how I have seeing EM shippers reply to EA with pictures of gay flags burning or homophobic comments. This is not even mentioning the sexually degrading comments I have seen them targeted towards Historia. The most misogynist comments towards Mikasa come from men. It is also a fact that Eren and Mikasa don't have heart to hearts during the manga and it's okay to dislike the ship due to this lack of development.

Some satosugus have shown dislike towards Utahime apparently (or so I have been told) but I have also witnessed gojo/hime shippers sending homophobic vitriol towards satosugu content so again, their side isn't clean either. And plenty of gojo/hime frequently voice their dislike towards Geto so I don't see why satosugus can't dislike Utahime.

Regardless, I think this phenomenom just comes from het shippers being upset their ships are called bland and criticised, and wanting to brand people who ship gay ships as automatically evil, while pretending like their side isn't capable of being vile.

[linkspooky]

My Hero Academia, Chapter 370 Thoughts. 

 Admittedly, I was very confused by Shoji’s response to the PLF members legitimate complaints about the discriminations that heteromorphs have suffered with a question that is off topic and tone deaf at the best, and deliberately undermining the legitimate suffering that heteromorphs have endured at the worst. 

But let’s give Shoji the benefit of the doubt as we discuss his argument and point of view underneath the cut. 

However, Shoji’s response reminded me of one of my favorite posts observations made by another tumblr user. @yugiohz on this panel featuring Shigaraki and Deku from the war arc. 

“I love this paneling because it shows the contrast of the character’s world view, deku thinks this conflict only happens on a personal level when shigarki is aware that it’s a systemic one.” 

Shoji’s arguments seem arguably tone deaf and oblivious to both the bigger picture that the PLF commander is getting at. The existence of entities like the creature rejection clan, and the atrocities committed against heteromorphs which is apparently, still so prevelant an issue that fifteen thousand people showed up to the riots. So this issue is not only still relevant, but wide affecting. 

So to respond to all of those legitimate questions with the question of why didn’t thiey think of evacuating the hospital first like the heroes did, and the implication that if they didn’t, they are just as bad as the people they are protesting against is just a little bit ignorant. Or maybe a lot of bit. 

In all fairness, of course even in a war it’s considered a crime a target full of innocent people uninvolved with the conflict as a part of your battle strategy. From Shoji’s perspective, these people are attacking a hospital full of sick people unable to defend themselves which are unrelated to their grievances against society at large. Even in war times it’s considered taboo to attack people who didn’t sign up for the conflict and are also unable to defend themselves, civilians, sick people, the wounded, children.

t’s fair to point out that it’s wrong to target people who aren’t combatants who signed up for the fight, but at the same time if you point that out it’s also fair to point out it’s the heroes who decided to shelter Kurogiri in the first place. The mob isn’t attacking the hospital of a whim, they’re trying to seize an objective to win a battle against the society they think wronged them, and the heroes are the one who decided in the first place  to hide Kurogiri in a hospital full of innocent civliians. It’s the heroes who knew that this hospital would be attacked hence why they posted guards there, but apparently didn’t evaucate the hospital. So, if we’re splitting hairs here, the split hairs still don’t come out in favor of the heroes. 

However, as tone deaf as Shoji’s question comes across, it also resembles a lot of responses his fellow hero students have had whenever they’re face to face with the villains trying to explain how they’ve suffered against hero society. 

When Toga tries to explain herself to Uraraka she’s immediately shut down with this argument. That if she chooses to live as she pleases and threatens with people, then there’s also consequences to that. 

As referenced above, when Deku says that he won’t ever forgive Shigaraki, Shigaraki replies with I won’t forgive any of you people. When Dabi tells Shoto about how he tried to come home, but in the end was shown that his family just moved on without him and that he had no replace to return to Shoto responded with this. 

It’s three flavors of the same response. It frames Toya, Toga, Shigaraki, and Spinner + the Mob’s Choices as a whole like they woke up and one day decided to be a villain. 

LIke, do Toga and the rest have agency and responsibility to their actions? Yes. THey chose to become violent. They chose to fight. They are still people making choices no matter how driven by their own trauma and they are responsible for those choices. However, there’s a difference between an influenced choice, and a choice made entirely of their own free will. 

Here, let me demonstrate. Absoluetly nothing forced Enji to abuse his own family. Enji decided on his own to place his career as a hero above everything else, he decided to arrange a marriage with Rei for the entire purpose of giving birth to a child with a hybrid ice and fire quirk and also ignore his children who didn’t suit that need.

However, Toya had no agency in this choice. He was born into these circumstances. Through no choice of his own, he was born to a father who ignored him the moment his quirk started failing, and a mother who blamed him for the discord of his household for not simply giving up on his quirk training and his attempts to earn his fathers love because she was too afraid to conront her husband. Toya was a helpless child when this happened to him, he’s a fully grown adult now, but when the inciting incident of his trauma happened to him he was as those innocent as those imaginary innocent people that heroes keep parading about as a reason tto not sympathize with the villains. 

Rei had no choice but to marry Enji because her parents pressured her into it, she became a victim of his abuse, but you know who was even more of a victim? The twelve year old helpless child who was born into these circumstances, who was also completely defenseless at the time. Who’s father ignored him, and mother wasn’t strong enough to protect him, whatever Rei suffered, Toya suffered more and at a much younger age. 

Basically every argument the villains make is dismissed with “cool motive, still murder”, which is a completely ignorant argument to make when these villains only started choosing violence as an absolute last resort in the first place. Toga did her absolute best to fit despite her parent’s abuse. Toya tried over and over again to please his father, only to be told to shut up by his family. Tenko wanted to be a hero originally, and was beaten by his father, for having the same dream as Deku. Tenko spent days wandering the streets waiting for just one hero to help him after he lost his family. Spinner locked himself up in his room and just wanted to believe he could become someone important like Stain and make a positive change in the world rather than wasting his life. 

These arguments are in bad faith, because they’re taking a false equivalence. The villains arguments about how hero society is wrong, because they too, are hurting people in their attempts to change hero society. The thing is twice already completely dismantled the argument that the heroes use to shut down the villains. 

The heroes only care about saving the kind of completely innocent victim who cowers in the face of danger and waits to be saved, if they think of fighting back against their circumstances, or *gasp* lash out in pain like some kind of imperfect victim then the heroes give up on trying to save them. It’s important that Jin brings up Toga’s kindness to him, because Toga is one of the people that Hawks wrote off as someone who can’t be saved, while at the same time trying to save Twice because he considered him “A good person.” 

The thing is the moment you start dividing people into categories of who is worthy of being saved, and who isn’t, people are already going to be lost. If the function of heroes are to save people, and they’re not saving a goood chunk of people then they’re not doing their job. Rather than addressing this fact and striving to say more, they just create arguments that are these false equivolencies. Well, this person chose to become violent, so obviously they’re just as bad as their abusers. Well, Dabi chose to kill people in his attempt to discredit Endeavor and expose him as an abuser, so obviously he’s just as bad or even worse. 

There’s a difference betweeen saying “I understand your argument but I believe there are better more peaceful ways of solving this issue” and just shutting down the argument, which is what the hero kids are doing over and over again. And this is a common theme in MHA. THat the light of heroes, and the flawless image of heroes is being used over and over again to hide the corruption in society. Nagant brings it up, Shigaraki brings it up, that over and over again the public only sees the good side of heroes while the corruption of society is ignored. 

Yes, it’s bad to hurt innocent people even if you’re trying to use your violence for a good cause to make a better world. People who have nothing to do with it don’t deserve to get dragged into a conflict. However, there’s also this continued pattern of heroes just dismissing the legitimate criticisms of villains outright, because of the faceless imaginary people that are also being caught up in their rebellion against society. 

This is why Hawks killed Twice. Hawks had to kill Twice, because of the imaginary body count of innocent people who might have been hurt with his quirk. The heroes continually have to put down the heroes in favor of there imaginary innocent people that they might be hurting, Uraraka even says that she has to look at the destruction wrought by the league of villains to stop herself from sympathizing with Toga. 

But once again, this innocent / guilty dichotomy is a made up false dichotomy. When exactly does a person stop being innocent? What actions do they have to perform where they are no longer worthy of sympathy? Quantify it. What is the point of no return? At what exact moment do they stop being a victim and become a villain instead?

Think of the people who joined Spinner’s mob in support of Heteromorph discrimmination? They were innocent victims of what is a thinly veiled allegory for racism. They did absolutely nothing to earn the ire of the people around them. Are they now guilty because they decided to fight back against it? Is their action to riot against the issue, to try to draw attention to their suffering what makes them now guilty? Is the only way to remain innocent to just shut up and endure it, and never fight back no matter what happens to you? 

To return to the argument made at the start, it really does seem like that kids are equating what is a personal conflict with what is happening on a societal wide scale. The perspective of the hero kids is almost like, even in the middle of what is called the first and second war arc, where they are fighting a battle over the way society should be run, that somehow this is just standard hero vs. villain in the conflict. That the good guys are infallible and the bad guys are always violent and they are because they decide to be. However, the villains are fighting back against a society that has wronged them. It’s a difference in perspective that damns any attempts for heroes and villains to understand each other. 

The kids aren’t facing the injustice of society, the kids aren’t fighting for survival, for them this is another hero vs. villain battle. They defeat the bad guys, and the good guys win. 

