#if i think too much about the change from fighting for shimura to fighting for the people i might explode

[eerna]

literally losing it over Ghost of Tsushima I just finished act 2 and I am LOSING IT

[morownic]

of fever dreams and jamais vu

And, of course, like all fever dreams, he had to wake himself up from it. (But this one? This one was real.)

warnings/tags: NSFW MDNI (non-graphic smut), non-ultraman AU, afab + fem pronouns

next — series masterlist · my other works · ao3

a/n: there were a lot of songs that i listened to while writing this (animals) and i do have a playlist of them but i would recommend color tv to listen while reading the flashback part bcs i did write this part with that song on repeat lol. enjoy!

All the world and his wife was scrutinizing Ken Sato the moment he stepped out of the airport and took his first deep breath in his homeland after twenty years. Of course, he welcomed and basked in the attention even if it suffocated him—quite literally, he must add, what with how the reporters and photographers were almost wrestling each other to get a scoop on him. What came after that only gave him a headache after a headache. He had to settle in his new residence, a mansion he bought just 15 minutes away from where his father lived, one that felt way too big for just one person and his supercomputer assistant. He finalized his contract with the Yomiuri Giants, followed by a meeting with all the staff members and a less-than-formal outing with his new teammates to some club in Shibuya he didn’t bother to remember the name of, where he was just constantly reminded that he was alone. The day after that, he had to deal with a hangover, a press conference, and an interview that ticked him off—Ami Wakita, was it?—before ending the night with a bar fight that left his shoulder aching.

Ken was sure he wouldn’t even have considered moving back to Japan nor would he have let his father somehow slip back into his life if it wasn’t for his mother.

With his injury, your father needs you, kiddo.

And so, Ken Sato began his baseball career in Japan with the Yomiuri Giants. He brought the team to their first victory of the season despite a lot of things: how the media was still on his ass about why he would leave his career with the Los Angeles Dodgers behind, how Coach Shimura seemed to have a chip on his shoulder when it came to him, how the pain in his own shoulder would stab and dull with every movement he made. The way his shoulder ached left him wondering if he should have treated it more seriously rather than seeing it as an inconvenience, perhaps put his pride aside to admit that yes, that drunken brawl was fucking stupid, and my shoulder fucking hurts. That was why he didn’t think much of it when Coach Shimura was talking about bringing in some new guy—something about a new performance analyst or whatever—as a matter of fact, he couldn’t care less.

So, imagine his surprise when he showed up to practice and saw a face he hadn’t seen since graduating college in the States. A face that made his breath hitch because one, she was just that beautiful, and two, he had no idea why she would be here. A face that was so familiar he almost threw up from shock, anger, guilt, longing. A face that contorted into contempt at the mere sight of him.

Ken Sato was sure of one thing at that moment.

He was completely, utterly, thoroughly fucked.

Ken Sato wasn’t always the famed world-class baseball star he turned out to be, and she wasn’t always the blunt and tight-lipped new analyst for the Yomiuri Giants she turned out to be.

He was a doe-eyed, lanky Japanese kid who had above average grades in his classes and showed promising results as a slugger for the baseball team. He spent most of his freshman year being stereotyped and made fun of for how he looked and talked, and it only changed because he had his growth spurt in sophomore year. Not only did he become a cleanup hitter by the end of the year, girls were suddenly giving him bedroom eyes in the hallway and guys tried to make up for their borderline bullying by letting him into their cliques. His friendships with them were shallow, really, because they would still poke fun at this old accent even after he had nearly perfected his American accent. Ken took it in stride only because he knew everyone would never make fun of him in baseball, not when he had practically put his school on the map by winning tens of titles and playing in the Senior League. And so, by the end of high school, Ken had baseball to thank for almost everything in his teenagehood.

She, on the other hand, came to high school smart and pretty. Where Ken stood out like a sore thumb, she stood out like a broken finger. Someone being academically gifted and socially relevant was practically unheard of at that time. She was among the top 10 students in freshman year, earned her spot as the leadoff hitter for the softball team in sophomore year, won a national debate championship in junior year, and passed 4 AP classes with flying colors in senior year. She, too, had put the school on the map, perhaps even more contributively than Ken did, so the teachers only kept their grievances for when she skipped class to smoke. Even so, everyone seemed to like her regardless of their cliques; she was always greeted in the hallways, was almost always invited to every party, and had gone out with all the popular students. She could have had it all, and whatever her secrets were, Ken and the other students in their school only knew her as the high school sweetheart, the kind you would see printed next to the definition of high school sweetheart itself.

Ken had seen her in passing during freshman year, but he never really talked to her until they shared three classes together in sophomore year. He remembered that she had approached him first during PE, suddenly speaking to him in fluent Japanese that he nearly had a whiplash. She told him that yes, I know you’re also Japanese and sorry I didn’t talk to you sooner, then babbled something about how she felt guilty that she had just been watching while others made fun of him. He didn’t think much of it at first, still surprised that one of the popular girls—if not the popular girl—in his year was actually talking to him. But then, he found himself understanding every word she said whenever she talked in Japanese and replying to whatever she was saying in English; he found himself exchanging notes and numbers with her in math class; he found himself going to the baseball field with her during lunch breaks and seeing who could hit the farthest. He was somehow roped into bringing her home after he offhandedly mentioned her to his mother, and then, they somehow became best friends. He would cover for her whenever she skipped class to smoke, much to his dismay, and she would introduce him to other social circles outside his baseball team, where he found his first girlfriend—who, admittedly, broke up with him because the way he spoke about his “best friend” was laced with more adoration than the first kiss he had with her. He would wait until their practice sessions were over and drive her home, where they would spend at least three hours talking on her porch before he went home, and she would show up to his games with an obnoxious handmade banner that read “KEN SATO THE G.O.A.T,” cheering the loudest whenever he hit a home run. He would pick her up from anywhere almost every time she asked, even if he had to get himself out of bed at two in the morning, and she would hang out at his place every other weekend, bringing fruit baskets and takeouts for his mother. It was somewhat domestic, how she settled in his apartment (and his life) whenever she came over. Ken almost always had to ground himself because his brain would feed him thoughts of a future with her, and his heart would beat so hard it threatened to break out of his ribcage.

But they were just best friends, he thought and said to his friends whenever they asked him about her. Best friends who happened to suck off, eat out, and eat each other’s faces pretty regularly. He found it funny at first, really; one time, their classmates told her that she just wasn’t human, what with how she juggled school and being popular. She only laughed it off, but he thought of how right they were when she came over while he was home alone at the end of sophomore year. There was no way the girl kneeling between his legs was fucking human. Not with that tongue of hers. Not with the way she looked up and batted her eyelashes at him. Not with how she literally gulped down his load in one go and played Tekken on his console as if she hadn’t just given him the best head of his life. She quite literally sucked the soul out of him that day, and he never had another head like that ever since. Even as they started hooking up—strictly platonic, she said, and he just went along with whatever she wanted as long as it was with her—that was still the stuff of his wet dreams, and it remained that way even long after they never saw each other again.

“Do you think we’ll be friends forever?”

The question caught Ken off-guard not only because it broke the comfortable silence between them, but also the feelings it evoked. Where is she going with this? he thought. A frown was etched on his face as he turned to look at her. Under the soft glow of the star projector in her room, she laid on her back, eyes tracing the constellations that danced across the ceiling. Her breathing was far more steady than his, chest rising and falling slowly behind the thin fabric of his shirt. Her hair fanned out around her on the pillow, framing her face as if it was her halo. At that time, her expression was probably the most serene and somber he had ever seen. She’s beautiful, he said to himself, and he thought it wouldn’t be so bad to keep a picture of this moment in his head for his selfish reminiscing should they ever stop being friends. (He hardly thought she meant that they could be more than friends, and he didn’t want to entertain the thought of not having her in his life.)

“Yeah?” He answered and mentally cursed himself for sounding so unsure. After clearing his throat, he corrected himself: “I mean, yeah, why not?”

There was no way she hadn’t seen the way he was staring at her from the corner of her eye. Even if she did, she didn’t turn her head to face him and only hummed in response to his answer. A look of contemplation appeared on her face as she kept quiet for nearly another minute. Ken swore it felt like an eternity.

“What if–” She sighed. “What if we fuck up and hurt each other? What then?”

Ken somehow knew that she already knew that there was no way she could ever fuck him up. (She already did, anyway, literally and figuratively.) Not with how he looked at her, not with how he reached out to hold her hand, not with how he promptly turned his head to face the ceiling once she was turning to look at him. Perhaps, what she was looking for was the reassurance that he wouldn’t fuck her up. He squeezed her hand when the thought crossed his mind.

“I’ll still be your friend anyways,” he said, softly, his voice barely above a whisper.

