#he just thinks Izuku snatched an intelligence quirk and that's why he's so smart

[bootlickerhawks]

I don't know if it is a bit too late but could you do AFO for the character ask game? I just want to hear your thoughts about him.

/!\ 900 words of Pure Salt under the cut /!\

Hoo boy where to even begin...

AFO is a character that worked really well at the start of BNHA but now, the more time he spends on screen the more he drags the story down :/

AFO falls under the very hard to execute character archetype "all according to my keikaku" (i know there's an official name for it but shh) . These types of characters only work well when the plan is comprehensible and "simple". Allow me to elaborate with one of the best executed, imo, example: Sousuke Aizen. 

(spoilers for Bleach and more specifically the Soul Society arc, skip the orange text to avoid spoilers)   

Aizen completed 2 key steps that allowed the rest of his plan to run smoothly: he managed to hypnotize all the captains and lieutenants with his "shikai presentation" and he assassinated central 46 who serve as the judicial authority in Soul Society. So while the rest of his plan is complex it's believable for the readers because of the 2 key steps I mentioned.   

To the reader’s knowledge, AFO’s plan for the longest time was to troll All Might, recover and gather more quirks, and most importantly, to raise Tomura to be the Symbol of Fear. Now we know that raising Tomura was a facade in order to body snatch him because he needs “hatred” to obtain OFA. Also he wants to become the Übermensch Capitalist Demon Lord… cuz of Reasons. 

The problem with AFO isn’t his plan, that’s fine it’s boring but serviceable, the problem is that he makes decisions that work against his own interests. Let’s list some:

He refuses to take BJ’s quirk because it “wouldn’t suit Tomura” even though he planned on taking over Tomura’s body anyway. (I will concede that this one is nitpicky because it’s likely Hori hadn’t fully committed to the bodysnatch plotline and wanted to keep his doors open.) 

For some inconceivable reason he doesn’t take Overhaul (the quirk). This becomes especially bizarre if you take into account the theory that Chisaki was one of the kids in Ujiko’s orphanages. AFO wouldn’t have lost against All Might in the fight 5 years ago if he had had Overhaul! He would have been able to heal himself! And even if you disregard that theory, why take a risky gamble with Rewind now when he could have just taken Overhaul during the prison break?!!!!   

Hori is good at writing perceptive and observant characters (Izuku and Bakugou being good examples of this), but, and what I’m abt to say isn’t meant to disparage Horikoshi but uh… he’s not the best at writing smart characters. 

A good example of this is Hawks’ coded message to Endeavor. Full offense to Skeptic but if I was in charge of surveilling Hawks I would have known right away that something was up when Hawks kept insisting that Endeavor read the “highlighted parts” of the manifesto in chapter 245. Plus Hawks’ code was basic af but that could be explained away by Hawks’ thinking that Endeavor’s an idiot.  

Other examples include Deku’s revelation to start kicking instead of punching, and Endeavor’s advice to *checks notes* “learn to multitask”. 

Hori frames these instances as being a lot more clever than they really are. And honestly that’s fine, at the end of the day they’re just small plot points. But it does show Hori’s difficulty writing intelligent characters, which becomes a problem when writing a character like AFO. He's supposed to be smarter than the rest of the cast, he's supposed to have planned for every contingency and yet, as I’ve pointed above, he makes stupid mistakes which makes that hard to swallow.

But of course this isn’t where our problems end! AFO biggest crime isn’t murder, or kidnapping or grooming a traumatized child to be his sockpuppet. No no no no… his biggest crime is that he’s BORING AS HELL 😩

What do we know about AFO? 

He’s over 100 years old

He had a little brother and he still has hang ups about him 

He’s a petty manipulative egomaniac 

He won’t shut up abt a comic book he read with his brother as a kid 

This would be fine if he weren’t the Final Fucking Villain! 

And to add salt to the wound AFO’s continued existence has deprived us of the best character in bnha, Shigaraki, for over 50 chapters. 

This is the part where I feel conflicted. Because it does make sense for AFO’s character to refuse to relinquish his empire to Shigaraki. It makes sense for AFO, an egomaniac from a bygone era, to refuse to move on.  