It’s a conflict fought between two sides who are occupying completely differnt positions of power and privileges'. It’s a personal conflict for the kids, they are fighting against villains who have personally hurt them and all of their friends, SHigaraki is someone who maimed Grant Torino in front of Deku, and led attacks on his friends several times. However, at the same time Shigaraki was wronged by hero society several times, an argument that Deku pretty conveniently ignores because he’s never lived that experience or been subjected to it. He’s allowed to keep it a personal conflict, because he’s not subject to societal rejection the way Shigaraki is. 

Even if the kids think that human life is so sacred that no matter what you can’t take a life, even if you have a legitimate cause like fighting for a better society, the kids refuse to apply their rules fairly. Shoji yells at the crowd for attacking a hospital full of innocents, but what about the death of Twice? If villains are bad and beyond redemption because they have killed, then why is Hawks still allowed to be a hero? If the villains have to think about the people they hurt as a part of their conflict, then why hasn’t a single hero kid even mentioned twice?

This is what I mean by injustice. It’s okay to be disgusted by murder, human life is sacred and should always be protected, murder is a serious crime, but these rules aren’t being applied fairly. Hawks can commit the same murder and compeltely get away with it, because he’s considered one of the good guys. 

The kids aren’t so digusted by any murder that they can’t tolerate any injustice, they’re just repeated the same values that they’ve always been taught, heroes good and villains bad. They are drawing the same line on who is worthy of saving  and who is not worthy.

Which is why this chapter is so sad, it illsutrates that Shoji and Spinner have suffered the same way as being prejdugiced against by hero society, and forced to hide because they are heteromorphs. So, why are they fighting in the first place? If they are both vicrtimized why does one of them have to be the good cictim and the bad victim? If they are both suffering similarily can’t they come to some understanding and work together, rather than fighting against each other? Isn’t it tremednously sad that Shoji had to fight against several heteromorphs who have suffered the same as he as, and defend the society that has outcast him and fored him to wear a mask his entire. Shouldn’t there be a better way then just Shoji putting down the rebellion of fellow heteormoprhs and then society continuing on the same way as it always has? Couldn’t they work together? 

I don’t really have an ending to this post, so I’m going to close out with a quote from Frankenstein which I believe is relevant to this topic at large. 

“You, who call Frankenstein your friend, seem to have a knowledge of my crimes and his misfortunes. But in the detail which he gave you of them he could not sum up the hours and months of misery which I endured wasting in impotent passions. For while I destroyed his hopes, I did not satisfy my own desires. They were for ever ardent and craving; still I desired love and fellowship, and I was still spurned. Was there no injustice in this? Am I to be thought the only criminal, when all humankind sinned against me? Why do you not hate Felix, who drove his friend from his door with contumely? Why do you not execrate the rustic who sought to destroy the saviour of his child? Nay, these are virtuous and immaculate beings! I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on. Even now my blood boils at the recollection of this injustice.” 

[morallygreyvigilante]

ik it's a topic that's been done to death but, thoughts on the poor handling of consequences in mha?

The consequence handling in My Hero Academia does very much suck, but I can somewhat understand the reasoning for it.

For me, the first instance that comes to mind was the first training exercise pitting Midoriya and Uraraka against Bakugou and Iida. The instance I'm talking about is specifically the later stage of the exercise where Bakugou launched a full-power blast directly at Midoriya despite specifically being told not to.

I don't have a lot to say about this one, Bakugou ignored a direct order and - when told that the blast could potentially kill Midoriya - claimed that "he'll [Midoriya] be fine if he dodges." The exercise should've immediately been terminated and Bakugou should've been punished for:

Disobeying a direct order from the supervising teacher.

Displaying a lack of consideration or care for a fellow student.

Yes, I am aware that this was the first exercise that they'd participated in, and that rash actions/decisions are probably to be expected. But this kind of behaviour/thinking should've been nipped in the bud immediately.

The second instance that comes to mind is the Hosu incident from the Hero Killer Arc, where Midoriya, Iida, and Todoroki weren't credited for taking Stain down.

Now, why did this make sense?

It gets mentioned after the incident that while their actions were ultimately a good thing, they had also technically broken the law because they hadn't been given permission to engage the villain/use their quirks. If their involvement was made public then it could've damaged their chances going forward. However, I do think that the whole thing could've been handled a bit better.

When Midoriya headed into the city with Gran Torino, it was specifically to look for villains and - in the context of the previous conversation - it was specifically so Midoriya could gain some experience fighting different types of opponents with his new technique. While it's true he wasn't explicitly given permission to engage, it was already heavily implied that he would be allowed to.

Granted, we didn't see much of Iida and Todoroki before their involvement in the fight. But, based on what we knew of Endeavor at this stage in the series, I find it very strange that he wouldn't have already given Todoroki clearance to engage especially since it was made clear that he'd already received some form of "training" before U.A. Iida, however, did very much run off on his own. But, again, we don't really see much of their sides.

The issue with arc was very much a lack of clarity.

The third instance was the final exams I believe? Now, again, this one does make some kind of sense. So this one's going to be looking at Sero, Kaminari & Mina, Midoriya & Bakugou.

So, first one up, Sero. I think the issue that a lot of people take with this one is that Sero did contribute quite a bit towards his exam with Mineta, and I do agree that Mineta would've failed if not for the help Sero provided. However, the students were informed that they would fail the exam if they were either incapacitated, or they ran out of time. Sero was incapacitated so - as much as it sucks - it wasn't entirely unfair. He just got unlucky.

The exam with Kaminari and Mina, I feel, is the midway point on this scale. It's important to bare in mind that the purpose the exams was to make the students face the areas they're weaker in and see how they manage to work around it (if at all). Nezu was a pretty good opponent as far as that goal went, however - while it was played up for comedy - I do believe he went overboard. I'm not saying he should've gone easy on them because that wouldn't have been at all helpful in the long run, but I do think he took it too far.

And then, of course, there's the clusterfuck that was Midoriya and Bakugou's exam. From the get go this exam was heavily weighted towards Bakugou's development and not Midoriya's.

Midoriya has shown a willingness to work with others since day one, we saw it in the first battle trial with Uraraka, we saw it in the sports festival, we saw it in the Hero Killer arc. Midoriya will work with anyone.

This is exactly why he was paired up with Bakugou, who - at this stage - showcased a generally bad disposition towards teamwork of any kind, especially teamwork of any kind with Midoriya. He went as far as to physically attack Midoriya during the exam, which should have been an immediate disqualification. Yes, it was an exam, but it was a simulation intended to form an idea of how the students would operate in the field at their current level. Attacking your allies is not acceptable behaviour.

Of course, he did ultimately decide to work with Midoriya eventually, but by that point he should've already been disqualified.

As far as I can tell, the only issue they really had with Midoriya at this stage was the whole "putting All Might on a pedestal" thing. And while I agree that it was an issue that needed to be dealt with, it shouldn't have been done in a high-stress situation while also having him effectively serve as a stepping stone for Bakugou's development.

It's also worth mentioning that All Might (like Nezu) went way overboard given the nature of the assignment, but the series did at least acknowledge that part, so I won't linger on it for too long.

And finally, the fight between Midoriya and Bakugou after the provisional license exam.

Quite simply, Bakugou was the one in the wrong here. He specifically instructed Midoriya to go with him, he specifically led him somewhere where he thought there wouldn't be any witnesses, and he was the one to instigate the fight.

Yes, Midoriya did eventually start fighting back. But it's important to note that Midoriya didn't start fighting back immediately, instead he tried to calm the situation down and keep out of the way, and even if he didn't start fighting back it seemed highly unlikely that Bakugou would've let him leave without dealing some damage.

I do understand why Midoriya was punished, since he did ultimately join the fight. And his punishment was admittedly lighter, though not by much considering he only did so because he wasn't being given another option.

Now, I have heard people say that the main reason Bakugou picked this fight in the first place was because of the guilt he felt over All Might's retirement, because fighting was the only way he knew how to process his emotions (which does raise some flags) and he wanted someone to punish him. And, while that does provide an explanation, it doesn't excuse his actions.

The main thing about this instance that bugs me, is that I'm pretty sure that this was the event that led to Bakugou finally being told about One For All (I could be remembering wrong because it's been a while since I watched that season, so take this bit with a pinch of salt). Yes I know Midoriya let it slip in the first season but since Bakugou didn't seem to believe him at the time, I'm not counting it.

At this stage (particularly under these specific circumstances) Bakugou had not displayed enough maturity to be told the specifics about a secret had very little to do with him (if at all), especially since All Might himself had already pointed out how dangerous it could be if too many people found out. Of course, Bakugou himself made no attempts to reveal the secret afterwards, but the fact remains that his prior behaviour - at least, as far as I'm concerned - in no way indicated that he could be trusted with that kind of information, especially not since it involved Midoriya.

[katkit-42]

I've been thinking about toga himiko again (I was explaining her character arc to my roommate) and like. There's two things I want to highlight about her.

Toga's character is "a girl who wants to fall in love and be loved in return."

First: This is very specifically referring to romantic love. But every romantic love she experiences sends her further from society. She was in love with Saito, but he ended up being her first victim, sending her on the path to the LOV (whether you think it was purposeful or not, it's besides the point). She's in love with Deku and Uraraka, but both of them refused any advances because she was "weird" and "unnatural". And even though she started off ignoring their rejections, as time went on, you can see how those rejections wore her down. She isn't a "crazy girl who only sees what she wants to see"--she knew how Ochako and Deku felt about her. That's why she cried when asking Ochako if she deserved to live. That's why she lashed out when Deku rejected her love confession.