A chuckle left her lips then. She didn’t let go of his hand as she moved to hover over him, replacing the twinkling manmade constellations in his sight. (He thought she was brighter than any star in the sky, anyway.) He raised his brow when he saw the mischievous glint in her eyes as she leaned down, her lips nearly closing in on his.

The grin she had on her face was enough to tell him she was up to no good. “Are you a masochist?”

“You–seriously?”

He might’ve groaned from annoyance, but the way her body shook with laughter on top of him was enough to make that godawful warmth bloom in his chest. He pulled her in for a kiss, though he wasn’t sure if it was to shut her up or if he just wanted to, and he thought that if anyone were to see them like this, no one would ever believe him if he told them that they were just best friends. Hell, everyone had enough of his answer whenever they asked him about it at school, and he was even picked on again at some point—but not for how he looked or talked. No, he was picked on for being her “best friend” because no matter how many people had tried to make her theirs, she kept coming back to him. But then they would find Ken making out with one of the cheerleaders under the bleachers and her sucking off some guy from the football team at some senior’s house party. It was confusing for everyone, but even more so for Ken, because every time she asked him to pick her up from God-knows-where, he would see red when she saw her huffing out a smoke, disheveled because of someone who was not him.

And, of course, like all fever dreams, he had to wake himself up from it.

“–Sato.”

Two things snapped Ken out of his trance then. First, it was the voice that called out to him, then it was the pain in his shoulder. Ken found himself standing on the batter box in Tokyo Dome, a bat in his hand, and his breath was ragged. The seats were empty, the sky was turning dark, and then he remembered that he was at practice. He was at practice, not on the porch at her old house in Los Angeles holding her close as she cried over that one guy who supposedly broke her heart. He was at practice, not at the frat party where he met her again for the first time after months of no contact and saw her giggling on the lap of some jock. He was at practice, not in front of the diner they used to go to almost every other day where he said awful things he didn’t mean and maybe, just maybe, that was the reason why she had left for Japan the next day. (She had waited for him to come to the airport, to at least apologize, but he never came. He had turned off his phone during practice.)

Ken sighed and lowered his bat, hissing when he rolled his left shoulder. He steadied his breathing and regained his composure before his eyes flickered to the field. His teammates were waiting for him to hit another ball so they could continue their fielding practice. Then, he turned to the one in front of him—Yoshida, right?—whose voice pulled him out of his train of thought. Yoshida raised his brow when he locked eyes with Ken.

“Are you distracted or something?”

It was his turn to frown. “What?”

“Are you distracted by the new girl or something? You kept looking back at the dugout earlier.”

Ken almost dropped his bat when he heard that, his neck turning so quickly that he was surprised he didn’t give himself a whiplash. “What?”

Yoshida nodded in the direction of the dugout, and Ken turned to look. His grip around the bat tightened as his eyes darted towards the dugout. Her back was facing the field, leaning against the metal fence that divided the field and the dugout. Her arms held a clipboard to her chest, and he could only see her side profile from where he was standing as she spoke with Coach Shimura. The two of them looked familiar already—he really didn’t know how she did it, given that he was still at odds with the coach, but it was so her, he thought, the way she could get along with all the people he couldn’t—as Coach Shimura was talking more expressively with her than he had ever seen him. She was nodding to whatever Coach Shimura was talking about with a smile on her face, one that didn’t reach her eyes, and he berated himself because why and how the fuck could you tell from this distance? Ken’s lips parted as Coach Shimura’s expression changed and nodded in his direction, and his breath hitched as he saw her turning slightly towards him.

Ken’s heart dropped as the smile on her face faltered, replaced by an unimpressed look and an air of disdain that made him shiver. The world seemed to stop right then and there; even when she looked at him as if he was the reason behind her suffering—which was probably true, to an extent—he couldn’t help but think of how beautiful she was. Even with the hint of blood between her slightly cracked lips and the dark circles under her eyes that she didn’t bother to hide with some concealer. Even with how she looked even paler than she was when they were still in Los Angeles and how her cheekbones seemed to protrude and her cheeks seemed more hollow. She was beautiful, yet she contrasted her old self, which bothered him so much that dread started to pool in his stomach. Ken knew her and would even say he knew too much of her. But, right at that moment, it was as if he was looking straight into a stranger’s eyes and not the pair he had fallen in love with, as if he was looking at the stuff of his nightmares and not the girl of his dreams, as if he had never known her at all.

(What if it was true?)

Ken pinched his arm, hard, and winced when the pain seared through his body and kickstarted another throbbing ache in his shoulder. None of the stuff of his fever dreams, the dread and peculiarity of it, should have been real. This was real. So, if this was real, then God must not only be fucking joking, but He must’ve been thoroughly fucking evil to be putting him through this.

“Oh, fuck.”

[codenamesazanka]

more Deku bashing, if you'll forgive me

Seeing lots of shocked tweets and posts that Deku seems so cold and distant about Shigaraki dying in front of him; that Deku doesn't seem to care much at all; that Deku isn't devastated he wasn't able to save that little boy.

I have to point out that Deku never cared in the first place. He really didn't! It's why he needed to see The Crying Child to feel any bit of empathy for Shigaraki, and why ever since then, he only yammers on about saving the Crying Child and only the little boy. He never gave a shit about the Shigaraki in front of him. Never treated Shigaraki like someone real to engage with. That Shigaraki is unforgivable; and it was impossible to have ever bring the Crying Child into reality because the Crying Child was a memory, it happened 15 years in the past that cannot be changed, so all Deku can do is comfort the Crying Child then beat the shit out of Shigaraki.

I mean, just look at the imagery and the word choices:

Are those the words and expressions of someone who's trying to be careful about not hurting Shigaraki? Actually trying to help someone in pain? I remember when people were excited that Danger Sense would tell Shigaraki that Deku doesn't want to hurt him - turns out nah. He was so ready to make Shigaraki throw up blood.

Deku never tried to talk to Shigaraki. He never asked any questions during the whole time they were fighting. Mirio asked a question and got a response; but Deku? Nothing. Even in the memory-realm, when Shigaraki via memory-villains ask Deku what his plan was, Deku just shouted 'No!' and that was that.

When Deku said 'Somewhere inside of you is a person' he literally meant that. Inside of Shigaraki is the Crying Child, who is the actual person. Did he catch Shigaraki saying 'Spinner will be looking forward to this' and think, 'huh, Shigaraki has someone he cares about, I think? Then he wouldn't want to destroy Spinner, would he?' No. The fan-translation got everyone's hopes up that Deku wants to 'shred the rug' of societal failures, but the official translation was correct - Deku wanted to pry the lid off Shigaraki's trauma, accusing Shigaraki of repressing himself.

If he cared about Shigaraki at all, he would've protested when Gran told him he might have to kill Shigaraki. Instead:

He would've opposed the construction of something called a SKY COFFIN DEATH ARENA. He would've spoken up when Heroes talked strategy about how AFO is the better opponent to fight, implying that it's better if AFO had taken over Shigaraki, despite Shigaraki being the victim of AFO here.

Even when he ends up saving Tenko from Decaying the Shimuras, he's utterly lackluster there. Tenko's in tears, saying that he must have wanted to kill his family, he was born with a quirk like Decay, who could ever validate his existence the way he is??? And Deku's response? "Well. Holding my hand might make you feel better. So here." Saying something like, 'No, you're a child! It's not your fault!' or 'Your quirk isn't meant for harm, it can be useful too' or 'It's okay. You're not an evil existence' seems obvious, but Deku doesn't.

and really, all this has been obvious since the Mall Encounter in Chapter 69. Remember when Shigaraki point blank told him that All Might's smile is stupid because he acts like there's no one he can't save? And it's clearly full of resentment? And Deku picked up on this, which is why next chapter he asks All Might if it's true there are times where All Might couldn't save someone.

But once Tsukauchi said, don't worry about it, Deku did just that. When he does think about it one time, it's this absolutely nothing of a reflection

"I guess we just have to agree to disagree!" Come on. And this kid has a 'drive to save that eclipses all common understanding'??? for real?????

Deku has never given a crap about Shigaraki or Villains. Honestly, him wanting to save that sad little boy might as well be just Horikoshi putting lines in his mouth to move the story along.

If Deku really did care, I think he would've wanted to save the entire person that is Shigaraki. The Crying Child is a phantom - Shigaraki is real and solid and there. The Crying Child is innocent and easy to care about because it's a cute baby and it's openly weepy; saving hand-monster junji ito twink Shigaraki who laughs and talks about destroying everything Deku loves would've been an actual challenge. But clearly we couldn't have that because even the Crying Child was too far gone for Deku to save.

[itsnothingofinterest]

Any predictions for the next chapter, or from this wrap up in general?

