#bnha chapter 213

[makeste]

Plus One For All

so guys. can we talk about how there’s somebody chilling out inside of Katsuki’s mind who’s not supposed to be there.

hello there Mister All Might Vestige sir. you should not exist, just FYI. you’re not some Nighteye-type plot hallucination. because if you were, you would not be appearing here as Cloud Might, a version of yourself whom Katsuki has never met and has no frame of reference for. ergo he did not imagine you. ergo you are, in fact, real.

which means Katsuki has One For All.

because that’s the only way he could have a Vestige -- which is indisputably what this is -- inside of him. he has OFA. so. where did he get it. how does he have it. and why is it only making its presence known now.

let’s discuss.

okay so I’m going to try and lay this all out as clearly as possible while also attempting to be as succinct as I can. but knowing me, I’m probably going to wind up sacrificing the latter in pursuit of the former. I’ll do my best though. here goes.

1. Heroes Rising is canon.

which is a fact we’ve recently been reminded of not once, but twice -- first with the appearance of Katsuma and Mahoro in chapter 405, and then in chapter 406 with the “Bakugou no Kacchan” callback. the timing of this almost certainly isn’t coincidental. Horikoshi wants this to be fresh in our minds.

mind you, it is extremely unusual for movies, even technically!canon ones, to actually be relevant to the plot. but BnHA may be one of the few exceptions. we’ve already seen movie 1 impact the series both with Star & Stripe’s backstory, and with Deku’s new gauntlets. so there’s precedent, and it’s something I am paying very close attention to.

2. Deku giving OFA to Bakugou is canon.

just in case anyone here hasn’t yet seen or been spoiled for Heroes Rising, that is in fact what happens in that film! so yeah, that certainly seems like an extremely relevant detail right about now.

3. we never found out why and how Deku got OFA back at the end of the movie.

okay so I was looking for a clip to link before we discuss this next part, but I unfortunately couldn’t find one that hadn’t been edited to avoid copyright issues, so you’ll just have to make do with this.

skip ahead to about 7:10 for the relevant part. for the purposes of this theory, we’re just going to ignore everything All Might says here, because tbh he has no fucking clue what’s actually going on and is just guessing wildly lol. however, I do want you to take note of one thing which will be important later. and that’s the fact that, when OFA “returns” to Deku’s body, it’s only his body which starts glowing, and notably not Kacchan’s. the latter just keeps lying there unglowingly. nothing to indicate any kind of transfer is actually happening between him and Deku, in other words.

moving on.

4. OFA and AFO are probably the same quirk.

as summarized here and here. which is relevant because if they are the same quirk, or close to it, then OFA can most likely do anything AFO can do. so file that away for later.

5. AFO was able to split his quirk and give it to Tomura while still keeping a piece of it for himself.

what’s more, he was able to do the same with Garaki/Ujiko’s quirk, and presumably other quirks as well. while it’s possible that this quirk duplication has nothing to do with AFO and is simply something Garaki was able to figure out using ~*~Science~*~, I think it’s more likely that the two of them used AFO’s quirk in some way to accomplish this feat. particularly since Tomura not only received AFO, but a bunch of its stored up quirkdata as well, such as the information stored in Ragdoll’s stolen Search quirk.

6. OFA responds to Deku’s feelings and desires.

or at least this is the case according to Banjou in chapter 213. recall this interesting conversation on how Deku first activated Blackwhip.

he was thinking that he wanted to capture Monoma, and so OFA obediently activated his “capture Monoma” quirk. despite him being unaware he even had said quirk. it responded to his need, even though he wasn’t consciously trying to activate anything.

now then, let’s revisit that scene in Heroes Rising one more time.