And that's also why Ochako finally saying "you're the cutest in the whole world" made her so happy. She's finally been acknowledged as a regular girl in love.

Second: intertwined with this, we see Toga develop platonic bonds with the league. She loves Dabi, who tells her to smile, Shigaraki who supports her dreams (even when they contradict his), and like... do I need to even say anything about Twice. These feelings they have are not romantic love. They are platonic, and Toga loves and is loved by them.

The thing that I love most about Ochako and Toga's last fight, is that it is everything Toga wanted. She got to confess her love to the girl she's in love with and Ochako responded in kind. Even though Ochako may not feel the same romantic love, she does love Toga in return. Toga smiles, finally happy to have the love she craved.

But then. Toga rejects it.

Toga got what she wanted: a romantic interest loves her in return. But she will not fall to society for Ochako. She will not sit in a jail cell for Ochako to visit everyday. Her time in the league has changed her. It's not that she doesn't want to be romantically loved, but it's that her platonic love for her family is stronger than that. She has morals beyond "I want to be the one I love". She chose her morals--the morals informed by her family, by her platonic bonds--over her craving for a romantic partner.

And I think that's an amazing point of her character arc. She was introduced as a love crazy teen girl with no morals, and now? She's still love obsessed, she still loves intensely and violently, but she has a moral backbone that no one will shake. She won't turn her back on what she sees as good and evil for the ones she loves.

[class1akids]

Do you think the Todoroki Family or more specifically the Shouto/Dabi plot is done. I mean Dabi was still wishing for everyone to die, so he still has not acknowledge the change in the family or why they changed being Shouto. I still feel extremely underwhelmed by the ending that we had with the Todoroki family simply because of Dabi’s words prior to passing out. I mean I also feel underwhelmed because of the lack of love or remorse shown to Shouto. But I felt like asking since I just don’t know how I feel yet with the Todoroki family plot.

For the Todoroki family, I think it's mostly done. The ending - as difficult to process - is them finally talking as a family, Touya airing his negative feelings and the rest of the family listening to him. While until then, the only person who listened to him was Shouto (the person he didn't want).

But also asking this question and just never giving a follow-up would be pretty bad form:

There are two specific story-beats that are missing in my opinion, and which I hope we will get back to before the epilogue:

Endeavor taking responsibility as father and telling Shouto that it's not his burden to bear anymore:

I feel like it's difficult to deny that Shouto carried the family burden all the way through the PLF war and the final arc, while Endeavor once again got to play hero. So far, everything Endeavor did in the final arc was "as a hero", while Shouto was left with picking up the pieces. To me, neither Shouto's, nor Endeavor's arc will feel complete until Endeavor chooses to assume the role of the parent and free Shouto of having to be the pillar of the family, so he can fulfil his "become who you want to be" role.

2. As for Shouto and Touya, it is really strange that after everything Shouto has done (and seeing how Toga acknowledged Uraraka), Touya just fully ignored Shouto.

Now I don't really expect Touya to be all sweet like Toga was, but I do expect him to give some kind of catharsis / closure to Shouto - something that tells him that all he's done wasn't pointless.

Now how this plays out, I don't know - maybe it will be just a throwaway line in the epilogue. But personally, I hope that it will come back to Phosphor - because for them, everything is about quirk and ultimate moves. When Touya copied Phosphor, I said that it would make sense to me if after all the running around it would lead to Shouto getting a power-up out of it - the family's power culminating in some way inside him.

I also feel like that unlike Toga who did some kind of act of atonement on live TV, Touya so far didn't get to do anything like that. Nor did we have a Todoroki family combo move in the entire story. Endeavor had combo with Bakugou(!), but never with Shouto. So that's really weird to me, and another option I could see going forward.

There are other little bits and pieces - mainly how Shouto NEVER got a hug from anyone in his family (in a non-murderous way) or even just a word of thanks. Also, how Gunga finished on such a chopped up, depressing way for Hawks, Toga, the other kids, etc. which makes me think that we will get back to them eventually.

For Shouto himself, I also feel like there should be more, and there are little crumbs I'm holding onto, hoping that I'm reading it right.

But I've been wrong before (I was so convinced we had a build up for Shouto finding out the truth about OFA before everyone - well, I'm actually convinced it was a chopped storyline, but whatever), my confidence in Horikoshi's writing is at an all-time low, and I have developed trust issues, because ever since the Dabi reveal, Horikoshi noticably has been cutting Todoroki-family content short and I don't know if he ever had a clear vision on how he could land it beyond that point.

It feels like he doesn't want to make it grim-dark (Dabi die remorseless), but maybe he's also feeling like a change of heart like Toga's is not realistic for Dabi, so we also don't have a happy vision. So I don't exclude he will take a cop-out of some sort. It just hurts because he tied Shouto's arc to Dabi's, and it feels like Shouto can't get an uplifting victory unless he figure something out with Dabi (or if we get Endeavor step up as father and let Shouto go so he can be with his friends for the end).

[andydona-chan]

Maybe we're reading too much into Uraraka's reaction at the end of 425... I bet it is just Izuku feeling like he is going back to being ignored and discriminated cause he will be quirkless again...

Maybe the rest is just trying to process the situation, it's the same for her, they need to start over, and to just move on with another complicated step like talking about feelings, even if Izuku's ready, is not easy...

Maybe she's really evaluating her feelings after what happened with Toga. She might not feel like the 'same girl' she was before the battle... somehow

Izuku's just fearing how his friends will react after everything since... he might not be able to continue being in the hero course after some time.

He's fearing the day they will set him aside cause they think he won't be able to do hero work... he's probably expecting rejection again, but he finds it different now. They won't just say it; they will be soft about it cause they're friends, but it will still be there, looming over him.

It will keep him in the shadows again, and it will bring back the label of quirkless and incapable. He will be different from everyone else again. It will make his greatest victory seem like the day he lost it all again, including his chances of being with someone, that's why he's sad.

Cause he turned the experience into a dream. One he had and was amazing but now is over, and he is once more awake and aching of all the possibilities being taken away from his hands.

Like 'have a free trial, but you will not be able to keep this'. He can move one, he can do that, and he will be happy if someone acknowledges what he did, but it will feel as if he won the game that one time with a trial version, only to be left out of the game afterwards with no option but to see everyone else play from now on, might've as well remained armless... it would have made more sense

Sorry, I just felt like our greatest hero needs a hug and some reassurance and love. It makes me sad to even consider what's going on in his never stopping analytic mind...

I won't be surprised to find him sitting down alone while they travel the country, writing again in his notebooks, just to feel like himself for a moment, like before he met All Might, like before he had friends...

I'm sure Katsuki will be there to kick some sense into him, and everyone be there for him once they notice, but in the meantime, Izuku will feel pretty lonely for a moment. Usually, other people are not the enemy, Shigaraki was not Izuku'senemy, -he was just incomprehended- but the demons inside our head, Izuku's head, those demons are back with a revenge, he will need to be saved

Uraraka will be very remorseful of her reaction, probably, when she is aware of how she acted. But I don't think we've seen the last of Izuku's tears in this story... The painful arc just got started

[dekusleftsock]

Okay okay, I said I would talk about my theories on Ochako’s feelings for Toga, but most of it is based on simple parallels between bkdk.

Lets start with Katsuki Bakugou: Rising.

I can hear you saying, “Oh but Ochako hasn’t sacrificed herself for Toga/the other way around”. Correction, they haven’t done it yet.

What do I mean by this? Well, let’s look at a more closely relating parallel in the newest chapter.

These two panels align just, so well. TOO WELL, in my opinion. Too well to ignore.

Honestly I could see an Uraraka Ochako: Rising in some way. Some sort of apology for not seeing her as human; to show that she does genuinely care about toga. How she couldn’t stop thinking about her.

And yes, I’m well aware of Toga’s genuine acts of violence and Uraraka’s justified view of her at the time. I’m not saying she’s a bad person, but I’m saying that she isn’t a perfect person in this situation either. Even in this chapter, Toga was not seen as a “full on villain” until this rejection.

Hell, she’s just following orders now because she thinks that will be her only purpose from here on out. Ochako and Toga need to prove their worth to each other, because if they don’t then they will never even accept themselves.

Ochako is like (and I couldn’t put this as well as angy-grr has), a weird hybrid between Izuku and Katsuki. She has Izuku’s martyr complex and Katsuki’s determination to win. They are both her biggest assets and weaknesses. Weaknesses that have been exploited, assets that she’s learned to be a better person.

And god, all for one is watchful. I’m sure at one point or another he’s going to use their love of each other against the other in some way, like keeping Toga to stay in line and keep fighting, or for Ochako to sacrifice/hurt herself in order to save a villain. It’s a double edged sword, they either have to literally refuse to express their feelings or hurt themself to do so.

And, while I do dislike Twice’s death, (bc it makes me sad not narrative reasons) it had so much purpose in Toga’s arc. It makes her have to question the ideas of death as valuable or not, is life valuable or not, and does she truly want to hurt the ones she loves, or does she just want to express the way that she’s been treated all her life?

Like, okay yes, Toga partly acts the way she does because of her quirk. But god dammit, it’s also because she’s expressing her trauma. On other people. She can kill whoever she wants, whenever she wants, because she loves them SO MUCH! Because, even though she hates her parents, that’s how they “expressed” their care and love for her.