I’m gonna be honest; with Shigaraki dead, who knows how many of the League with him or soon to follow, and most of Class 1A ending their arcs as a disappointing collective carbon copy of the last generation, I’m not too interested. And that may hinder my ability to predict what little we have left, let alone to any enjoyable capacity.

The only real prediction I can make is about how the wrap up will take every implication or consequence of the kids’ failure to save or change and…continue to ignore them, brush them under the rug that is this feeling of how much the ‘day has been saved’ we’re being given.

I’m talking zero mention of corruption in the hero industry, no talk about the folks heroes aren’t around to save despite inspiring complacency & dependency, nothing to make us think villains won’t be treated worse after how Twice, Machia, and Shigaraki were treated, and you better believe they won’t bring up the Singularity Doomsday.

(Or, potentially more infuriatingly if it’s done poorly*, they actually will bring up some of the League’s old talking points…most of which no one on the heroes side have ever been shown caring about and weren’t really brought up in the final arc at all…and it’s all to talk about how they’re handling it the right way tm, which we learn is super easy for them. Turns out Shoji really can solve all of quirks racism by just being super inspiring at bigots, maybe with some finger wagging at them if he’s feeling daring**; don’t know why Spinner’s mob thought they needed to riot like that. And Shoto just made a few calls, gave a speech maybe, and now heroes abusing their power and/or families is a thing of the past; sure makes the lengths Touya went to seem silly.

Ugh, I’m getting a migraine just typing that out.)

And it’ll all end with future Deku saving some kid lost in the streets like Tenko Shimura, and we’ll be asked to just pretend that means every kid like Tenko Shimura gets saved from now on…even though that’s not how his backstory or criticism of the system worked at all. Remember: ‘the day is saved, so don’t think about it too hard.’

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*Which I expect it would be.

**Which he will not.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If, after seeing me say that I don't want an ending where they do nothing but also don't want an ending where they do everything, you're wondering what ending I'd be satisfied with…I honestly couldn't tell you.

I should want an ending where they change and improve things; but after spending a sizable fraction of MHA's total length effectively fighting against change and improvement because it was villains trying to shepherd it in while the heroes were always talking about rebuilding it all back to normal to the very end (including just last chapter), I don't know how Hori could pull that off without it feeling like bad writing. And unless that writing gets bad enough for Tomura to return from dust, I don’t much care for that idea either.

[greenhappyseed]

did... shiggy just died i-. idk what to feel. So he is not coming bach huh..... :(. OFA is gone too....

I don’t know what to feel either, anon. We really have to wait and see what comes next. But I do think Horikoshi is trying to say something about rebirth, so the rest of this post is going to be something like an elegy for the Tomura Shigaraki we knew (and what that can mean for Izuku): Why rebirth? Why is Tomura doomed? Tomura’s entire existence was tainted by AFO. Tomura can change his name, change his hair color, kill the AFO vestige, etc., but it’s impossible for him to escape AFO. How society would view him or his “redemption” is irrelevant; it’s that HE now knows his entire life, from conception onwards, was never his own. For Tomura, a happy ending is being completely free from AFO, deciding things fully for himself, and knowing his decisions are his own. It’s not a happy ending to remove Tenko from Tomura’s origin trauma only to plunge him into Twice’s “am I really me” trauma.

What AFO’s final, awful reveal showed is that even if Tomura Shigaraki became Tenko Shimura again, it’s not a rebirth. The very first cells of “Tenko Shimura’s” being were stained by AFO since AFO manipulated Kotaro into conceiving Tenko. Tenko’s parents and childhood friends were totally under AFO’s thumb. “Tenko” has no path to freedom; he has to be rebuilt from ash, one way or another.

For my own aesthetic tastes, I would very much prefer for Tenko to have agency over this. If he was going to disintegrate, I’d prefer it to be a clear choice — like Katsuki and Toshinori choosing moves that brought them to the brink of death. I don’t like the idea that Tenko had no choice in life or death, and that disintegrating is just another indignity that AFO manipulated him into. But maybe his story was always destined to be a tragedy, no matter how hard he tried to fight it.

Of course, there are ways that the spirit/consciousness of Tenko Shimura could return in a new body, and many of them do have Tenko participating actively in the process:

Phoenix quirk — Tomura disintegrates to ash so Tenko can choose to be reborn free of AFO’s distortions. (Maybe fandom was right about this theory but wrong that the phoenix was Dabi!)

Overhaul or quirk awakening - It’s possible for Overhaul (who is very much still alive and in possession of his quirk factor) to reverse the disintegration. It’s also possible that Tenko can do it himself (or that Tenko gave Izuku a quirk to do it) since Decay is half of Overhaul. Personally I don’t believe this is likely because I think Decay disappeared when AFO took control of Tomura this final time? Unclear, the end got really rushed and messy on these details for me, but if Decay is gone then it’s hard for it to “awaken.”

Rewind - The MHA standby ever since Eri’s introduction. She doesn’t have her horn anymore, so it seems unlikely, but she still has her quirk factor. The thing here is Tenko’s agency and if he would want to be rewound back to the body that AFO built for him.

All For One - Yes, Tomura could have given Izuku a quirk when they touched. What if it’s actually…All For One? Yoichi said the AFO quirk could have been the kindest in the world…and Izuku did promise to “bring it all back”… so if Tomura’s parting gift was to give the raw All For One power to Izuku, then Izuku could Overhaul and Rewind his way into healing everyone. He could borrow any quirk needed (Recovery Girl? Erasure?) use it as a tool, and then give it back because of course Izuku wouldn’t keep a stockpile for himself (absent being told he could keep a quirk). FWIW, I’d be HIGHLY amused if this happens, because it sounds straight out of a DFO fic. :)

Aura Might/OFA shenanigans - The “heroic fire” of OFA has seemingly gone out before, only to re-emerge both in the same person and in other people. I could see Tenko emerging from this fire.

Wishing energy that twists fate - Izuku and All Might both lived when they were “supposed” to die, so it could happen for Tenko too.

However, Tenko returning in a physical, corporeal form is not the only kind of rebirth that can complete his arc. It pains me SO MUCH to say this, but there’s a real chance his body doesn’t come back. Tomura fought for someone to see what was swept under the rug and understand that hero society isn’t perfect. He wanted a hero who would save him and imperfect humans like him, and he got that someone in Izuku. (He actually got it in Nana too, because of Izuku.)

Izuku Midoriya taking Tenko’s message deep into his heart and influencing all the people watching him to care more about the misfits and “villains” that pro heroes can’t help is a form of giving Tenko a new life. In the same way that the vestiges extended their power decades beyond physical death, and the same way that Shirakumo’s heroic heart survived his death and Nomu-fication, Izuku can keep Tenko’s spirit alive long after his body died. Maybe Tenko’s spirit is a new type of “heroic fire,” and it’s up to Izuku to keep those embers burning. It’s all in Izuku’s rewound, notably non-decayed hands.

Looking at it with this framing, you can also say Izuku gets his win AND save. Because even if Izuku couldn’t save Tenko’s physical body — and how could he if Tenko was doomed before either of them were born? — choosing to carry on Tenko’s legacy IS saving everything he could of that crying boy. It’s also far more immediate and tangible for Izuku to take on Tenko’s legacy rather than being unwittingly thrown into the 200 year old OFA-AFO fight. There’s something so poignant and human about an ending with quirkless Izuku humbly fighting for what Tenko believed in compared to celebrity #1 Billboard ranked hero Izuku with OFA. After all, Tenko and Izuku are 2 sides of a coin. Tenko could have had Izuku’s role in another life if OFA kept passing in the Shimura family.

Even the fact that Izuku never told anyone outside of Ochako, Katsuki, and All Might that he wanted to save Tenko works in Izuku’s favor. Izuku can help the whole world become the people Tenko challenged them to be and they’ll never know they’re actually fulfilling the dreams of a villain. (‘Cuz they’d be too biased to do it otherwise.) Finally, you know all the complaints that Izuku’s character has been stagnant in MHA’s third act? That he hasn’t really been challenged in his ideals? Maybe that hasn’t happened yet because it’s just starting NOW.

After all, Toshinori modeled “All Might” after Nana’s ideals, and she wasn’t known to the population at large. Izuku could follow their footsteps by modeling his hero career after Tenko’s ideals. We’d have multiple generations of Shimuras posthumously changing society for the bettter.

Look, I understand how emotions are running high. I’ve loved this series for years and I cried reading this chapter. I personally don’t love it if Tenko is gone, even though I can make narrative sense of it. It’s a tragic and bitter-barely-sweet ending for poor Tenko, whose very dreams of being a hero were engineered to sow division in his family and break his psyche instead of lift him up.