7. during the climax of Heroes Rising, Deku was NOT thinking, “I need to give OFA to Kacchan.”

here’s the scene one more time for reference. this time you’re gonna want to skip to about 3:57.

here’s where we are going to get extremely technical, because this scene right here is the key to everything. Deku’s lines in this scene are, and I quote: “a way we can protect [everyone]... there’s just one way...!” but he very notably does not specify exactly what that “one way” is.

until we get to this scene a minute or so later, which spells it out for us very clearly.

two One For Alls. as in, “with two One For Alls, we could win this battle and save everyone.”

that’s what he was thinking at the moment of the “transfer.” NOT, “give OFA to Kacchan.” but, “we need two One For Alls.”

which, I think, may have made all the difference.

8. OFA created a copy of itself to share with Kacchan, so that both of them could have OFA and use the two OFAs to defeat Nine.

let’s recap. OFA is AFO. AFO can clone itself. so it stands to reason that OFA can presumably clone itself as well. and that’s exactly what Deku wanted to do. make a second One For All.

he didn’t know that he could do that. but as previously established in the Blackwhip incident, OFA is more than capable of making its own executive decisions in key moments just like this in order to help him out.

which would mean that what we saw at the end of Heroes Rising was not OFA being transferred from Bakugou back over to Deku. it was actually just Deku’s OFA briefly self-activating (possibly in response to his delirious apology to All Might -- kind of a “no worries bro, you’ve still got your quirk actually, so go back to sleep and stop stressing over it” type of thing). and Kacchan’s OFA doing... absolutely nothing. it didn’t actually transfer back into Deku. it didn’t actually go anywhere.

let me repeat that: it didn’t actually go anywhere.

in other words, Kacchan still has OFA. and has had it ever since Heroes Rising. he just didn’t realize it. and neither did anybody else.

9. Kacchan’s OFA went dormant once Nine was defeated.

okay, so. remember all of this exposition from chapter 304?

basically, if someone who already has a quirk receives OFA, using it will slowly destroy their body until it kills them. the Vestiges learned this from All Might while he was researching the past generations of OFA in chapter 241, incidentally. Heroes Rising takes place right around this same time (immediately following MVA if I recall). so by the time the film’s climax rolled around, the Vestiges would have known that giving OFA to Kacchan could have devastating consequences down the line if they did not take action immediately after the fight.

so they did.

once Nine was defeated, the Vestiges shut the whole thing down. the crisis was averted, and they no longer had need of a second OFA. they have this boy who is way too similar to Deku in terms of his willingness to put himself in harm’s way in order to achieve his goals. and they absolutely do not want any harm befalling this boy. more on that momentarily.

so they go dark. and they even seal his memory so that he’s no longer aware of even having the quirk. they are essentially in sleep mode. and if circumstances hadn’t eventually become desperate enough to force their hand, they might have remained inactive for the rest of Katsuki’s life.

now, you might be wondering to yourself, “why is OFA willing to go to such unusual lengths in order to protect Katsuki?” and well, the answer to that is pretty simple.

10. Kacchan does not have the same version of OFA as Deku.

Deku is ninth gen. Katsuki, however, is tenth gen. which means that his version of OFA has one additional Vestige. a Vestige whose presence immediately explains why OFA is so goddamn determined to protect him at all costs.

:’)

long story short, while Deku’s version of OFA has proven itself all too willing to enable him in his increasingly suicidal mission, Katsuki’s version of OFA is very much a different story, on account of it being under the management of what I’m guessing is the most willful Vestige ever to exist. and said management being just the slightest bit unhinged when it comes to Katsuki’s safety in particular. seriously, you can’t tell me this is not exactly how a Deku!Vestige would behave. “oh hell no. no OFA for you!! and no memories either, because you can’t be trusted, goddammit. we never should have done this. what the hell were we thinking. if anything happens to him I will kill everyone in this room and then myself.”

so yeah. dormant.

right up until they literally couldn’t afford to be anymore.

11. OFA can self-activate in moments of crisis to protect its user.

Sports Festival. chapter 33. Deku vs. Shinsou.

aw yeah. it’s all coming together.

