#exactly WHAT WOULD BE THE PURPOSE OF SHIGARAKI BEING DEFEATED BY BAKUGOU?!

[epickiya722]

Shaking my head at something I saw. Like... Katsuki already done enough so far, even rooted for Izuku last chapter. Y'all can't do the same for Izuku? Like, can Izuku now get his chance to shine again? HE ALREADY GOT ONE OF HIS QUIRKS TAKEN!!

LIKE, LET THE MAIN CHARACTER DO HIS MAIN CHARACTER THING!

[linkspooky]

thoughts on a possible redemption arc for endeavor?

I mean to me the point of Endeavor’s character has always been a good hero can be a bad person, hence one why he’s a foil to Bakugou. Who was somebody who was a good hero and even had a spotless record and good behavior in class for the most part beause he wanted to get into UA without anything holding him back. However, at the same time he was the same kind of person who would constantly explode at Deku and be brutal towards him in order to work out his own insecurity, ie, bullying behaviors that could have grown into something much worse when he was older. 

So, Endeavor suddenly resolving to become a good hero kind of already conflicts my reading of his character. However, there’s a second thing I have reservations about. Which is why it’s so interesting Todoroki’s other sibling got introduced this chapter.

Endeavor wanting to be better to Shouto doesn’t really matter so much, because Shouto as always kind of been Endeavor’s main focus, much to Shouto’s detriment. Shouto’s older brother basically says that he doesn’t even remember Endeavor as a father, because Endeavor never really cared about his other three children in the first place because they weren’t going to carry on his legacy. 

So any ammends he makes with just Todoroki, and any ammends he makes just because he became the top hero now and he wants to do better, are kind of empty because Endeavor’s still operating out of that same framework of thinking that drove him to treat Shouto and his other siblings this way in the first place.

I mean Endeavor even says as much. “My drive to be number one drove me to absolute despair and to do these terrible things...” so I’m not exactly sure how a neat resolution to that is “now that I’m number one I’m driven to be better.” Those two ideas contradict one another. Which might be the point. 

If the challenge to Endeavor is to hold everything in now, then I’d have to see exactly that to believe any of it. It’s convenient for him to declare that he’s going to face everything head on, and then just continue to punch bad guys as he always did, but that wasn’t the problem. As I said before Endeavor wronged the whole family, because you can’t just have three other kids and not care about them because they weren’t born the way you wanted them to be born. Which is why I’m starting to find the Dabi Todoroki theory even more and more likely, I mean since both of Todoroki’s older siblings are ice users can you imagine Endeavor reacint got his first born son being born only with his quirk? The quirk that couldn’t surpass all might? 

Dabi being the one to expose what Endeavor did to the whole world, and also to be the embodiment of what Endeavor did to his family leaving permanent scars works almost perfectly for that kind of arc. It also tests if Endeavor really is serious about holding it all, because it would mean holding it even his children who went far off the beaten path and he couldn’t stay a traditional hero who defeats baddies and still be able to rescue them. 

At the same time in foiling endeavor with Hawks (who is now my fourth favorite character in the manga in three whole chapters, just, by the way) we see another set up of the classic divide the manga gives us. A hero who tries to save everybody, and a hero who just punches villains. Endeavor just engages the Noumo right away, while Hakws focuses entirely on evacuation and makes sure everybody in the building is safe first. Hawks is also, you know, a good person so write that down too. 

Like, the parallel between Endeavor’s mentorship of Todoroki isn’t All Might and Deku, it’s Shigaraki and All For One. Endeavor basically only cares about Todoroki as somebody to carry on his legacy, he basically only conceived of him for this purpose and this purpose alone. The same way that while All for One is kind to Shigaraki, and a good mentor, he only rescued the child in the first place to use him, and so no matter what their relationship will always be abusive because he doesn’t care about Shigaraki as a person, just an instrument of his legacy and a tool to destroy all might with. 

Which like I said, the fact that All for One and Endeavor have that in common underlines the point that a good hero isn’t necessarily a good person which is the original point of his character. I don’t think being a good hero absolves him in any way of what he did, or resolving to be a better hero will somehow fix things. 

It’d require those two things I listed above, Endeavor breaking out of his boxed perceptions of the world that what matters is hero rankings, and also Endeavor being exposed and actually having to deal with the consequences of what he did to other people, and having to reach out to his whole family that he destroyed not just Shouto in order to be even  somewhat believable. 

But it definitely is a thing happening in the text whether I want it to or not, so really all I can do is keep reading and comment on it as it happens. It would take a lot of narrative consequences for it to believable though. This is just me talking from the perspective of “Will this work as an arc in a narrative” because, as I said my reading of Endeavor’s setup has always been he’s a bad person but a good hero, so it’s strange to suddenly change tracks like that and make him a good hero, rather than just make him an example of why the hero system is flawed in the first place. 

So like TLDR: as I’ve said in many recent discussions with @bloodycarnations Dabi could make it work... I guess... but it’s still kind of strange to me why we even need to go on this path with Endeavor because the original purpose of his character was being an example of a bad person but a good hero. As a reader too I much more care about the feelings of  Endeavor’s victims, then Endeavor’s man pain over what he did to other people, or him finally feeling bad about it twenty years after the fact. So, if this was all working as set up to an arc where Dabi’s emotions get the main focus rather than Endeavor’s and Endeavor is confronted with the negative embodiment of what he did to his family than it could work... 

[atsumus]

Theory time: What if Monoma Neito is a traitor?

I’m saying “a” traitor since I’m on board with the theories that there is at least one traitor in class A, but this is a completely different topic. So, about Monoma.. let’s briefly talk about his personality at first:

(it’s a little long, so read more!)