But none of us will know what it all means for a few more chapters. We could still have several more chapters before we get Tenko’s real finale. It’s nearing the end, but it’s not THE end yet. In the meantime, take care of yourselves and as always, curate your fandom spaces lovingly.

[megansabode]

All You Had To Do Was Stay

And the one person keeping Izuku from leaving was Katsuki.

Katsuki. His Kacchan. The boy with the anger issues, with the spiky blonde hair, with the vermillion eyes that complimented Izuku’s viridian.

Because if Izuku left, he wouldn’t get the gentle kisses, the ruffling of his hair, the soft-spoken words in his ear anymore.

If Izuku left, another part of himself would die. And he’d already lost too much.

-

Izuku wants to save Shigaraki. But Katsuki is in his way of that being possible.

OR

Izuku wants to leave and Katsuki no no wanna

wc: 951

bkdk oneshot, originally posted on ao3 @megansabode

contains: izuku centric, canon divergence, rough kissing, kissing with tongue, angst, hurt/no comfort, bad ending, izuku leaving

Izuku hadn’t felt alive in a long time. Well, he did sometimes. But not entirely. And it ate him whole.

He’d promised a long time ago that he wouldn’t leave. Not again. Not after he became a vigilante and left Class 1-A.

“Mm. Izuku.” Katsuki mumbled in his sleep, his hand moving over the boy’s chest. “Stay.”

That was why he could never bring himself to leave. Because every night, when Katsuki was asleep, he’d say one word.

Stay.

But Izuku couldn’t. Not when Shigaraki was a world-wide threat and not while Izuku didn’t know himself whether he was going to be the one to kill the villain or not. Or, whether he was going to kill Shigaraki at all.

And the one person keeping Izuku from leaving was Katsuki.

Katsuki. His Kacchan. The boy with the anger issues, with the spiky blonde hair, with the vermillion eyes that complimented Izuku’s viridian.

Because if Izuku left, he wouldn’t get the gentle kisses, the ruffling of his hair, the soft-spoken words in his ear anymore.

If Izuku left, another part of himself would die. And he’d already lost too much.

He sighed. He needed to leave—he couldn’t put Katsuki in any more danger. “Kacchan.” He muttered, tapping the boy’s shoulder.

No answer. He sighed again, and shook Katsuki awake, gently.

Katsuki groaned, opening his eyes. “Izuku?” He asked groggily, looking up at him. “What—why’d you wake me up?”

“I—I just wanted to look at you for a bit.” Katsuki nodded, then his eyes narrowed. He sat up quickly. “What?” Izuku asked.

“You’re leaving again.” Izuku opened his mouth, then closed it. “Don’t give me that fucking look, Izuku, you’re leaving, aren’t you?” Izuku sighed, bowing his head in shame. “For fucks sake.”

“I want you to be safe-“

“So stop playing hero!” Katsuki shouted, grabbing Izuku’s hands. “All you’ll do by leaving is make me feel like shit again. Do you want that to happen?” Izuku shook his head. “So stop thinking about it.”

“I have to, Kacchan.” Izuku said. “As One For All’s successor-“

“Fuck One For All! This is about us! You and me! Don’t give up before we’ve even started!” Izuku stared into Katsuki’s eyes, and Katsuki stared back, plea lacing his voice. “Stay.”

There it was. That word again. That word that jabbed through Izuku’s chest and punctured his heart.

He shook his head. “I can’t. Not when Shigaraki is an international threat. Not when I’m the one that should be out there fighting him, helping him.”

“Stay.”

“They’ll kill him!” Izuku yelled.

“Yeah? He’s basically All For One now-“

“He’s just a kid! Like you, like me, he—he’s just a kid! He was manipulated, and groomed, and changed, but all he is is a messed up kid! Like you, like me!” Izuku shouted.

“Kacchan, I can’t just let them kill him.” He said.

“Take me with you.” Katsuki pleaded, his grip tightening on Izuku’s hands.

“I can’t do that.”

“Why?”

“He’ll kill you.”

“But-“

“No!” Izuku yelled. “I’m not losing you!”

Katsuki stared at him, then said in a solemn voice, “And you don’t think I’m afraid of losing you, too?” Izuku pursed his lips. “This is a suicide mission, Izuku-“

“Yeah. And he’ll kill me or I’ll die trying to save Shimura Tenko. That’s my purpose.”

“To die?” Katsuki yelled.

Izuku narrowed his eyes. “Everyone’s purpose is to die-“

“You’re not even fucking seventeen yet, Izu!” Izuku’s heart stopped everytime Katsuki shortened his name. “Kids who are sixteen don’t die fighting a war! Not usually!”

“I’m not a normal kid.” Izuku bit.”

Katsuki scoffed. “Well, no fucking shit. My point is- my point is that I fucking need you, okay? For fuck’s sake, Izuku, I love you.”

Izuku stared at Katsuki. Then, he got up, pulling his hands out of Katsuki’s grip. “Izuku?”

Izuku pulled on his costume, then Gran Torino’s scarf. “You—you’re not even going to say it back?” Izuku paused, then walked over to the door. “Can’t you be selfish for one second of your damn life?”

“I am being selfish. If I was being selfless, I would’ve stayed here with you and let Shigaraki die at the hands of a hero or All For One.” Izuku said.

“Then let me be selfish.” Katsuki got up and walked over to Izuku, grabbing his face. “And make you stay.”

“You can’t change my mind, Kacchan.” Yes you can, Izuku thought, But I won’t let you.

“Please. I love you.” And there it was again. The words that made Izuku want to break himself into pieces for Katsuki to have all for himself.

Izuku almost said it. The response. But he didn’t. He just stared into Katsuki’s eyes, maintaining a cold gaze against Katsuki’s beggard one. Izuku fought the urge to go back to bed and pretend that this all never happened.

Because Katsuki would let him do that. Katsuki would let him do anything. Just not leave.

“I need you.” Katsuki said. Izuku grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him forward, almost instinctively. The boy’s lips met in a crash, and they collided roughly.

Tongue clashed against tongue. Fingernails dug into waists. Hands went up shirts.

And eventually, Izuku pulled away, then moved backwards. “Goodbye. Katsuki.”

“No- no!” Katsuki yelled, running forward. But he was met with a door. “Izuku!” He pulled it open and ran out, but there was nothing to be seen.

No Izuku. No boyfriend. No lover. Nobody.

He fell to the floor and sobbed. A few hours later, he woke up, and he went back to bed, his hand on Izuku’s side, desperately searching for the boy.

But he was nowhere to be found.

[haleigh-sloth]

I pretty much agreed with everything you said from the last ask I sent you. I want to stay hopeful too, although with the way Hori handled Deku, All Might, and Shigaraki, if Shigaraki does come back, I just feel like I'm not super pumped or excited about the dynamic between him Deku and Shigaraki. I feel like the last couple of chapters just sort of killed my excitement. Even with bringing Shigaraki back, I am not quite sure how it helps Deku's character. The thing is, I don't even hate Deku, I just sort of dislike the route he chose to take in the end. I think that he really could have developed a very emotional bond between the two, but I think the route Hori chose is the Deku/Bakugo/All Might route, which sort of overrode the route of developing the dynamic between Deku/Shigaraki. Idk, if that makes sense, what I am trying to say.

Though, I feel very hopeful about Ochako/Toga and Touya/Todorokis.

Hori definitely likes to play up the bkdk bullshit. I don’t blame him, it’s one of the biggest draws of his story so I can’t fault the guy.

Idk how Deku’s character can be salvaged as of now, which is why I’m waiting. The dynamic he has with Tenko I still like more than anything else in the manga—pending how things turn out. If this is how it stays then I’ll say I like it, and think it was wasted. If Deku’s disappointment with how things turned out (not being able to save his life) is followed up on and Shenko Timura is in fact Tenko Shimura, and he and Deku meet again, I’ll say it’s a win for me. Their dynamic and the potential it still has with the little content left to come still excites me more than anything else. That hasn’t changed for me.

And I couldn’t care less about AM unfortunately. For a long time he’s just kind of existed to fight, be a part of Deku’s emotional drama, or suck bkdk’s dick. My interest in All Might died a really really really long time ago so my expectations are dead in the water and I can’t really be disappointed since that’s how I feel.

[monotonecomplainyguy]

For the send a fandom: Tsushima.

Left field. Bitch.

Mofo making me add yet another game onto this blog, spoiler alert I loved ghost of tsushima and think everyone should play it. ps. spoilers ahead cause I cant for the life of me figure out how to hide text till you click it.

The first character I fell in love with: tbh Yuna, her blatant disregard for the rules and expectations in favor of doing good is great, even if that good is selfish from time to time. Her growth throughout the story just reaffirms this even more too.