12. OFA reactivated itself in order to save Katsuki’s life.

I would now like to briefly draw your attention to this scene from chapter 405, in which Edgeshot explains how Katsuki was finally saved. please note my man is very clear that he did not restart Katsuki’s heart himself. he was basically just performing quirk CPR up until Katsuki’s own quirk returned him to life apropros of nothing.

“what brought you back... was the power you’ve honed.”

except... that should have been impossible. because Katsuki was dead. meaning he should not have been able to activate his quirk on his own, on account of the whole “being dead” thing.

however, if he by chance had a quirk with just enough of a mind of its own to activate in critical situations in order to help its user. situations like being forced under mind control. or, perhaps, being stabbed through the heart. well then. that would certainly go a long way towards explaining all of this.

and oh hey, when exactly was it that we saw this guy, again?

oh? it happened at the exact moment when his heart was stabbed through? you don’t say. well that certainly is interesting.

in summary:

Deku cloned his quirk in Heroes Rising and gave Kacchan a copy of OFA. owing to the hyperprotective Deku!Vestige inside Kacchan’s copy of OFA, it shut itself down once Nine was defeated, and all of Katsuki’s memories of having OFA were deliberately wiped, or sealed away. OFA itself remained inactive until TomurAFO stabbed Katsuki through the heart, at which point OFA was forced to reactivate itself to save his life. which it did, by forcibly restarting his heart.

that’s it. no idea how close to the money any of this is, but I think it would explain most of the lingering mysteries and questions about what exactly is going on with Katsuki. and I’ll throw in one last observation as well -- Katsuki has a nine in his name (BaKUgou), but not a ten. which I know sort of contradicts what I was saying earlier about him being the tenth gen, lol. but he both is and isn’t. if Deku split his quirk, Kacchan would in theory receive everything that’s currently in Deku’s quirk right now, and that includes Deku’s own power that he’s been adding to the mix. so he’d still have the Deku!Vestige. but he’s also still ninth gen, because he and Deku are sharing that distinction now. or at least I think the argument could be made at any rate.

so yeah. I’ve been obsessing over all of this for the past few days lol. what do you guys think?

[s0ggy-b0nes]

[honeytrappaz]

chapter 213 is not bad writing

so izuku got 7 different quirks, yes it sounds like a thing you’d hear from a OP deviantart OC, but let’s think this through. i know people ALWAYS complain when a character becomes OP in some way and i can understand why, i get how an OP character is bad writing. But, my hero academia already had OP characters to begin with. all might and AFO and even izuku are OP characters in some way, but horikoshi has a special way of writing his op characters:

“they’re hella op...but not really.”

horikoshi gives OP consequences to OP characters, showing that they too are vulnerable.

Izuku in some way was already OP once he got OFA, he’s OP, but the consequences are just as OP...like breaking all his bones.

now that izuku has 7 different powers, he also has 7 different consequences.

to me, that’s a fair and good way to write a OP character, that’s not bad writing. actually, it’s great writing because now we can go in deph about OFA.

We have more space to explore OFA and all the quirks within it. and as izuku discovers each quirk, he discovers more about not only each holder, but he’ll discover more about AFO, Toshinori, Nana and all the mysteries behind OFA. I think this is going to be great for the plot even is it’s OP, because we finally have a chance to get our questions about OFA answered.

Also, now these 7 quirks means that izuku has more to explore in his fighting techniques, but what im really interested in is his classmates.

Having the quirk he has (OFA) already looks crazy to the eyes of class 1A and it’s still a secret, but once izuku masters it, surely his classmates will become suspicious? what will their reactions be? especially how would bakugou react since he knows about OFA. and it seems like AFO has plans for izuku as well, so I think this makes the story much more flexible and can bring opportunities for new plot details we all want.

good job horikoshi!

[bakugoukatsuki-rising]

My dudes

If we thought deku broke a lot of bones with just one quirk

Now he gets to break em with six different ones

Our poor boi

[rosiebrie]

Chapter 213 in a nutshell.