I’ve seen people argue that it ruins the parallels between All Might/Deku and AFO/Shigaraki. And I can definitely understand that argument but it makes more sense than if AFO just gave everything away to an immature, at the time, kid that he groomed. 

So on a textual level I’m fine with the plot development of AFO Norting Shigaraki but as a reader it’s frustrating to watch because AFO sucks on all levels :/ 

AFO used to be entertaining at least, throwing All Might’s catchphrase to his face during the Kamino fight was funny as hell. But recently he’s just been throwing quips around like an MCU character 🤮 “iN tHe oLd CoMic I uSeD tO rEaD tHeRe WeRe JoBbEr ChArAcTeRs WhO oNLy ExIsTeD So ThE dEmOn LoRd CoULd ShOw WhAt He WaS mADE Of” Someone pls rip his tongue out I’m begging 😭

It's a shame cuz there are conceptual aspects of AFO's character that I enjoy: his opportunistic nature, his pettiness, "oopsie daisy" as cringe as it is could have been better if Hori leaned more into AFO's old-timiness, even his stupid comic book references could have been a nice subversion of the typical "villain monologues and quotes classic literature" trope if executed better.

[ravelights]

Izuku travels back in time fix it AU...with a twist.

11 pm idea that hit me one night (might have been done before but hey, here's my turn at the idea) Izuku is transported back into his Five year old self, and has the chance to do everything all over again; and makes things right this time...

But there are several problems getting in the way of saving everyone, namely that he's a quirkless five year old, that has none of his friends, allies or strength he had in his teens. All of them don't know he exist, plus half of them are toddlers. There's also a lot of stuff that won't happen until much later, not to mention he isn't sure how a lot of stuff came to be. He has no idea how Dabi survived were toga grew up, and Tomura has already killed his family four years prior and is living somewhere with All for One.

He knows won't get OFA until he's fifteen, and he's not even sure he might this time around. Because changing history means that All Might won't get injured and never have a reason to pass it on. Getting it when he's four would be impossible since he's young, and because people might not believe him when he say's he from the future, and can he blame them?

So after thinking over all the options, Izuku decides that if he can't be a hero, then he's going to be a villain...or at least pretend to be one so that he can stop the villains before they become huge threats. Basically Izuku decides to fight fire with fire, which he cranks up to 100 because he know a way to get a strong power that could go toe to toe with All for One and the person to go to get it from.

So Izuku sneaks into All for One doctors office and get's a hold of the replica of All for One quirk, with added hijinks. Now Izuku my have the replica nicely stored away in a glass tube, but he doesn't know how to acquire it... so he just decides to eat it because it worked the first time.

It's not meant to work like that, but for Izuku it does, after falling sick for like three days. Because eating a quirk wasn't the best idea. But who cares Izuku now got All for One, foresight on future events and his New villain career to kick off at the ripe old age of five.

And boy does he go off with a bang, by breaking Nagant out of Tartarus (Izuku needed a body guard, and Nagant was innocent), convincing hawks to run away from the HC (it was Nagant idea really) and recruiting the number two hero eldest son (Well Toya more recruited himself) among other things.

This unsurprisingly, this get's All for One's attention, but Izuku sure that he won't get caught because who would expect "quirkless five year old Deku" to the the next be up and coming villain? Apparently All for One, because the guy awkwardly walks in to his preschool one day, picks him up and is both quite shocked and amused to find this villain, that's been causing the Hero commission so much strife, is just a four year old boy.

Izuku thinks this might be the end, but instead of snipping of this bud before it grow, All for One decides he'll let Izuku keep doing what he's doing, because the whole things amusing. Except Izuku still "only a baby, not quite a big bad villain yet" so All for One will be "probably supervising" Izuku growth into villainy.

Izuku doesn't know weather to yell in joy at getting a one up on All for One or scream in anguish that now he's got the worst villain in the world making him his personal pet project.

Izuku decides to burn that bridge when he get's there.