The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: That'll have to go to Masako, her introduction led me to believe that her as a character would be nothing more than a cheap revenge ploy, and while her questline kinda leaned into that hard her as a character grew on me. The duel with her had me literally yelling that I better not have to kill her.

The character everyone else loves that I dont: Shoot me, but Ryuzo. As a character hes as good as every other major character but thats why I dont like him, his betrayal hits hard especially after listening to the banter between him and Jin about their childhoods. As they spoke about parting ways after their initial duel I seriously hoped they could reconnect over the course of saving their home.

The character I love that everyone else hates: I dont know if hes necessarily a hated character but Ive heard several people say they really didnt like Norio. A lot of people say his quest is two dimensional and bland but looking past that Norio feels like the only character that really understands Jin's struggle with what needs to be done and his expectations as a samurai. Through the second and third act he feels like a reassurance at Jin's back, that his decision is a difficult one but one that needs to be made.

The character I used to love but dont any longer: Ishikawa, Initially I thought he would be the basis for a growing understanding that what Jin and Yuna did was necessary, especially with what he did with Tomoe. But he remained just as stubborn and while I can understand why it doesn't mean I have to like it. Hes a good character but not my cup of tea.

The character I would totally smooch: Probably no one in the way you would expect, but Yuriko needed a kiss on the forehead and praise for doing such a good job even in her old age and told not to worry about Jin. At least she was one of the few that got to pass peacefully.

The character I'd want to be like: Taka hands down, he tries so hard to be something hes not, and when he found a way he could help he put his heart into it. Then even in the face of the Khan he put on a brave face and knowing full well he stood no chance tried to do what he thought was right. In many ways hes a reflection of Jin yet not so gifted that he can fight for his home, yet he still raised a sword when it mattered the most. His death by far killed me the most.

The character I'd slap: Lord Shimura, this man infuriates me so much yet I cant hate him because of how sad he is. The ending killed me, seeing his pain in having to face Jin, losing the person he considered his Son, and even more so after sparing him. He could've helped change everything and even if he disowned Jin officially he could've still let him go after everything that happened. But now he continued to be shackled by his idealology of honor and it forced him to push away his son all the more. I get its not easy to change what someone is raised to believe in whole heartedly but you would expect the loss of the last of your family to help with that, but no.

A pairing that I love: Jin and Tomoe, I feel like they are two very different edges of the same coin. Jin choosing a path that leads to a great many regrets that become overshadowed by the good that followed, and Tomoe falling down a selfish path filled with many more regrets and struggling to correct it. Is this generic? maybe, is it cliché enough that I like it still? of course. What do you want from me cliché is my middle name. Also yes Im aware she hardly had any screen time and her and Jin hardly interacted, I like thinking about unlikely things, its called headcannon for a reason.

A pairing that I despise: I dont despise it but I dont really like it either, Jin and Yuna feels kinda wrong. The two of them went through so much together and it feels like one of those dynamics thats very rooted in a deep friendship and nothing more. Plus after spending so much time together in so many stressful scenarios changing how they see each other would be a monumental challenge, especially after Yuna lost Taka and would most likely be hesitant about getting close to someone else. Losing a family member often causes people to push away the thought of relationships for awhile.

[dekusheroacademia]

The Ultra Stage: The greatest hero - some final thoughts PART 1/3

I have no professional training to do reviews, so I'm commenting just as a fan of MHA, musicals and the previous Ultra Stage adaptations. First of all, I watched it three times, all in Tokyo, the opening day with Shin Tamura as Deku, and then the 6th (both shows that day) where Yasuhito (the understudy) played Deku, because Tamura was sick. So this post will be a summary of all three dates experiences, but here in part 1 I will focus on small background scenes, differences between shows and Deku.

If you wanna read a detailed summary, I'll make a part two soon, otherwise it's in my pinned post at arthurianmaiden on twitter.

If you wanna read my ship thoughts only (stuff about iidabaku, bakudeku, izuocha, kiribaku and kacchako), I will make a part three!

THE PLOT / HOW CLOSE TO THE MANGA

As usual, the musical is pretty loyal to the plot. They slightly changed the order of one thing as they introduced the license exam and the meeting of the other schools before the naming of their special moves.

The musical starts with a recap of Bakugou and Deku, their childhood, middle school, sludge, previous fights and Kamino. In general the theme of the musical is that All Might has fallen, and the next greatest hero are Deku and Bakugou both. The musical centers then both as protagonists, while in previous stages usually Deku was front and centre.

Then we see the teachers convincing the parents, the rooms challenge, we meet the other schools for the exam, and then the students decide the names of their heroes moves. The license exam takes the rest of the first act, and the first part of the second act, while the second part of the second act is Deku vs Kacchan 2. The musical ends with Bakugou and Deku cleaning the dormitories.

The last song is the only song that is not new: "I want to be a hero". But it's acted much differently than usual. In the setting, Deku faces adversity and is attacked by enemies. Bakugou fires an AP shot and frees him, before walking up a ramp and out of the stage. The rest of the song sees Deku being kind of thrown from class 1a student to student, as if they can't save him. The last one is Kirishima who grabs him but then Deku falls right in front of Bakugou, and the stage only illuminates them. This is a call back of the start of the musical, when Deku is shoved onto the ground, while Bakugou taunts him. This time it almost looks like the musical is teasing the possibility of Bakugou offering his hand to Deku.

The rest of the song is done with both Deku and Bakugou at the center, instead of focusing on Deku as usual in the previous stages.

DEKU

As I said, Shin Tamura is recovering from tonsillitis, so the second and third show I watched had his understudy Yasuhito. You can find his twitter at yasuhito_nk.

Shin Tamura was amazing as usual, and he'll probably be back for the dvd recording the 21st! So I'll mainly talk about Yasuhito. If I had to describe the difference between them, I think I could say that Yasuhito feels much more like season 1 Deku, his voice is higher, amazing powerful singing voice too, and maybe because Shimura's clothes are bigger for him, he also looked smaller! He did feel more insecure, and season 1 Deku, than Tamura whom, I think, has a more commanding presence. They are also so good at expressing strong emotion on stage with their body language (as the face is not always visible to the audience), and he often grasped his own shirt to express nervousness. At the end of Deku vs Kacchan 2, he also seemed readier to keep fighting and his fists were balled up when Kacchan won.

I'm a bit sad that we won't hear a recording of his songs, because his voice was so powerful!!

Here's him and Kobayashi (Bakugou's actor) from his twitter (source)

BACKGROUND INTERACTIONS

The musical had a lot of fun background interactions between characters! I probably missed so many! Here are some cute ones I noticed. I'll vaguely go in order if characters.

Iida and Ochako interacts A LOT. Ochako in general is very energetic! Her and Deku jumped around like nerds when they saw Ms Joke. Ochako also fainted when she saw Momo's bed, and Iida had to pick her up, but she kept falling down. Another cute thing, she tried to out-oui Aoyama when they announced Sato as the winner of the room competition. She also was the first character to jump in to talk to Bakugou after the school started again (so the first time the students see themselves since Kamino), and she tried to cover Tsuyu's view when Bakugou makes Kaminari use his quirk.

Todoroki was hilarious. My eyes were always on him basically. During the room song he was constantly doozing off and sleepy, and got mad when Aoyama's dazzling took woke him up. The actor is a great dancer, so it's always fun to see him act in dance scenes because he pretend to be constantly confused. Another funny moment was when Aoyama showed him his license (because Todoroki didn't pass), and Todoroki picked it up but accidentally burnt it, and then run after Aoyama to apologize.

Mina was amazingly energetic too! Definitely hard to miss! She exchanged some words with Kirishima about his new costume, one show I saw her nudging Aizawa after they met Ms Joke. She also teases Bakugou a bunch and notably she's one of the few characters who does not slowly back away from him. At the end, she has different versions of her teasing, when Bakugou is vacuuming the dorms. In one occasion she took the cable of the vacuum and pulled it around him, to trap him inside.

Aoyama is such a star. I just wanted to write that one if the funniest scenes is right at the end when he throws glitter everywhere while Bakugou and Deku are vacuuming.

Most of Deku and Bakugou backgrounds scenes were looking at each other (ex. When Bakugou gives Kirishima the money, Deku states at him and follows him almost), or with Mineta, Todoroki and Iida (for Deku), Kirishima for Bakugou.

WHAT CHANGES

The show was overall identical all three times! Only a few scenes changed. In order of appearance:

1) Eraserhead and Mic intermission thing, plus their interaction with Aoyama later change! Some I've seen: Erasermic talking about sea creatures and algae, Mic complaining that he sees all orange (and Aizawa explains that it's because of his glasses, later he brings him an orange to ask him what colour it is), something about driving. The scenes with them and Aoyama I've seen were instead one about Aoyama doing cpr on Aizawa with "merci!", one that i could not really get but it seemed like word play and it ended up cracking Aizawa's actor so much that he could not stop laughing and start the next line (he had to hide his face in his scarf), and the third one I've seen had Aoyama singing a song about himself.