To make it short, he is introduced during the sports festival (in chapter 28) as someone who I would describe as smart, rational, calm, collected, and sly. Just look at the following panel:

This clearly shows how calculating he is, and that he is aiming for victory in the long run. He is good at observing and strategising, and since he had thought of this plan for all of class B, he is good at orchestrating and leading people to some extent too. 

According to the official character book, his intelligence is 5/5, and he also shows how clever he is when he immediately gets Uraraka’s plan during her fight against Bakugou in chapter 36.

Besides that, his word choice is pretty much always meant to be provoking and makes him seem quite sarcastic and arrogant from time to time too. He purposely riles up Bakugou during the sports festival, and in general, he does that all the time; picking fights, provoking people, making fun of them etc.

However, this intense side of him isn’t what’s shown most of the time. A little later, we get to see his other side: loud, dorky, silly, obnoxious, boisterous, annoying, overly confident, an idiot. Just look at his face and you’ll know what I mean by this:

There are three instances in which people say about him that he isn’t exactly right in the head. I think it’s Kaminari who says that Monoma “has got a few loose screws” in chapter 121, and Kaminari also says in chapter 102 that he “might actually have a mental condition”. In chapter 74 Monoma is asked if he is okay, like mentally okay, by Kirishima (I think it’s him who says it at least). 

Or well, consider this scene from chapter 121:

Yep, I’m sure you got the gist of what I meant by “his other side”, but enough talk about him as a character, let’s talk about my theory. The thing that made me suspicious is the following panel from chapter 60:

We all know this guys runs his mouth all the time, but considering that just shortly after that they actually get caught up in an incident together with class A makes it look like it might be some sort of foreshadowing. What I’m talking about is, of course, the boot camp at the forest lodge where the villains attack. 

In the night of the attack before the test of courage starts (in chapter 74), Aizawa comes to collect the “remedial gang” from class A, and they go to the facility for the lessons, and.... guess who’s there?

Exactly, Monoma. We don’t know which exam he failed, but during the sports festival he has proven to be smart. Of course, that doesn’t mean he has good grades, but for someone who keeps talking about wanting to be better than class A, I can hardly believe he didn’t study and fail the written part.

As for the practical test, we don’t know who he was up against and who his partner was, but considering he has a strong and versatile quirk (copy cat, I didn’t mention that previously) and no one else from his class failed, it looks a little suspicious too. And that reminds me of chapter 30..

All Might also says something about Bakugou in this regard, and I’m quoting it here because the panels are too large and I don’t want to include them: “Bakugou, my boy, even without needing anyone to tell you, you’re grasping it instinctively! The difference between those who don’t necessarily aim for the top all of the time and those who always do.”

What I’m trying to say is that Monoma is obviously clever, but he isn’t exactly trying that hard to become a hero. He talks, and talks, and talks about how much he hates class A and how much better class B is and so on and so forth, but his actions don’t really match with it. 

But back to the incident, chapter 78 in this case.. Monoma either doesn’t care who the villains are targeting or he is pretending to not know who it is:

Do you see how fucking distressed or at least tense everyone else looks? Of course, those from class A know who “Kacchan” is, that makes matters worse for them, but Monoma looks way too chill and indifferent. They’re being attacked, and that would be “so scary”, right? What’s up with that guy?

Also, please consider who the villains are targeting... Bakugou, someone Monoma could bear a personal grudge against. Monoma detests class A, especially Bakugou, who declared that he was going to win the sports festival and then actually did. Bakugou, who defeated and humiliated Monoma during the cavalry battle. 

Now let’s take a look at what he says in the beginning of chapter 29:

I don’t know if it’s just the translation, but what the fuck is this dude even saying?! He sounds so sarcastic! In this situation he is clearly talking about himself as the hero, who is acting “unlike a hero” in this case, riling up the villain, Bakugou. 

Let’s take a look at it the other way around, though.. Bakugou, who is dead set on becoming a hero, puts in more effort than Monoma and steals all his headbands, therefore sparking a grudge in Monoma, the villain, and gets attacked in reprisal.

No, I don’t think Monoma, even if he is a traitor, is influential enough among the villains to decide something like their target, but he’s smart and sly, so he might have suggested to attack the camp, sent out their location, and also suggested to abduct Bakugou. 

We know that all the villains still tend to act on their own personal motives now and then despite following a leader and a plan now, so that’s just what he did. The fact that Shigaraki then decided to try and win Bakugou over probably wasn’t what Monoma wanted or he already guessed Bakugou would turn them down and hoped that he might get killed instead.

To be honest, I really like Monoma as a character, he is actually my favourite from class B, but all of this is just odd. All his stupid faces and bragging and being loud and obnoxious could very well be just show to cover up his true intentions. 

We get to see him being intense and even kind of frightening now and then, and whenever we get panels like that, he has a huge shadow covering most of his face, making him look lowkey evil. 

Moreover, considering that he isn’t exactly all that important to the story except for what happened during the cavalry battle, he continues to appear fairly often, and if someone from class B talks, it’s mostly him. He pops up again, again, and again out of nowhere, picking fights with members of class A.

Also, we didn’t get any sort of backstory or background information for him yet? A lot of minor characters who play a somewhat important role in the plot get a backstory or at least someone tells us something about them.. for example, the flashbacks we got for Shinsou, Mirio, and Amajiki or the way we’re told that Hatsume will be important in the future since she is very dedicated to what she does. And Monoma? Nothing.

I think he isn’t relevant enough to the story to be the main traitor or something like that, but I noticed these things, and I think he’s at least somewhat suspicious.. and I’ve definitely seen wilder traitor theories floating around, so I decided to just leave this here :D