I hope you all appreciate this because my computer had a fucking stroke while making it

[maagicmiss]

BNHA Chapter 213 in a nutshell

Izuku, age 6 : *crying* pleeeease I want only one (1) quirk !! I want to be a hero !!

Izuku, age 16 : *Getting yelled at by some guy* What the fuck I have now 6 quirks ???

[junionigiri]

chapter 213 ramble

admittedly, this chapter was kinda eh for me and made me ask a lotta important questions:

- is Deku the first OFA user to realize that it’s not just one quirk but a stockpile of quirks?

- Why not All Might? Is it because All Might didn’t have anyone like Shinsou around him?

- if so, how important is Shinsou gonna be for Deku’s future?

- Why does the Black Whip look too much like the stuff coming out of AFO? is it just a limitation of how it was illustrated or did Hori just. Make this up on the fly

- Am I going to enjoy BNHA the same way knowing that Deku is ridiculously overpowered like this because I’m really not sure how to feel about this

- Will Ochako ever be seen as anything else but a support for Deku T_T

- How cool is Monoma surfin’ on that giant nut? (… is there a better term than nut)

- How cute is Yui going “Yup?” (my goooorl)

- How awesome are the kids to keep on fighting anyways? (Monoma ain’t an ass for keeping at it, okay, nobody really understood wtf happened to Deku and he probably hasn’t ruled out the possibility that Deku’s acting to catch them off-guard??)

- Is it right for the fans to claim that Aizawa was OOC in this chapter? (I didn’t think he was–I think apart from All Might, he is one of the faculty who has the most interest in the outcome of group 5′s battle because of his son)

- Are we ever gonna have longer chapters than this one man huhuhu

- Will 1B ever shine?????????????/ Come on let them win Hori

[hoechii]

Me reading chapter 213 after months of research on the OFA theory:

[astronomic-explorer]

So in chapter 213 of bnha, when Midoriya learns that he’s going to be gaining six new quirks, one of the previous holders of ofa tells him about their quirk, and how it gains strength based on his emotions. Quirks being affected by the users emotions isn’t anything new to the series, we’ve seen it once before, in our favorite emo bird, Tokoyami. What I’m saying here, is what if Deku tells Tokoyami about how his quirk is controlled by emotions, and Toko helps him gain more control from his own experiences? I don’t really know, I just think it would be a fun dynamic.

[ncko-art]

oh, you thought it was hard when deku had to control one quirk? well, get ready for now he has to control six lmao

[tarafedele]

IM YELLING AT CHAPTER 213

[natsvos]

My two takeaways from the chapter 213 spoilers

[anjuschiffer]

Actually that would be very interesting if it turns out that way.

All Might has mentioned seeing them, but he was never been able to talk to them.

If Izuku was the first one to be able to talk to them, do you realize how much power was given to him? His Quirk adjusting and mutating?

He's going to be a whole new type of Hero and person at that. The first to have a multi-Quirk that mutates at its own will due to its surrounds/mission.

But then that raises the question: if he's at 20 percent of OFA, does that mean that Izuku has already tapped into the other Quirks without realizing it?

[momokikis]

@ppl who said deku would have lost his arm:

[pedestrianfootbridge]

I’m not going to write if off immediately or anything, but I don’t really like where this “multiple quirks on top of OfA super strength” thing is headed :\

[rosiebrie]

bnha ch. 213 spoilers

HOLY SHIT

DEKU HAS ACCESS TO PREVIOUS USER'S QUIRKS TOO? GODDAMN

THIS MAKES ME SO FUCKING EXCITED

(on one hand though, how are they gonna pass this incident off to those who saw it and don't know Deku has OfA? He is technically registered with some "strength enhancing" quirk right? But that OfA user's quirk, and most likely the ones that still need to be discovered, don't fit that at all. And as Deku needs to start training to control them as well, it will only heighten suspicion. Could this be leading to announcing to everyone about the truth of Deku's power?)