2) There is a scene where Aizawa and Mineta introduce the dorms. Iida joins and these are a bit different, but I could not tell what they were saying 😅. In the last one tho, Iida was song singing something, and then talking but Aizawa and Mineta left him on the stage.

3) The BUNNY! The bunny scenes change too. During the room introduction, Bakugou comes out dressed as Koda's rabbit. In the first I've watched, everyone fawns over him, he hops like a rabbit and then him and Koda hug. In the second I've seen, Bakugou stomps out very Bakugou like. Koda asks him for his name, and Bakugou replies grumpily before stomping out. In the third scene I've seen, he walks out and everyone is fawning over him.... Then Deku pats his head, and Bakugou yells something angry at him before stomping away. Deku is left looking in disbelief, and he rubs his eyes as if not understanding why the rabbit is so Kacchan like.

4) There were other very small changes here and there. For example, Aoyama interacts a bit with Seiji after he is revealed to not have passed. In one case, Aoyama teaches him how to do the classic oui pose, in another he was teaching him some dance moves!

5) Another small difference was in the interaction between Itejiro and Bakugou. In one case, they exchanged words while Itejiro was walking on the ramp, in another they were actually about to fight, and Kirishima had to manhandle Bakugou away.

6) Also, when the class does their Plus ultra, Bakugou grumpily partecipates, so that's always a bit different. And one time, Inasa took off the blood on his face before walking away, instead of walking away with it, and the students were surprised (it was funny!).

7) Only the first day we had the cast coming out to say a few things! I'm not sure if the next day it did not happen because Tamura was not there, or if it just happens on the opening show.

I'll post soon a bkdk and ships centric post!!

[yellowbluemoonshine]

Hi! I hope you are doing okay ❤

Do you think All Might will die? And if yes then who will kill him?

Thank you so much, anon ^^! I am trying to be better, i am fine. I hope you are doing well, too :)))).

I dont know that he will die or not but i see possible parallels between him and Endeavour in future chapters.

The last time in manga we saw Allmight, he was rushing to somewhere and i assume its most likely Shigaraki and Deku' side. He always wanted to talk with Shigaraki even since Shimura reveal but he was powerless and now, he thinks Midoriya shouldnt carry all the burden and it is his responsibility so i expect him to go there.

It is mentioned that Allmight will be brutally killed by some villain in Overhaul arc by Nighteye. But we also saw that future can be changed so it is no certain that whether he will die or not. Maybe he can die to save Shigaraki but i think Shigaraki wouldnt like that another person (other than his mother) die by trying to save him. It might be terrible for him so maybe, this time, he and Deku whose flaws are being self destructive heroes might try to live. Which would be better conclusion for their arc.

Another reason why i think he will most likely be involved with Deku saving Shigaraki mission is because Endeavour is involved with Shouto saving Dabi mission right now. (It seems author decide to make adult heroes involve with kids 'saving plan' too). (There might be parallels to Bakugou apologise Izuku moment because Bakugou and Endeavour characters/redemptions etc is parallels but i hope it doesnt happen because that is terrible writing). Allmight is indirectly failed Shigaraki and Endeavour failed Dabi in any way possible. It is their responsibility after all so before Deku and Shouto save their foils, Allmight and Endeavour will take some responsilibity for their past actions. Of course, Allmight is nowhere near as bad as Endeavour and the fact that Allmight will choose to come to Shigaraki while Dabi had to chase after Endeavour to make him face...even this shows the difference between them. So yeah, this is what i think it will happen. Whether they will save them together with kids or they will help kids from behind or they will say 'Sorry' or they will show some sort of remorse action to make Shigaraki and Dabi calm down and meanwhile, kids definitely will show there is hope for future so they can stop killing themselves and others.

Though, there is another thing will most likely happen to save them. Recently there is this repeated theme in league chapters. 'Friends'. Afo made fun of Dabi for not having friends. Spinner asked help from Kurogiri to save Shigaraki and others in a chapter named 'Friend'. Kurogiri is having identity crisis in war by saying 'f-f-frie-friends' and trying to help league and Aizawa-Mic at the same time. Mirio made Shigaraki mad when he said 'You dont have any friends' and Shigaraki screamed 'No! I do have them!'. Dabi and Toga recently bond through Twice's death. Toga is having crisis because she feels disconnected from her dear friends because she cant become them. Even Afo seems to be suspecting about someting with his plan because of it.

If we connect all this together with 'Shouto saying He felt saved because he has friends (class 1a)' and 'Deku shouldnt fight alone, he needs his friends', this friendship theme will definitely have a big role to defeat Afo/solve the problem and save them. They all need their friends. Separating them wasnt really a good plan. They need to come together eventually. Kids will be the key to save them, to change their minds but eventually, it might even big help for them. Especially for Shigaraki since 'save me' is main theme of his arc and since he saved league by giving them a home, they (especially Toga and Dabi since they never showed how much they love league and Shigaraki) might play a role for him to be saved from Afo. The answer is everyone coming together for a better future since this is the story of how everyone become heroes together. And this time, actually saving everyone. (Maybe reaching but if Afo turns into child, maybe he will even be saved idk, maybe this will be Bakugou's role since there is some parallels between them idk and well, the one who dont have friends is him since he used them all so karma too, well, we will see).

Anyways, friends are the key, here.

[dr-runs-with-scissors]

The Thad Thawne and Shigaraki rant

Gonna go and preface this with I'm absolutely sure some people will disagree with me and that's fine. Also gonna say there's probably a fair chance no one knows who tf inertia is so. Just roll with me I'll explain as much as my little brain can

ALSO I'm going to be referring to the OG run and Thad's kid zoom run and that ending. I've admittedly taken massive steps away from DC and I think there was stuff with his character post 2016 that I haven't read enough of. Clear? Okay.

Tw- gonna be a long post, mentions of abuse, creepy older men, spoilers for both series's

Thaddeus starts out his life as a clone of another character, Bart Allen and he's raised by his "father figure" president Thawne to just be a hateful little bastard really. Thad is a means to end for him and his only goal is to get rid of Bart - a lot of his initial characterisation in the impulse comics comes from his mission and relationship (or lack there of) to Bart.

Tomura was abused by his dad (to some extent anyway we can talk about that in a separate post) and after accidentally killing his family he's taken in by the story's big bad, All for one (AFO) who uses him as a means to an end, both grooming him to be his replacement body (we'll get there don't worry) and using him as the punchline to a joke with his nemesis. See tomura is the grandson of Nana shimura, the teacher and mother figure to All Might, one of the big damn heroes in MHA.

So already they're both starting strong with heavy connections to hero's and heroic families. They're trained and groomed by older men as a means to an end that ultimately isn't really their fight.

The next thing is a smaller thing, it's heavily implied that if That's were shown kindness and love he would have turned out well...not a murderous maniac but when he's offered that chance he ultimately declines, and that's in and of itself a nuances thing but ultimately he's never "saved". Tomura was left to the mercy of his family who he described as "rejected him" and when he kills them he's left traumatized and scared (he's only 5) wandering the streets and no one, absolutely no one comes to help, he's even more or less shooed off by a lady - it's all for one that comes to his rescue and takes him in, ultimately leading him down a hard track. Obviously there's differences here but the theme of needing someone in a moment and not getting it (too late in Thad's case and not a real saviour in tomuras) is interesting I think.

Last thing I wanna talk about and it's related to current events in MHA (as of ch374) so this might change but I doubt it.

Thad's story more or less ends with him dawning a new villain title 'Kid Zoom' - the sidekick for Zoom, one of the reverse flashes and after a series of reasonably complicated events he's eventually killed...by the other rogues from the flash's rogue's gallery. Which I always thought was super disappointing. In the end Thad ended up the same way he started - a tool for other villains and despite having what was a wonderfully interesting concept and potential he was reduced to yet another cog in the Allen's Vs Thawnes conflict.

Seem familiar? Yeah that's cuz Tomura is currently in the same position. Reduced to a means to an end in a longstanding grievance battle. All for One is possessing his body and it's looking like his only out is having izuku (the protag) save him which...just doesn't sit right with me like this for various reasons. MHA has increasingly become about the all for one Vs one for all conflict and tomura (and izuku) have become cogs in a conflict that wasn't even theirs. It's inherited. It's not a writing decision I'm a fan of, and people are more than welcome to disagree or argue with me.