I have more of this AU if anyone wants to know about it, but just baby toddler villain Izuku getting followed around by his older villain father, during his first errands. All dress up in his preschool uniform carry several books on "how to commit crimes and get away with it" well telling AFO to buzz off.

[foundouthatdabiistouyatodoroki]

Explaining Dabi's stats

I’ve seen a lot of people complain about the BNHA stats of the characters from the data book, mainly because it’s hard to understand what the stats behind the characters really mean. I’m here to explain the stats to help people get a better understanding below.

Power: Strong can mean strength, but power is something different all together. When describing strong and power, those are two different things. Power means how much power goes in a quirk and how much power a quirk has. Power in the stats is about the destructive potential to create damage in the surrounding area. This also notes effective it is to use on someone.

Speed: Speed focuses on how fast someone can be. This also includes describing someone with having flexibility, agility, and quick reflexes.

Technique: This is about how creative you can use the quirk to the fullest potential and how resourceful you can get with it.

Intelligence: What’s in intelligence? How can you describe how smart someone is? Well, intelligence could be explained in various ways! For example: using sophisticated calculation to predict your opponent's movements, formulating brilliant strategies, making precise predictions, having keen intuition and observation skills, excellent ability to deduce your opponents, resourcefulness in utilizing your surroundings and situation, able to figure out ways to maneuver your enemies, figuring out the mechanisms of a quirk, perceptiveness and evaluation skills on people their personalities and mental states. Describing Intelligence in other people would be cunningness, analytical skills, and having a great memory.

Cooperation: As Chiyo mentioned in a panel, cooperation is about being able to work well with someone to a certain degree.

Now that I’m done explaining time for Dabi’s states.

Power:

Let me start with the first Dabi’s of states: Power. The power of his quirk is up to four, which is pretty high considering what it does. Dabi’s flames are extremely hot; their temperature is higher than normal which is signified by blue flames, blue being very high heat. Dabi’s quirk is really destructive as seen when he set beasts forest ablaze, destroying everything around them in the process.

Dabi’s quirk has proved to be powerful, destructive, and deadly, able to kill or seriously injure anyone. He is able to incarcerate a group of thugs in the alley in mere seconds with his quirk.

Hell he even generates large a wall of flames. People around it called it hot.

Four in the stats is considered really powerful but why did it stop at only four? Take Kirishima and Shoto for example: Shoto has two weaknesses when using quirk (if he uses his ice side too long he will get frostbite), and Kirishima’s hardening has a limit: when he takes too much damage his hardening will dissolve slowly and loses stamina in the process. So what kind of setback does Dabi have when using his quirk? That is left to be seen.

Speed:

*Before we go over this first let me talk about what three means in stats. Three in stats in bnha means “average” if you see the states of the Pro Hero Manual you can see that all of his stats are three. Fitting since he is the Normal Hero "Manual”.

I admit when it comes to speed Dabi is not too fast. This is seen when he was subdued easily by Eraserhead and Vlad king got knocked out by Gran Torino the speedy old geezer.

Dabi isn’t fast when compared to people who are quicker than him even when competing against pros with high speed value. Even though he’s not quick, he has good reflexes an example of it is when he warned Mr Compress to dodge, succeeded in injuring Mezo and Izuku in the process, with an exception of Shoto, who dodged his attacks.

He also caught Katsuki from Shoto’s hands who is agile and fast in class 1A. Dabi is fast enough to catch Katsuki in front of Shoto.

His reflexes are good not fast but good.

Technique:

We haven’t seen how creative Dabi can use his quirk only in short instances. He burns down beasts in the forest, creates fireballs, and manipulate the flames around him.

Dabi fires a straight line of fire towards the police vehicle that hold Overhaul.

He creates a wall of flames surrounding Endeavor and Hawks. We don’t see how much he used his quirk.

If taking about if he uses his surroundings he hasn’t done more than what he actually should. Dabi didn’t squeeze out the uses from the members of the Vanguard action squad he needed too. He never fully utilizes their abilities to his full advantage except when he asked Twice to make him clones he didn’t do more than that. I’m not saying he’s terrible in Technique; I’m saying he should do more with it.