That’s what this scene was referencing. She views love as something she’s willing to let destroy her. Love is destruction, and if it’s not her then it’s the other person. She wants love to be tangible, yet out of reach. Like Sato or Izuku.

So when her first true experience with love, familial love with twice, it leaves this question:

Because this, THIS MOMENT, is a lasts act of desperation. To find love without violence.

Just because toga seeks out violence for love, does NOT MEAN that she actually WANTS it. Unhealthy behaviors don’t just happen. Horikoshi is very much pushing nurture over nature throughout the story, so I feel like we focus too much on Toga’s quirk and the consequences to it, and not WHY there’s consequences in the first place.

You don’t just grow up and decide “I like when the people I love are bloody and beaten”. No, that’s caused by a deeper issue, one usually because of an innate experience.

Yes her eating the bird as a child was supposed to show that she had an attraction to blood, I know that, but we are also dismissing this the same as the heroes (like ochako) have throughout the story. “She was such a good kid until her quirk made her commit such violence!” THATS the storyline the news pushes.

And then when the reporter comments on it, she says that it is due to a society that actively suppresses quirks. Quirks, quirks, quirks. Who’s entire identity also surrounded the fact that he had a strong, flashy quirk that made him worth something?

And tell me, if Katsuki’s quirk truly was apart of his anger issues and general “explosive personality”, then why does he lose it the more he uses self introspection? Why does the explosive energy slowly descend into something more of a mask? If Ochako was bubbly because her quirk was cute and made her float, then for the love of god, why does she get more serious?

We have ignored this repeatedly as a fandom. Quirks are nature, isn’t that stated by people who are actively suppressive? Like Toga’s parents? Like AFO?

Toga isn’t violent because of her quirk, she’s violent because it was the only way the people who cared about her expressed love. For the love of god, Sato was literally in a fight when she fell in love with him. And Ochako, our amazing girlboss who’s changing the world, has finally put the pieces together.

Quirks aren’t nature.

And the fact of the matter is, you don’t come to that conclusion without a deep understanding and care for another person. You don’t see past that “nature” they’ve been taught. From Aizawa, to Mitsuki, to Izuku Midoriya.

Hell, Uraraka thought Katsuki was just that stubborn! That there was no changing that! And yet, and yet, Izuku fucking came anyway. He came and he made kirishima take his hand because of WHAT OCHAKO SAID!

THIS is what Ochako’s character has been leading up to. Because she loves toga, and she doesn’t want to let her go. You don’t just, start wanting to save someone you see as irredeemable. That you don’t care about.

[anti-katsuki-lounge]

I think it's funny that while Ochako, Shoto and Izuku have villains that they want to "save" or at least understand or comprehend, bk is the only one with a villain that he must kill, I understand that AFO as a villain is the only one that is not considered a redemption but it also shows how Horikoshi gives bk moments to shine but empty of content, bk does not question the society of heroes, bk has no problem with fight to kill (even if he does not kill AFO but lets him die), and yes many of his stans say that he changes to be a better hero, but that hero is the status quo of the manga, he does not reflect or show compassion for his adversary, he fought to the death with Tomura when on the other hand we had a talk between Izuku and Uraraka about how they couldn't ignore that there was someone hurt on the other side. Bk has his moment but he has never shown compassion, he is a perfect hero for a society that has already failed.

All of this. Katsuki’s character has nothing in the grand scheme of things. No good redemption arc, no villain/reflection, nothing.

[sapphic-agent]

So I made it pretty clear that I don't ship Izuocha as I find it bland and that it's pretty much shipping 101 for a series.

But when you actually see the dynamic unfold, it really doesn't have the structure for a ship outside of them getting flustered around each other.

Uraraka called him plain looking at the beginning and even questioned if he was going to fight quirkless which, given his unspoken backstory, would've hit a nerve for him to hear someone he likes say such a thing.

And then there's the whole shoving her feelings aside to focus on hero work which, that I don't have much of a problem with since there are some people out there who would rather focus on their careers first before pursuing a relationship.

But this just ties back to Hori preventing Izuku from having anything nice because why is it only HIS love interest that's doing this? What about any of the other girls or even pro heroes? In fact it's been alluded that Kamui Woods and Mount Lady have something going on so heroes being in a relationship isn't something that's distracting or get in the way of their work.

But Izuku isn't entirely innocent in this either.

If this is supposed to be a couple that's obviously meant to be together in the end, why hasn't he had any scenes of admiring her or flustering over her? It's always been Uraraka.

Now if it was revealed that he doesn't view himself as someone worthy of being in a romantic relationship because of something that happened in his past, that would be fun to explore... but we don't get that!

But the cherry on top of this and maybe it's just me, but I don't like how this is a couple where the guy is only interested because she was the first girl that was nice to him. It just comes across as a bit unhealthy to me.

Now maybe if this was explored and have him fall for someone else, including that realizing that clinging onto the first person who was nice to him isn't okay, then we would have an interesting arc.

But I think that's just me I guess.

I totally get where you're coming from!

I'm not big on IzuOcha myself. If I'm being 100% honest, I actually really like their platonic relationship a lot more. They had decent chemistry in the beginning and she was his first real friend. I'm not saying they shouldn't be together, but Horikoshi should have spent more time on their friendship before even mentioning their romantic feelings.

The plain face thing annoys me, but Horikoshi shits on his own MC constantly for no reason so I don't hold this against Uraraka. I agree that the shoving her feelings aside thing is weird especially because we don't spend that much time seeing her develop as a hero. It's so focused on Izuku whole trying to not make things about Izuku. It's so weird. Like it's fine if it's mentioned or implied, but why it is more centered on her feelings for Izuku then it is on her growing and developing her skills? And you're right because Jirou doesn't do that with Kaminari even though she's way more likely than Uraraka to hide what she's really feeling. I like to chalk it up to Horikoshi not knowing how to write women as main characters.

I totally agree that it's weird that Izuku doesn't get flustered or embarrassed around her. Especially since he did in the beginning and it's implied that he had feelings for her first (or at least attraction). It's odd that Horikoshi dropped this (it might be part of him making Izuku less three dimensional and complex as the series goes on because if you pay attention, a lot of the qualities Izuku had in the beginning of the show really diminish).

Like most things, I like to think that IzuOcha is simply wasted potential (and maybe was ignored/disregarded im favor of you-know-who but I can't prove it). I definitely see why you don't like it

[khonaker]

Hi

I think ochako is one of the most under utilised and underrated characters. I'm not a fan of her character (no, i DONT hate her). She had so much of potential amd her fight with BK just proved she's more than a pretty face. I'm fully aware of the fact that this show is oversaturated with characters. But let's not forget that she is the main female lead of the show. My biggest issue with her is that she didn't get to do a god damn thing in the Stain arc. She joined the academy with the sole intention of making money, and that's exactly what Stain hates about the hero society. Their monetary outlook. She could have been a part of the arc, the build up was there. She could have shown Stain that yes, while there are heroes who are there solely for the financial gains, that doesn't make them bad people. She all she wanted was to help her family get out of the poor financial situation they were in. Instead, she gets the typical shonen lead heroine treatment- being the love interest and whose sole purpose in life is to be a satellite character to the male lead of the show.

All her effort in the UA sports festival to do her best against Bk, all the desires to make good income as a hero to help her family financially, devolved into a girl who becomes a blushing mess infront of her love interest.

They did her so dirty. She was one of the few female shonen characters who felt like she could be someone in life without having anything to do with matters of the heart.

Also, notice how it's other characters around her who enforce her this whole Deku crush on her. Mina, toga and Aoyama to name a few. These are the characters who constantly remind her of her feelings for deku, thus pushing her further and further away from the plot relevancy.

I find this very annoying and makes me sick to think that a girl with tremendous potential is now relegated to the role of a girl hopelessly in love.

One last question: So many people think she's a terrible person for wanting to make money. I'm like, what? Are you serious? (If you want me to give further explanations I will) but it's the most human and realistic thing to do when you're stuck in a financial rut.

Please let me know and thanks for reading my extremely long post

Cheers

Ooooooooooo Lordy.

(Cracks hands and neck)

First and foremost, I still love Ochako. But I can’t ignore what’s happened to her throughout the series.

Honestly, it’s been ages since I’ve had that exact thought about Ochako and Stain situation! While he had a valid point (that wasn’t further explored, HORIKOSHI) about there being heroes that didn’t have the EXACT same mentality as All Might, her duality of wanting to provide enough money to support her family all the while having the desire to save others for the sake of saving others would be honestly a culture shock to Stain. (Or he may go further into denial, it’s actually hard to say. Guy had a few screws loose.)

But it HONESTLY would have been interesting seeing these two interact! And not to replace anyone the Hosu trio! It honestly would have been cool seeing her trying to use her new Gunhead Martial Arts (though she probably would have been focused on saving Iida as Izuku and Shoto took on the role of the main fighters, but Stain could have also tried to go after them and Uraraka would attempt to hold her own against him.) And we would have had MOST of the Dekusquad there! (Asui had her own internship.) Hiw great would it have been seeing the Dekusquad fighting together! And Ochako going feral protecting Iida!