Okay sorry for the rant but I'm sure I'll end up adding more to this as days go by

@multi-lefaiye this is your fault for enabling me (but thank you)

[chidoroki]

My Hero Academia S6EP9

aka: bodies are dropping

Such a mood change from seeing Aizawa chop off his leg to the upbeat OP song.

Yay my boy Todoroki finally arriving on the scene!

Machia is certainly making his way downtown, charging fast, buildings smashed and he’s Shigaraki bound.

Aahh how devastating it must be for Momo to lose both Midnight and Majestic, especially after they put so much trust in her. My poor girl.

Midoriya is about to fucking snap.

The wonderful timing of him using Shimura’s float quirk during a fight against Shigaraki.

Hearing Ochako yell at Bakugo is great. Even Asui seems to be giving him a hard time.

I still think Ochako looks real cute with her hair tied up like that.

It is great Midoriya learned how to fight well while airborne but that allows him to be even more reckless with his attacks too which isn’t great for his body.

Oohh I forgot about this plan from Bakugo, nice going.

“Why aren’t you dead yet…” For real, even being burned to such a degree by Endeavor did nothing.

Of course we’re gonna end it on Bakugo getting skewered! Ah!

[villainsandvictimsalliance]

Regarding Toshinori calling Dabi "insane", I just want to add that I loved Horikoshi adding that detail. Why?

Because the hero system hasn't change!

Yes, we got some emotional moments after Ochako's speech, we got Stain talking to Toshinori, we got the consequences of the War, but the problem runs deep.

Toga is "crazy".

Dabi is "insane".

Tomura is "a child".

They're the representation of how society would break you and then made everyone go against you because "you're not will in the head". They're the main three villains.

Older pro-heroes have been more exposed to the manipulations of the hero society. They are used to looking the other side with situations like the Endeavor one. And it's not coincidence that Horikoshi showed us again how much All Might's existence has hurt Tomura, just when the narrative of the villains being crazy is brought back.

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but Toshinori doesn't know about Deku's speech to the Vestiges. I think he says that he felt Deku's resolution, but because he isn't dead yet, he couldn't be there with the vestiges, just generally feel it. In that case, Toshinori could not know what Deku is planning to do.

I want to remind everyone that we got a whole panel of Deku telling All Might he was as powerful at him in his best days. And that panel ended up with Deku going away and leaving All Might behind.

Deku is already as great as All Might. Now he's currently surpassing him by doing something All Might couldn't do: saving Tenko Shimura.

What does it matter when we talk about Dabi? Because the narrative told us the UA kids are becoming the greatest heroes. They all are going to push pass the old generations and they what they are incapable of doing.

Ochako stole the megaphone (the voice) from Present Mic to declare her intentions. Shouto saved Endeavor from dying in the War arc because Endeavor froze while facing Touya. Tokoyami had to rescue Hawks from Dabi, Momo completed the operation Midnight was leading against Gigantomachia, Deku was the one who protected everyone by facing AFO.

These kids are already more.

So while the oldest generation is still focused on eradicating the villains but not the problem (see Aizawa saying it's time for revenge andfor example), the UA kids now that if they don't fix the problem, nothing will change. There'll be another Dabi, just like Shouto almost turned to one. There'll be another Toga, another Tomura, another Spinner, another Kurogiri.

The revelation of the UA traitor came with the idea that pro-heroes are still not seeing villains as victims. So what Horikoshi did was putting a villain right among the UA kids. And what know? Is she crazy too? They lived with her all this time. They laughed with her, she's their friend, their student. Are they going to push her aside just like society pushed aside all the other villains? Are they going to try and kill her?

And that goes deeper. Didn't they help Iida when he went after Stain? Didn't they help Bakugou? Didn't they went for Midoriya went he left UA? And didn't Deku prevent Shouto becoming something like Endeavor?

We're back on Toga's question: why should the heroes decide who should be saved and who shouldn't? How do they do that?

Why Endeavor deserves to live but not Touya? Why Dabi is the "insane" one and not Endeavor, who abused his family for 25 years?

And because so much has happened, now the kids don't have the pressure to be like their teachers or past idols. Now they can identify when their mentors are wrong, now they can make their own decisions, their own futures. This goes back to Deku refusing to believe he couldn't be a hero because he didn't have a quirk. This goes back to the kids choosing to rescue Bakugou while not trusting the pro-heroes (and ultimately helping All Might win the fight by taking Bakugou out of there). This goes back to the kids defeating Stain and changing the future Nighteye had seen, to them refusing to stay back, to their desire to be heroes not matter what others say.

If the old pro-heroes think Toga, Tomura and Dabi are insane, why can the kids decide on their own if they agree with them or not?

This is all connected because it's the building of the final arc. Let's not forget it.

[marunalu]

Okay so I realized I havent postet dfo stuff for a while and I decided I need to change that. Actually I wanted to post this for a while now, but I have been a little busy and unmotivated recently. So here it comes. People who follow me or read my dfo posts know that I believe that the reason why afo/hisashi left "overseas" is because of all might. Because all might startet to become to much of an problem by actively trying to find afo and that put his little family in danger too. And while I still think this could be part of the reason why he left, for a few weeks now I think there was actually a different reason.

Now I think afo didnt leave because of all might and to protect his family (it still can play into that too), but because, knowing what afos goals and dreams are, his feelings for his family startet to affect him and hinder him in archieving his goals. Okay hear me out. Lets say for a moment the inko shimura theory is true (it also works if its not) then afos interest in inko makes perfectly sense. He most likely wanted to use her against all might but after a while.... things startet to become more complicated. Because afo startet to care or even like her romantically. If we go by the whole "40 year old maccalan" thing being a code word for inko, while the "16 year old maccalan" was confirmed to be a code word for izuku, its actually a big hint that afo has romantic feelings for inko, because @psychomurderz found out by checking the raws that afo speaks in a very soft and affectionate way about whoever that 40 year old maccalan is. Not his voice (because of course we cant hear his voice), but THE WAY he speaks. And only inko really fits the bill to be meant here, because who else should the aoyamas bring to him who fits the age and wouldnt be able to fight against afo? So if its really inko (and its most likely her) afo feels AT LEAST affection for her. Its also important to note that he asked for the "40 year old maccalan" FIRST and only after the aoyamas told him they can bring an 16 year old maccalan to him (= izuku) he agreed to it.

Well back to the point now, I think afo originally wanted to use inko against all might (if inko shimura is true) or play a little bit around with her and crush her little heart like he loves to do with people. But... things startet to change between them and all of a sudden he was a married man and just some time later there was a baby. This.... wasnt how things were supposed to go. But the real problem was that afo startet to ENJOY this. He startet to like to have a family again, to have a place to come back to and he could call "home". To be loved and missed when he wasnt there. Similar how it was once between him and his brother before everything went to hell.

I think its possible that at first afo was telling himself that this kind of life is just for a short while. A nice little break from all the villain stuff and that its not that serious, but more and more his growing love for izuku and inko startet to affect him and he startet to lose interest in his main goals, because his family was more important to him. And because the idiot he is, he told himself that he cant let that happen, because he needs to fullfill his life goals to make a "better world" and THAT was the reason he left. Not really to protect his family but because his love for them turned him more and more into "hisashi" and he LIKED it! And that isnt allowed to happen. BUT the thing is, despite leaving them, he is not able to forget them or stop loving them, so he still provides for them, still sends enough money for them to have a comfortable life so that inko doesnt need a job and can concentrate solely on izuku. So that both of them have at least each other.

There is also something very interesting going on here:

Some people already pointed it out (even non dfo fans) but something here smells fishy. When afo says "thats all I ever wished for" it looks like as if he is "far away". As if he remembers something and his words are more to HIMSELF. As if he is reminding HIMSELF about "what he ever wished for."

He is telling himself "you want to obstruct the future of this world" (whatever that means) and NOT "you want to be hisashi midoriya and you want to go home to your family and you absolutely dont want to fight against your own son!"

So to come to an conclusion: afo didnt leave to protect his family from the heroes and to prevent all might to find out about them, but because afo wants to be the demon lord and his love for his family prevents him from archiving that! He is in conflict because he wants BOTH but is telling himself he only wants the demon lord part. Similar how darth vader wanted padme/luke but at the same time also wanted the dark side and rule over the galaxy. And at the very end he had to make the decision what he wanted more.

[itsnothingofinterest]

 Okay, so I recently saw it said that a few of us villain stans, likely including me because I definitely do this, are arguing to much in favour of the villains ‘society’ angle and the need for change, and not thinking enough about their on personal issues and traumas.

Taking the only logical course of action; I’m here to talk the importance of the society angle even more, by showing how it connects to their traumas. And the farther reaching consequences while I’m at it. Because I genuinely am hoping that discussing the issues I see in popular theories can help me/us refine our general ideas of what will/should happen with Shigarak & the League on their path to redemption.