Intelligence:

Okay now for Intelligence. Remember Tomura left Dabi in charge of the vanguard action squad with no intention if the league failed the mission or not but to create cracks in society.

Dabi’s entire plan was to distract the pros and trap the students. Dabi didn’t give the Vanguard squad specific orders and is vague in instructions he’s giving them. He didn’t provide specific command to carry out lets them run lose. Dabi doesn’t use his teammates’ abilities to his full advantage. He lets them wonder around the forest. When his own plan is to distract the pros by using Twice’s clones, he left the members to do the rest of  the work.

Dabi doesn’t know half of the students quirks. Dabi knows about Snatch’s quirk because he saw it used from the vehicle around the police car.

He didn’t even know that the students would fight back or defend themselves. Dabi almost forgot about the nomu he run free he’s not an experienced leader seen him forgetting about the nomu shows he cannot multitask.

He even forgot snatch for crying out loud until later.

Dabi is not coordinated he may of completed the mission with three casualties and no injures on the villain side but he lost three villains with powerful quirks. Even Overhaul took notice of this. If you look at his planning from a strategic standpoint, it’s sloppy in many areas. echo drops pointed it out right here Dabi is utterly careless such as when he accidentally caused the league of villains location to be revealed.

Even left the people he killed out in the open.

He set high end on Endeavor an advanced nomu which was defeated by him he wasted a perfectly good nomu he wasted a good amount of the league of villains resources. you could argue that he’s a terrible strategist he not mindful of his resources and not think too deeply on the outcome of the circumstances.

However Dabi is far from unintelligent as I said before about three in states three means average.  People who had three for intelligence were not unsmart. Manual asked Ida if he was going after the hero killer because he knew that was why Ida chose his office. Uraraka is perceptive and blunt seen when understanding Bakugou behavior towards Izuku. She was the first to find out that Izuku’s quirk is going out of control even acted on it.

Despite Dabi being careless when it comes to crime and the league of villains, he isn’t careless at all when it comes to people.

Dabi is observant of his surroundings and of other people around him. Dabi questions if the league of villains really supports the cause doubts when they are allowing Himiko to join. Express his discomfort at Himiko’s insanity when she first introduced herself.

He is shown to be quick to defend himself when he knows he going to be attack like when tomura attacked them. He commented at Tomura’s behavior after Tomura left.

Hence, Dabi is good at people he’s good at seeing through other emotions of people. For example. when he taunts Vlad King, he  says he knows how the hot-blooded Vlad would act and Eraserhead for protecting his students.

Cutiesableye explained what that meant. He’s good at reading people he knew Bakugou is to attack when Tomura didn’t.

Dabi saw though Shotos stoic nature at a first glance place taunting him that famous line.

Dabi doesn’t completely trust hawks when hawks said was working for the league of villains during their partnership.

he may not be a coordinating strategist but his only dangerous ability if his ability to read other people you would see it many times in the manga.

Cooperation:

How his cooperation is up to four as I previously mentioned about cooperation doesn’t mean how social and outgoing someone is but how to work well with someone despite their differences. Dabi is not social at all. He keeps things to himself. Dabi isn’t very close to the league of villains like when calling them psychos and nutjobs and other undesirable nicknames. He shows irritation and uneasiness working with them.

However Dabi will set aside his personal feelings corporate with the league of villains to complete his own agenda as seen after Tomura attacks them when they first met he works with them despite calling him a brat. With the Vanguard action squad he refers to them as “nut jobs” he works with them to achieve his objectives. He has no problem working alongside with anyone as seen with Twice, whom he relies on to keep the pros at bay. Because of Dabi’s own cooperation with the League he was able to complete the mission in capturing Katsuki. He proves he can set aside his personal feelings for his own hidden goals. During the police car raid on Overhaul, you can see his cooperation when both he and Mr. Compress killed Snatch together.

Another example of this is Hawks, the number 2 hero whom he is secretly giving him info he is using him to complete his objectives. Dabi works well with just anyone as long as he can complete his objective.

Well and that includes my explanation! What do you think of Dabi stats?