Yeah, she happened to be more focused only about her crush with Izuku as time went on, which made a lot of her early traits and accomplishments kinda fade away and be forgotten. But for the record, and I still stand by this. A girl having a crush on someone DOESN’T cheapen her in my opinion. It’s something that happens to many teenagers. And some of their interactions I think are handled well, like them talking about wanting to save their respective villains. But other times, yeah, it felt a bit excessive that Horikoshi had to stop and say, “Hey! Hey! Do you remember Ochako has a crush on Izuku?!?” I honestly was looking forward to seeing how she acted after she vowed to put her feelings aside during the provisional license exam. But…Hori just continued to drill it into our faces.

As for the biggest perpetrator of making Ochako only about Izuku, I lay on Toga’s feet. Mina, yeah, she brings up the crush as well, but it’s done more in good fun I feel. And I think Aoyama has done that once. (Now that I think about it, it’s kind of random how he suddenly knew about her crush. He never does it again.)

But Toga? Horikoshi could have used her for something else to make her relevant, but the ONLY thing she had connected to Ochako is their shared crush on Izuku. Others say theirs other themes between them, but I’m sorry. I don’t see it, or believe that it was handled effectively. Ochako had more than just a crush. Like you mentioned, her want to provide for her family. Her fighting spirit and prowess that she showed against Bakugou. She had things that could have been fleshed out more.

Toga was a wha-wha girl that embraced being a remorseless villain and happened to be crushing on the same guy Ochako was crushing on. That’s it. There’s nothing else really about Toga. And she became to Ochako what Bakugou became to Izuku: a detriment to her character and preventing her from becoming something MORE. (Sorry but not really if I sound cynical about Toga. I just got REALLY tired being demanded to care about her. Like some OTHER blonde.)

Speaking of which, your last question? I also never understood this. I get it for a quick joke and stuff like that. Hahaha. But when people were SERIOUS about holding that over Ochako’s head? I was like, “Did you not hear her entire motivation?!?” I was dumbfounded how people could possibly come to that conclusion.

I find it ESPECIALLY interesting NO ONE brings up that BAKUGOU also had the desire to be a hero for money,JUST TO BE RICH AND FAMOUS! But no, shit on Ochako for wanting to take care of her family! Filthy hypocrites. I honestly wish Horikoshi did a better job balancing both her looking out for heroes as well as wanting to have a good paying job for her family. I think both are completely character of her.

Anyways, you gave me a long post, I gave a long response. 😜 But honestly, thanks! I don’t honestly get these and I hope my answers or thoughts are interesting or understandable! Have a good one and thanks again!

@theuntamedangel

[yggdraseed]

Crime, Punishment, and Himiko Toga

I've seen a lot of people take umbrage with what they're erroneously claiming is a case of "Talk no Jutsu" with regards to how Uraraka approached the situation with Himiko. If you're one of those people, or have had conversations with those people that have left you with questions, this post is probably for you.

The whole thesis with HeroAca's villains is that "bad people" aren't born, they're made. People don't just roll out of bed one day, rub their hands together, and decide arbitrarily to hurt others. When a person steals or commits an act of violence, it is almost invariably because their needs aren't met and they believe they can't meet their needs any other way. This is the whole driving force behind the League of Villains: they're rejects, misfits, survivors of trauma, and turned to crime because society didn't leave them another way. Or at least, the people around them made them feel like society wouldn't.

With Toga, people will sometimes lean on the "psychopath" angle, akin to an insanity plea, or they'll appeal to it being a work of fiction and say you have to make concessions for that. I don't like either of these arguments because they don't really demonstrate an understanding of what Toga's arc is about.

First of all, Toga isn't a psychopath. She wasn't born with some mental defect that made her kill. In fact, outside of the way that her Quirk meant she needs to drink blood in order to process her love for other people, she seems like her mental state was perfectly normal and healthy as a child. She seemed curious, interested in others, caring for others - one of the flashbacks has dialogue about her parents yelling at her for drinking her friend's blood, and she replies that she was trying to kiss it better. Implying her friend probably cut her finger and Toga began to suck the blood only after.

But instead of finding a way to translate that compulsion towards blood into a healthy form of interacting with others, Toga's parents rejected her, treated her with disgust, and forced her to repress her feelings. It's only after years and years of being raised like this that Toga snapped, drank the blood of that boy she liked, and ran away.

Two things to note here. First of all, Toga would almost certainly have not ended up on this path if her parents had properly taking care of her. Telling a child not to smile, telling a child she's not human - can you even begin to imagine how damaging that is? She's made to feel like her love is wrong, that she's a monster and will never be loved or be able to express her love properly. Her parents doomed her; they made her feel like damaged goods without any hope of repair. When you see Toga crying while drinking her crush's blood, it's because she's lost all hope of being loved. She knows what she's doing is wrong, but her heart and her desires can't just be smashed down and ignored anymore.

Secondly, think about all the times we've seen Toga cut or injure someone and/or drink their blood. A bird that was already injured. A friend who got hurt. Her crush. Ochako. Izuku. Camie. Rock Lock. The PLF grunts under Curious, and Curious herself. Twice. The heroes raiding the PLF base after Twice died. The various heroes whose blood had been spilt on the battlefield in the most recent chapters.

So the first two are self evident: the bird and the friend of hers, who she didn't injure herself, only drank their blood after. She took Ochako's blood, but other than a few knife swings at the start of the scuffle, she didn't try to do anymore harm than necessary. She was drawn to Deku after he'd been injured during the Summer Training Camp raid, and nabbed his blood after the License Exams without doing lethal harm to him. We know that she didn't kill Camie when she took her blood, and even released Camie after the License Exams. She didn't kill Rock Lock to impersonate him, either. Curious and her goon patrol were going to kill her if she didn't kill them. Twice was already dead and likely would have wanted to either leave his blood to her or would have given it willingly if he'd survived. She attacked the heroes invading the PLF base only after Twice had died; both because she was emotionally shattered and seeking revenge, and because this had proven to her that all the talk of heroes not killing, only apprehending no longer applied. She was in a death spiral of hopelessness, pain, and rage when she was using Sad Man's Death Parade, and most of the heroes whose blood she took had already been injured anyway.

Even when it comes to the guy she had a crush on, we never see her actually injure him. We only hear second-hand accounts of classmates who say she did. And her parents are clearly untrustworthy as they immediately assume the worst of her. This sets up a precedent that people assume she'll be violent if she doesn't get her way. However, when we actually get her side of the story or see her actions for ourselves, Toga always opts to take blood non-lethally and only fights to kill if she thinks she'll be killed or has lost control due to a traumatic circumstance. I wouldn't be shocked if the boy she liked - who we see getting into a fight once or twice - actually got hurt in a fight and she drank his blood after. Possibly even a fight he got into to stand up for her. Remember that blood and love go hand-in-hand for Toga. Maybe the reason she drank his blood that time on that day was because he got into a fight for her sake and her love became too much to repress. Speculation, know, but there's already a trend of Horikoshi elaborating on flashbacks with Toga to show details we weren't privy to before.

Context is crucial. You can look at an injury or death connected to someone's actions, and it's easy to just blame them. But what if they were defending themselves? What if they had blood on their hands because they were trying to staunch their wounds? A wife who kills her husband to get his money is not the same as a wife who kills her husband to escape a relationship of abuse and entrapment. Context is everything. Intention is everything. Even if you point to that corpse we see Toga with when she's introduced, ask yourself this: what's a grown man in a suit doing in an alleyway with a teenage girl on the run from her parents? Toga is a sensitive, crafty person who does what it takes to survive. Who's to say she didn't spot perverts who wanted to prey on a defenseless girl, lured them off to where no one would see, then killed them and took their money?

Even setting all that aside, you need to try to understand the state that Toga is in. She was forced to choose between being true to her feelings, or being accepted. This isn't just Toga lashing out, this is Toga acting on what she's been taught: that she's unlovable, and so it's either just selfishly follow her heart without ever being wanted, or live a lie and have a falsified version of her be accepted.

Quirks don't just affect the body, they affect the mind and heart. Drinking blood and transforming into people isn't just something Toga can do, it's a necessary part of her experiencing love and expressing love to others. Taking that away from her is like taking away the ability to hug or kiss someone you love. It's isolating, it's traumatizing, and it's ripping a part of her away and prohibiting her from exploring and validating it.

Let's play make believe for just a moment. Here's how things could play out: Toga walks into class, having had a letter about her Quirk be delivered to the school. The teacher sets time aside to explain how her Quirk works and how it affects her personality, and asks the other kids to be understanding to her. Some of them won't, but at least a few of them will. She grows up, and makes crushes, and finds a few who she can trust and be trusted by enough to ask them for blood, after explaining the context of her Quirk. She'll be rejected by some, but she'll probably find at least one boy or girl who'll accept her. And she grows up communicating with others about what makes her different and building ways to be loved while being true to herself.

If you're going to take a hard line and say "Nope, murder is murder," then that means Shigaraki, Dabi, and the rest of the League have to die. That means Hawk has to die, too; he killed Jin, not in self-defense, but to expedite the mission. Endeavor has to die, too; doesn't matter how hard he's worked to atone for his sins, die die die. Bakugo has to be punished, too. The whole class except for Jirou, Tsuyu, and... Aoyama, I think? Will need to be expelled since nobody stopped Izuku and friends from going to save Bakugo. While we're at it, why don't you punish All Might for putting Deku in danger even though it was what Deku dreamed of and wanted? How about you punish Deku like those pros were in chapter one for rushing to save Bakugo from the mud man?

Not only would that interpretation run counter to everything the story has done about these sorts of gray areas, it's just a depressing, cruel way to think of things. Crimes won't be undone if you kill the criminal. You gain nothing. Redemption can't be earned by dying, but it can be earned through living and trying to atone.