Because the thing is, the post and those like it are right that the League’s traumas and the handling of them are important factors to the villains redemption. I agree with those parts. But their issues with hero society are also important, genuinely maybe more, because they decide whether or not we loop back here or not after the League are inevitably saved (something I think most will agree is a lot less in-question at this stage).

Got a bit long though, so I’m putting a read more; under which you’ll find a discussion on the connection between their traumas & societal grievances, an analysis on the farther reaching consequences on these grievances, and a personal note on why I care so much about them besides. Should that interest anyone.

You interested then? Alright, cool.

Now, the connection between the society route and the trauma route is simple; the various social issues are what caused the traumas that made the villains. Competitive hero scene leads to Endeavor’s eugenics experiment leads to Dabi, quirk prejudice leads to Himiko & Shuichi being shunned for their quirks leads the villains Toga & Spinner, heroes caring about fighting more than their families leads to Kotaro’s abusive behavior (which was basically Hero society in miniature) leads to the Shimura incident + a follow up of civs leaving everything to heroes leads to Shigaraki Tomura.

Additionally, in their fight to destroy the source of those traumas, the villains are effectively fighting to prevent others from experiencing their starts to darkness...regardless of how most probably...aren’t thinking that far ahead.

(I don’t think Tomura’s thought much of this; but I think at least Dabi, for one, has. If just to the point of “I want to stop what happened to me from happening again” and not quite “so no one else is ever again in my place”. Well they are trauma survivors; I’m not gonna get on their case too much for focusing on their own survival & lashing out against their trauma sources over their fellow victims.)

But regardless of conscious intention, and whether you think AFO’s hand in things invalidates their motivations (which is a post for another day); that prevention of others experiencing their traumas is the result they, for all their toxic worldviews and unhealthy coping mechanisms, are fighting for.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Okay but it’s still not gonna cure they’re traumas so why am I acting like the society angle is more important? Well the thing is that, yes, the trauma angle is important because Tomura, Dabi, Himiko, Spinner are important; but that is still just them regardless. Just those four. In few years to a decade, if nothing is done about the cracks in hero society that made the League, then another Tenko, Touya, and Himiko will all “happen”. They’ll get together, and they’ll kill a lot more people. Maybe they’ll be saved to, or maybe they’ll get jailed for life or even killed. Doesn’t really matter, because the next set will kill more people afterwords either way, in the doomed hope of affecting unachievable change. (Because if our League can’t do anything now, the future knock-off League’s definitely can’t.) And this will continue until Ujiko’s quirk apocalypse finally does humanity in; because heroes don’t care about that either.

And that’s the thing; the heroes don’t care about this “flaws in our society” stuff, and under no circumstances am I going to give them the benefit of the doubt to suddenly care to deal with this stuff off-panel and then do so. This is true even for the ones we like.

Example: we all like Shoto, right? He’s a nice kid, kind, wants to be a hero to put people at ease, yeah? Yeah. ...He doesn’t care about preventing other heroes from doing what Endeavor did to their own families. I know that’s hard to accept but it really is something he’s never once given thought to. Dabi, for all his aforementioned toxic world-views and coping mechanisms, is the only character who does. And if Shoto doesn’t start showing to agree with his brother on-screen and work to fix it himself; I am frankly unwilling to assume that will change unprompted. Not for him or any other hero; not when not doing so is easier for them, and heroes taking the easy way out has become a pattern recently.

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A pattern both in-text and in recent predictions, I’m finding. I mean, this whole post is about a theoretical easy out the heroes have to avoid having to fix Hero Society and my problems with it. And I think that’s my core issue here; given the themes of hard work in this series, I’m against the idea of easy outs. Weather that be AFO’s incompetence giving the heroes an easy win in the finale, or using him alongside Tenko’s trauma to invalidate & ignore Tomura’s grievances with society so they don’t need to be addressed.

Especially because: the LOV are getting redeemed, no questions. I often get the impression my fellow villain stans worry about that when presented with the idea of hiccups in the redemption arcs; like Tomura killing someone again this arc, or getting too mad about Twice’s death, or holding on to his grievances post-AFO defeat, etc. Like, they’re worried if the redemption doesn’t go smoothly enough, there’s a chance it won’t happen. But the kids have set out to save them, they’re quite dedicated to it; so it’s happening, hiccups or no.

But they’ve never shown to care for this societal stuff; so that’s a bit more up in the air, and thus a bit more concerning for me.

[greenhappyseed]

BnHA Ch.331 - Review, parallels & comparisons

This is an odd chapter. Lots of text and big art pieces, yet not much actually happens? Let’s see what nuggets we can extract.

The first few pages are AFO!Shig!Tenko analyzing Star’s quirk in gamer terms. Not only is this kinda rambly like Izuku’s muttering, it’s finding a way to win using the video game analogies that both Izuku and Katsuki have used. Is this a new hint Katsuki will be important in saving Tenko???

When Katsuki was kidnapped by the LOV, Shigaraki thought he and Katsuki would have some things in common. Shigaraki attempted to “turn” Katsuki by talking about how oppressive rules can be. The rules of hero society cause suffering, even for fledgling heroes, right??? Of course, Katsuki didn’t buy it. He found a way to be himself, even within hero society. He never let rules or appearances constrain him. But if Shiggy can steal New Order…if he can make his own new rules, then Shiggy can change it all. Yes, I know the “urge” is AFO talking, but I feel like a part of Shigaraki is excited too.

The other thing that stood out to me was the true re-emergence of Tenko as a distinct identity. We haven’t really seen Shigaraki explicitly refer to himself as a Shimura before. (Meanwhile, calling her Ms. Star is adorable and oddly respectful; remember, Shiggy isn’t trying to kill her):

Awww, Mon!!! I LOVE Shiggy thinking about his dog. But not merely that he misses his dog — he’s asking if his dog has sufficient self-awareness to fall victim to Star. Could she pet a dog, say it’s name, and make it attack? Probably not. What else doesn’t have a sufficient sense of self? How about the Nomu? How about AFO himself? How about anyone else struggling with a duality…maybe a hero/villain name or family name that isn’t who they truly are? Maybe someone who can change appearance? Or maybe someone whose body houses vestiges, or pieces of other people? This part is VERY nicely aligned with the two most recent Vigilantes chapters.

Speaking of names and identity, Star’s name is officially translated as Cassie, not Kathy. She (and Agpar, and by extension, America) are competing to “surpass All Might” just like Endeavor, who she name-checks. But she’s not trying to surpass All Might by saving; she’s killing to win. You can criticize All Might’s sacrificial tendencies and “pillar” approach if you want, but he NEVER would ask a squad to go down at his sole direction. Cassie’s fist bumping her bros like Uraraka, but do NOT mistake this for true teamwork. This is following orders from a reckless leader committing war crimes, and the pilots know it.

Star’s behavior is recognized in canon as extreme, even for the extraordinary circumstances, but it’s also shrugged off because Number One Hero and Surpass All Might. It shows just how much restraint All Might must have used; how much his heart really mattered when wielding such a powerful quirk.

Also the Endeavor name drop makes me think…. will he join in this fight? I’ve been wondering if he can bring himself to attack Shiggy again. If he agrees with Star that Shiggy needs to die…..that means his villainous serial killer son might be deserving of death too. Or maybe Horikoshi was just being a goof and playing off this:

That brings us to Tiamat. Yes, the name is a reference to a Babylonian goddess of the sea from which other gods were born, and a powerfully evil dragon goddess/queen of the dragons in DnD. But it is ALSO a reference to Barrage (Horikoshi’s series before BnHA) as seen in the Vol 32 preview, which was part of Vol 31. See @hanashimas post here for detailed scans & translations. In Barrage, “Tiamat” is a young, powerful knight and astute military commander who is loyal to the crown and afraid of women — funny given his namesake. In Ch.331, Tiamat is the name of the missiles headed to destroy Shigaraki, the man-child gamer who sometimes gives off incel vibes, at the direction of a woman.

FWIW, Barrage is only 16 chapters long, and I do recommend reading it as there are similar themes, even some exact dialogue, that makes its way into BnHA. I haven’t included anything specific here about Tiamat’s character arc, although you can probably guess some of it. :)

Finally. Hypersonic cruise missiles. Hypersonic just means faster than the speed of sound, like Edgeshot /hj. These missiles are intended to hit land-based targets, and can carry nuclear warheads. They are self-propelled by a rocket and they fly on a relatively low and flat trajectory — but they can maneuver while flying, generally via radar guidance or some type of remote control. If a fleet of these hit Shigaraki on the ground, it’s certain to cause destruction of the surrounding area. But Shigaraki — or AFO — might be able to use radio waves to change the flight path….