I don't know how many American or European fans are aware of this, but Japan has a 99.9% conviction rate. Generally speaking, the Japanese courts will deem you as guilty until proven innocent, and the justice system will punish you in really excessive ways even for minor offenses at times. I think part of Horikoshi's intentions are to push back against the myopic, self-righteous culture that gives rise to that kind of excessive desire to punish.

And Ochako never lets Toga off the hook for what she did. The story doesn't just give her a free pass. Ochako literally says that she can't just wipe Toga's crimes away. However, she also acknowledges that if she ignores what she's seen of the pain and hopelessness that led Toga to this point, then she'll have failed as a hero.

Heroes don't win when people die. They win when people live. If you want to ignore context and insist that an abused teenage girl needs to die, it doesn't matter what she did, you are the problem. You are the problem. You are Toga's parents, and you are the one who needs to learn to be a hero. Don't sit and squawk and act like you were ever a good enough person to pass judgment on other people. Reach out your god damn hand and start helping instead of expecting other people to do it for you. Give kindness, not cruelty, and the world will start to become a kinder place.

[thyandrawrites]

Aren't the villains just as dismissive? Tbh I don't think there is any way of getting through to the villains even if they shown empathy. I hope I'm wrong though but this is the final arc and nobodies stance has changed and I don't see it changing but fingers crossed that things will change but I think there needs to half way meeting between both sides before things begin moving forward if it does.

It's true that the villains aren't stepping down from their points, but it's not on them to do that. The villains are not the ones responsible for the social injustice of their system. They are canonically a minority that the HPSC has repeatedly tried to silence with state-sanctioned assassinations.

And while it's also true that there needs to be a middle ground somewhere (the villains cannot be saved so long as they keep killing and the heroes can't save so long as they kill their targets), please note that the ones actively seeking a dialogue here are the villains.

Dabi's broadcast was aimed at people thinking more critically about the blind trust they put in heroes. He wanted them to ask heroes for more accountability in his stead, because he knew heroes would never listen to him. He didn't just want justice for himself or he would've simply killed Endvr. He wanted a fairer society to stop people like Endvr from doing what he did for two decades and getting away with it.

Shigaraki made a whole speech on the battlefield of the first war about how heroes constantly trample over the individuals for the sake of an abstract greater good. He addressed how thinking only of the masses creates pockets of evil under the heroes' noses. Shigaraki's whole shtick is that he was kidnapped and groomed by a supervillain because he was left wandering the streets for days, bloodied and traumatized, and the heroes of his neighborhood had so many bigger fishes to fry that they never noticed he needed help too.

And though we might argue that as an adult he's now vowed to cause indiscriminate destruction without dialogue because that's what AFO groomed him for, we can also argue that when Shigaraki is not directly under his abuser's influence, he makes choices that show us he actually does want that dialogue. Remember, he seeked out Deku at that mall and explained his whole villain manifesto to him. He told Deku all about how their society functions on this search for an abstract greater good and ignores individual in immediate danger. And he demonstrated it, too. He had deadly fingers on Deku's throat and no one blinked twice or stepped in to investigate, because "heroes would deal with it". He wanted Deku to acknowledge this. This is such a hangup of his that he brings it up again in the war arc as well. And no has given him an appropriate response still.

Then there's Toga, and she's the one who most clearly proves this. The heroes' argument is that they can't listen to the points presented to them because the villains hurt their friends. So long as the villains don't own up to their crimes, they say, that sours any good argument they might've had. Which is hypocritical as hell. The heroes also killed Toga's best friend and refused accountability for it. In fact, they let Hawks stay a hero.

Yet, despite all this, Toga was still able to put her grief in a box and set it aside for ten minutes, and seeked out Uraraka to attempt a dialogue anyway. A villain, who the heroes keep referring to as an immature, hedonistic and selfish freak, had more emotional maturity than any of them. She went to Uraraka to understand what a villains' life is worth to heroes. Ochako's response confirmed her suspicion; to their society, Jin wasn't human enough to deserve compassion. His death served the greater good, so it doesn't matter if he left friends behind, if people cared about him. It doesn't matter if heroes hurt Toga's friends, but it's a death sentence if Toga hurts the heroes' friends.

So.

Why should the villains act less dismissive? They tried fitting in and it didn't work. They tried setting out a conversation with heroes and it also didn't work. What the heroes wanted from them is what hero society always wanted from any disturbance to the status quo—either take it in silence, or to get erased as a threat.

The villains are literally fighting for their lives here, meanwhile the heroes are just fighting to maintain their privileges. It's not even remotely a fair fight. That's why it's on the heroes to change their attitude first

[linkspooky]

THE TRAGIC DEATH OF BAKUGO

Hamartia, also called the tragic flaw, (Harmartia from the Greek hamartien, “to err”) is an inherent defect or shortcoming in the hero of a tragedy, who is in other respects a superior being favored by fortune. Aristotle inroduced the term casually in poetics, in describing the tragic hero as a man of noble rank and nature whose misfortune is not brought about by villainy but by some “error of judgement”. Most importantyly, the hero’s suffering and it’s far-reaching reverberations are far out of proprotion with his flaw. An element of cosmic collusion among the hero’s flaw, chance, necessaity, and other external forces is essential to bring about the tragic catastrophe [x]. 

I start out with the lecture because, this week’s chapter, and the dramatic turn of events where it looked like the heroes had the advantage for most of this fight so far, only to have those advantages undone in a catastrophic turn of events, follows this idea of Hamartia. Just to be clear, I don’t think Horikoshi is specfically referencing Aristotle or anything like that. I just think the way the story is structure d right now is heavily reminiscent of it, the mistakes of the heroes are what brought about this current tragic turn of events. The events of this chapter are essentially the mistakes the heroes made so far going into the valley, catching up with them and benefitting the villains side of the fight. I’ll explain under the cut. 

This is a list of all the mistakes and oversights, the heroes made so far, and just to be clear this isn’t really about whether I think personally the heroes are good or bad people. Hamartia is an intentionally written flaw in a hero character, that the plot is supposed to challenge, the hero rises or falls based on this flaw. 

Peter Parker AKA Spiderman AKA the greatest superhero of all time (this isn’t an opinion it’s just objective fact fight me)  is a character written around the central flaw of responsibility, in his origin story, because of him acting irresponsibly and wanting to selfishly use his new superhuman abilities for his own gain, he lets a robber go right by him, and as a tragic consequence his uncle is shot by that same robber and as he lies dying in his arm he tells Peter “with great power comes great responsibility.” This isn’t a moral judgement on the characters, but rather the flaw their arc resolves around and how there are consequences like Uncle Ben being shot when they don’t work on said flaws. 

Tragic Mistake # 1: Escalating rather than Talking

Before the fight even begins, we’re introduced to a conflict that’s unique to the kids, that they’re starting to think of the villains as more than just people to be stopped and put down. Uraraka remembers that Toga cried when she felt rejected like a person would, Shoto wonders what kind of food Toya likes and considers sitting him down for family dinner, Deku says he can’t ignore the little boy inside of Shigaraki. They are considering the idea that their might be another way of dealing with the villains, but they are all also still using the language of “stop” rather than “save.” 

If the central question of MHA is what makes a true hero, a hero who “wins” or a hero who “saves”, the adult heroes especially Hawks, Endeavor and Jeanist are all firmly on the side of “win” and so fixed that it doesn’t even seem to be a question, whereas the kids are sitting on the fence but they’re still using langauge like “stop” Touya, rather than “saving.” 

Whether or not you think the villains deserve to be saved, further escalating the conflict instead of trying to seek out alternative means to deal with the villains is a conflict for pure strategic reasons. The reason it’s a strategic mistake is because the heroes already tried this in the war arc, they amassed every single force they had for a pre-emptive strike, to put the villains on the defensive. The language of the War Arc was even that if they didn’t stop the villains here, they probably will not have enough forces afterwards afterwards to keep fighting them. That’s the exact language AFO uses in this chapter when analyzing the situation, both the mass retirement of heroes, and also the losses in the War Arc, have made it so a full frontal assault against the villains and essentially going to war with them is no longer viable. 

Like, let’s set the matter of forcing the 1-A kids to essentially fight on the front lines because they simply don’t have the numbers with the retirement of professional heroes to the side for now. This is just the situation of the heroes going into the fight, they didn’t have the numbers they had in the War Arc, and so going into this fight they tried once again with a pre-emptive strike, and a divide and conquer strategy to make use of their lack of numbers. However, they are essentially trying to do the war arc again with less numbers, and less preparation. 

And the War Arc strategy did not even work in the first place. Despite Hawks having months of perparation, the complete element of surprise, Shigaraki, Toga, Dabi, Spinner all got away. Despite the execution of Twice, Toga still has Twice’s blood and Sad Man’s Parade is an option once more. Despite Hawks’ spying, Gigantoamachia got out. Hawks didn’t see the Touya reveal coming. 

Basically what AFO is saying in this chapter is the Heroes had a situation where they had the villains scattered and fighting on the defensive, and they failed to finish them off this time. Now, they are trying to exact same strategy over again with less numbers, and that advantage of surprise and preperation gone. The heroes can’t afford to keep escalating the conflict and trying to put down the villains by overpowering, simply because it’s not strategically viable. 

I’m going to quote Class 1-A kids to essentially seal the point I’m trying to make about the turn of the tides of battle in this chapter. 

[Class 1-A Kids] like after this development, with Bakugo down, Shigarki still putting up a fight when the heroes essentially have him in a cage designed to neutralize all of his powers, Dabi back up, AFO at least partially healed even when Hawks’ strategy of breaking his mask completely successful and Endeavor hitting him with his strongest prominence burn, and also Toga still has Sad Man’s Parade in reserve as a surprise and hasn’t used it yet, then what exactly can the heroes do to turn the table at this point? 

Either Deku showing up to the Shigaraki battle will somehow fix everything by being so overpowered, or you know, the heroes will have to try a different strategy. As Class 1akids says. The idea of saving the villains has been floated for 100+ chapters, the villains have now gone from Shigaraki a leader they were extremely loyal to, to AFO a leader who is mostly using them as pawns in his conflict, and Shigaraki himself is in need of saving, as Spinner has said over and over again he’s continuing the fight for Shigaraki’s sake to save him, not for AFO. There are several characters who could be turned against AFO if given reason to by the heroes, and also it gives the Villains a chance to work to undo at least some of the damage they did. 

Mistake #2 PISSING TOGA OFF 

So essentially the War Arc right now is focused on what are five individual fights, Toga vs Uraraka, everyone else Important vs Shigaraki, Shoto, Iida and Endeavor’s sidekicks vs. Touya, Hawks and Endeavor vs. AFO, and then the riots led by spinner and the heteromorphs. The last has gotten the least focus so I’m going to break the other four fights down in order. Toga is interesting because we have probably gotten the least focus on her fight, we didn’t even cut to her this chapter, and yet Toga is essentially the jenga brick that got pulled out of the tower in the heroes strategy. 

The heroes decision to bet everything on Deku being able to take down Shigaraki with the support of everyone backing him up, was pulled out of the jenga tower when Toga grabbed him and dragged him out of the portal when Danger Sense didn’t trigger. 

Interestingly enough, Toga not triggering Danger Sense did not have to be the disadvantage it turned out to be. As I said, there are clear mistakes and missed opportunities that he heroes mistake in each major battle. Fourth even says, that the reason Toga didn’t trigger the danger sense is because she doesn’t hurt people out of hatred. 

Ignoring the Yandere aspects of Toga going “Deku, please be my boyfriend”, there is a lot of emotional complexity to Toga’s basic statement that she wants to become more like the people she loves. The entire time Toga a high schooler herself has been fascinated by the UA kids, especially Deku and Uraraka and wondering what the difference between them and herself is. Toga’s entire character revolves around the idea that she was labeled as a deviant the moment her quirk manifested and shunned, and yet she desires acceptance for who she is, especially after repressing herself to such an extreme extent to try to be “normal” and “good” lead to what was essentially a psyhotic break and a violent incident. 

Shigaraki and Touya are perhaps the most self destructive of all the LOV characters, while Toga is someone who has questioned whether the heroes will ever come save her, or if what she really wants is acceptance rather than just destroying things. 

Toga is the one questioning if things have to be a life or death battle between them, and Izuku and Ochaco both have the opportunity to show Toga there are other ways, and then they don’t. 

Toga’s trajectory as a character is pretty clear, when people reject her, she rejects them back even harder. If you try violence on her, she will get violent back, and so Ochaco and Deku both pick the option of choosing to just defeat her in a physical battle is just a bad choice in general, because Toga is essentially sitting on a bomb. She has the nuke codes here. The biggest advantage of the fight is going to be when Toga uses sad man’s parade, so either Ochaco just defets her in a physical battle before Toga has the chance to use it (but if this happens then why does Horikoshi devote several chapters in a long running plot thread to bring up the possibility that Toga will create another Sad Man’s Parade, and also give Toga the ability to copy the abilities of people whose blood she drinks in the first place if not to make this happen), or Toga is talked down or even persuaded to turn against AFO. 

But as for Uraraka herself, what is her tragic and central flaw in this scenario that she cannot overcome. It is essentially Uraraka who is the most empathic of the hero characters, and the one who is so sensitive that she can notice the struggles on other people’s faces and gave a big speech on how the heroes are essentially humans and they need help too. She even flashes back to Toga’s crying face in that speech, it’s a deliberate showing that Toga is being left out of this speech. If the heroes are still human, and need to be helped like any other human beings, then villains as the other side of the coin are just as human as the heroes. Yet Uraraka still fails to reconcile Toga with that idea, Toga is given the impression that Uraraka still doesn’t see her as a real person and that pushes Toga into more extreme forms of violence. 

So anyway, what Ochaco and Deku essentially needed to do here was not poke the bear, and not only did they poke it, they shot it, threatened its cubs, and also the bear has rabies. 

MISTAKE # 3 ENJI TODOROKI NOT FACING DABI

So yes, everyone and their mother has pointed out that Shoto has a better chance of actually reaching Dabi and empathizing him because they faced such similiar abused and lived experiences. And yes, apaprently it was Shoto’s idea himself to face Dabi alone while Enji handled AFO. I think since then, the plot has pointed out several times that Enji choosing to run away from Toya and not face him again, is him not improving on his central flaw as a character, and was the wrong choice in this situation. 

If Shoto facing Dabi alone was the right choice, then Shoto using his best move against Dabi, his speech about everything he’s learned from his friends, and also his begging his brother to stop, would have stopped the fight there, but even after Shoto leverages all of that....

Dabi just gets back up and demands to see Endeavor again. 

So, I think Dabi needs to face Endeavor. But like, to prove my point with actual in text citations. Number one, if Shoto’s objective is to get Toya to come home (something he has implied but not vocalized) and Enji’s intention is to take responsbility for Toya and the damage they did to this family, they both went into this fight with the wrong head. The conflict with Dabi is also another iteration of the central conflict of the story, what makes heroes “winning” or “saving.” We see another repeat of the language of Shoto’s objective of “stop” Toya, rather than saving him. This might not be Shoto’s intentions, deep down he might want to just bring his brother home, but we don’t see him vocalize that. 

Enji himself, is the emblem of the hero who always prioritizes victory over saving others. Dabi is the shadow to Enji’s flaws as as hero meant to call out that flaws. To simplify the complex Todoroki drama in one central flaw, it’s established to us in the Touya flashback chapters. Like, for Toya himself, what is the origin as a conflict. He has a hero as a father, and he has a father who only cares about the world of heroes, and the potential his children have to be heroes to surpass all might. Enji even before he started to physically abuse Shoto, withdrew entirely from Toya, Natsuo and Fuyumi’s lives when they were no longer potential candidates for his dream to surpass All Might. 

Enji’s central flaw as a character is that he chooses being a hero, over being a father and his responsibilities to his family ever single time. The only reason he had a family in the first place was to create a child who could carry on his dream as a hero, but Enji is given several opportunities to just give that up when he sees the way it’s hurting his family, and he just never does he always doubles down every single time choosing his ambitions and heroics over his children. 

Enji is a hero at the expense of everything else, even atonement Enji who is supposedly facing the things he did to his family, does so as a hero first before anything else, and it’s shown in the choices he makes during the battle. 

I don’t know if you’ve noticed but Toya shouting “Look at me” his entire childhood, and Dabi repeating “Look at me” makes it pretty clear with what he wants. If that’s not obvious enough, AFO helpfully points it out for the audience. 

Hawks’ justification for the choice to just, not have Enji face Dabi is that he wouldn’t be able to objectively face Toya and fight him like any other villain. Once again we have the language, Enji couldn’t “FIGHT AND BEAT” Toya. 

Hawks’ thinking is pure strategy, using Endeavor as their biggest fighter with Hawks’ support, they pound everything they have against AFO to take him out of the fight as quickly as possible since he has effectively taken leadership of the villain’s forces, and while he still is their muscles he’s also essentially a glass cannon due to requiring life support with all the injuries All Might left on his body. 

It is a sound strategy, that is if it had worked. Even with AFO taunting Enji and shaking him up, we basically see everything in the fight go completely the way Hawks envisioned, they smash his mask, and not only that but Enji uses his strongest fire on AFO. However, as I said Enji in doing this has ignored his central flaw, putting his duty as a hero over his duty to his family. Yeah, he says that, after this he will watch Toya, but hasn’t anyone ever told Enji, the most basic rule of storytelling is show don’t tell. So anyway, everything works out exactly the way Hawks wanted... and then AFO just gets back up. 

We see a similiar result in the fight against Toya. I think Enji’s mistakes are much clearer than Shoto’s in this situation, because like it’s not really Shoto’s fault that Enji destroyed his family he’s a victim in this too. However, to briefly touch upon why Shoto alone isn’t enough to Toya, and why he didn’t reach Toya. 

Well, to put it simply he didn’t really reach out much in the first place. Dabi is created by his family not seeing him.  Shoto chooses not the path of relating to his brother, but by beating him down with his strongest move, putting a stop to him above all else. 

If anything I think shoto is a little bit mixed about what he wants going into this fight, and it is in Shoto’s character to being in two minds about things (he is quite literally split down the middle, fire and ice, mother and father, family and heroics, etc. etc.) Is his big brother a villain to be stopped, or someone suffering in need of saving, and I think (I use I think because honestly I’m not sure what to make of Shoto’s character here entirely and where he plays in on this it’s less clean cut than what Enji needs to do. Shoto hears Dabii out for the reason why he ddin’t come back home so he did try talking, but he also like, doesn’t make the leap that Dabi didn’t become a villain in a vaccum.)

So Shoto hasn’t made up his mind, whether Dabi should be dealt with as a villain, or as his brother and fellow abuse victim, and his choice is to simply try overpowering him. I’d say this analysis is supported by the way Shoto fails to take down Toya, by not seeing Toya and underestimating him. By underestimating Toya, he forgot that Toya is someone who spent years honing his quirk on his own, so Toya essentially copies Shoto’s move and Shoto doesn’t see it coming. Failure to see his brother therefore, leads to Shoto making a strategic oversight and Dabi gets back up stronger. The tragic flaw then for both Shoto and Enji is acting as heroes first, and treating the conflict as another hero villain conflict when it’s not, Dabi isn’t just a villain, he’s Toya Todoroki, he’s there brother and son and the person their family failed and let die the first time who is at risk of just dying all over again. 

MISTAKE #4 SHIGARAKI IS A VIDEO GAME BOSS FIGHT

So, to quickly recap. The heroes have tried several times already, to take Shigaraki out. They got him in the tube and stopped his heart when he was only halfway through the surgery, and Shigaraki got back up. 

The heroes amassed every single one of their best members against him, with the decay quirk mostly deactivated, and his body incomplete and therefore breaking down on him. Deku completely lost his mind and went full violence, activating his quirk in his desperation. Shigaraki was burned by Endeavor, had his quirk neutralized by Eraserhead, was pummeled by Deku into oblivion, was tied up by Jeanist, and then... he got back up. Not only that but when Deku and Shigaraki are together in the vestiges, it’s pointed out that the more the heroes fight against Shigaraki, the more his hatred increases, and more he fuses with AFO. The more Shigaraki hates, the more it eats away at Shigarki, the more the lines between him and AFO blur. 

It’s also been said by Shigaraki several times, the more the heroes reject him, the more that Shigaraki will reject him back, his desire to destroy comes from the fact that he knows society has absolutely no place for him. The american hero shoots a missile at Shigaraki, and... he gets back up. 

Definition of insanity, trying the same thing over and over again, and all that. Basically, two long running threads have been established by Shigarki, that the more he is hated, the more he will be hated in return, grow more violent, lash out wildly, and the more control AFO has over him. However, no matter how much AFO tries to possess him, a small part of Tenko remains, there is a crying child inside of Shigaraki. 

If Shigaraki is beyond saving and needs to be put down, why not only the continued showing of Tenko inside of Shigaraki as a child trapped in horrifying imagery of hundreds and hundreds of hands he can’t escape from, but also people like AFO and Deku both insisting that some small part of the childhood victim remains inside of Shigaraki.

 Why is AFO so concerned about the fact that Shigaraki is resisting him in some small ways, if the heroes are not capable of reaching Shigaraki? Why is he suddenly worried about the loss of his total and complete hold of Shigaraki right now. Why suggest that there is a fission within Shigarki, if it’s not possible for Shigarakito break free of AFO’s control? 

Onto the fight itself, even without Deku there we are shown not only the trap that the heroes laid against Shigaraki by building an entire arena to neutralize Shigarki’s decay ability, and also copying the erasure quirk to keep it focused on Shigaraki the entire time working, but even without Deku there, the heroes being able to work together and pull off several combo teamwork attacks. Rumi and Bakugo getting close and landing several hits in spite of the mutant hands,the big three of UA landing their three way combo attack that consists of a giant chimera hybrid that shoots lasers. Even without Deku, everything is pretty much working, so why does Shigarki not go down? Two answers, once again the strategy going in was wrong. It’s even mentioned several time, just building a giant arena to contain Shigaraki and trying to unite everyone to destroy him like he’s a video game boss, is the wrong-headed strategy. 

Most of all because they literally already tried that. They had the entirety of the strongest heroes unite their forces against Shigaraki in the war arc... and he got back up again. 

However, my second reason, to show the central flaw, the Hamartia of Bakugo in this scenario I want to ask the question, why didn’t Deku show up to this battle in the first place? 

I mean physically we know why he’s not there, he got dragged into the wrong portal, and now he’s flying making his way there. However, thematically why is Bakugo essentially fighting alone against AFO, and what does that represent in story. 

By viewing Shigaraki as just a video game boss to be defeated, all of the heroes here, but especially Bakugo are choosing winning rather than saving. Yes, I do think that winning is still important to being a hero, because without winning Deku will just break his own body over and over again trying to save others.

But Deku is the emblematic hero who wants to save everyone. His entire character revolves around the concept of having an overwhelming desire to save that doesn’t follow any logic. Deku saves people without thinking like it’s an urge inside of him. So of course, Deku is absent from a fight where the main strategy is to win against Shigaraki no matter what. Deku is not ther,e and Bakugo leads the fight. 

Bakugo is not only the one who has always prioritized winning, he has also always worshipped All Might as the perfect symbol of victory. 

Shigaraki even calls attention to this fact, when delivering his one-sided beatdown. 

Bakugo worships All-Might’s triumphs, but without Midoriya there to balance him out, Bakugo only thinks about winning and overpowering the enemy. Bakugo’s only focus is victory, and he himself leverages absolutely everything he has against Shigaraki, his biggest move, and it doesn’t work...

Whether you believe Bakugo’s death is going to be permanent or not, there’s also something truly tragic, about the fact that Bakugo even after his full power not being eough to fight Shigaraki, getting back up and trying again, and practically unlocking a new ability in his quirk. He pushes himself to extremes taking down Shigaraki, then pushed himself even further, and even started to threaten Shigaraki all on his own. And then, his heart literally just gives out on him. 

Bakugo gives absolutely everything he has fighting on his own, to achieve the perfect victory against the villains with zero casualties on their side, and he becomes the first casualty himself. 

B/c Bakugo’s philosophy of winning, is only half of the philosophy. Bakugo needs Deku not because he needs a strong quirk or because Deku is stronger than him, but because both of their philosophies when brought together balance each other out enough. It’s not winning, or saving, it’s winning and saving. There is no saving without winning, and there is no winning without saving. If there’s anything to be learned from Deku’s solo arc, is that Deku focused too much on the saving aspect of being a hero, at the expense of himself and taking care of himself, and it’s Bakugo who shows up and not only convinces Deku to come home and accept people’s help and stop sacrificing himself, Bakugo even apologizes to Deku for bullying him all these years in an effort to get him to value himself more. 

Midoriya needs to learn Bakugo’s self-assured image of victory, to be able to save people without feeling the need to sacrifice himself over and over again. However, Bakugo himself hasn’t learned to balance Midoriya’s philosophy with his own. Bakugo even goes halfway to acknowledging that he needs to do things more Midoriya’s way. 

Saving people is how we win. Save by winning, and win by saving. While trying to tell Deku he needs to take care of himself and accept their help, he also accepts Deku’s ideals for the first time, Deku’s method of being a hero is just as valid as him but what they need is to work together. 

So the problem with Bakugo fighting alone in this, isn’t that he’ll never be as strong as Deku, or that he’s like Deku’s supporting character or something, but they haven’t reached a true compromise on their ideals. Saving people is how they win, but Bakugo doesn’t even consider saving Shigaraki the way Deku has, and he instead rushes in guns blazing, and leverages everything he has into winning against a villain.

Not only is Bakugo’s sudden death, emblematic of his flaw that he hasn’t learned to compromise his ideals between him and Deku, to become a hero who surpasses All Might bey winning and saving. Bakugo’s flaw has always been the focus on winning above all else, his own fears of inferiority to Deku and his fear that his beliefs don’t make him a good enough hero which causes him to push himself too far (like maybe I don’t know, charging straight at the villain when he’s already injured in order to prove himself) and only seeing half of what made All Might the greatest hero. I mean even on a tactical front, Shigaraki even asks, why was Bakugo, a long range hero who shoots explosions at people... running in and turning things into a close ranged fight? When trying to blow Shigaraki doesn’t work, it leaves Bakugo open to be physically brutalized, and all the injuries that cause his heart to give out in the first place, are a direct result of Bakugo just... charging straight in and trying to win by overpowering Shigaraki. 

However, Bakugo’s death is also emblematic of the tragic flaws of the heroes as well. By prioritizing winning over everything else, they’ve inadvertantly caused Bakugo’s death. Shigaraki said at the beginning of the fight he no longer thinks Eraserhead is cool. 

What caused Shigaraki to admire Eraserhead in the first place, was his actions of prioritizing the student’s safety above everything else, and fighting on the front lines himself. However, Eraserhead is no longer doing that, and Shigaraki voices the reason for his disappointment this chapter. 

The decision to win at the expense of everything else, for the heroes, and for Bakugo, causes Bakugo himself to put way too much responsibility on his shoulders when he’s just one person, and instead of stepping out of the fight and hanging back when he was too injured to continue, he pushed himself too far and his body gave out on him. The Heroes strategy overall of prioritizing winning against the villains over all else, and refusing to try any other strategy other than overpowering him, causes them to put kids on the front line.

Bakugo’s death, almost works perfectly as an example of a tragic flaw causing a hero to fall. Literally in this case, because Bakugo is a hero, who has quite tragically, fallen in the middle of combat. Whether or not Bakugo can come back, or even he heroes can come back from this as a whole, it will require to heroes to battle against and overcome all the flaws I’ve pointed out in the previous sections of this post. Because that is essentailly what makes the heroes journey, a hero struggling against their flaws until they overcome them.