#kudou: now THIS I can work with

[seagreenstardust]

Yoichi calling Kudou “My Hero”

Kudou smirking as he uses Kacchan to finally get Izuku to listen to him

Izuku not wanting to let go of One For All, not because it’s strong or because he’ll be Quirkless again but because All Might gave it to him so it’s precious to him BABY

The vestiges taking the fight inside of Shigaraki, meaning we might get vestige Izuku and vestige Kacchan

I loved it. Everything about it.

[emberwritesinsight]

Watched the first couple episodes of My Happy Marriage because it's on Netflix and looks fucking beautiful. The directors (and the VAs) did their job very well because my heart shatters into a million pieces whenever I see Miyo Saimori being mistreated, which is constantly because her family SUCKS. And the way she gets so surprised and bewildered when shown even the slightest decency and kindness from people who have power over her? Just stab me it would hurt less

Desperate to see what Kiyoka's deal is and why he's Like That. The thing he said to Miyo about absolute obedience is a huge massive yikes but beyond that he doesn't really seem evil or anything, just shit at dealing with people. I know the whole thing is going to be framed romantically regardless because *gestures broadly at title, intro, direction, general framing of everything*, but I desperately hope he's like... actually a good partner, or can become one. Mostly because I want good things for Miyo.

AND KOUJI AUGH. Bro wants good things for Miyo as much as I do if not more and what does he get? An arranged marriage with her awful sister. R.I.P.

[spatio-rift]

watched go episode 28! it sucked! not only do i think kidou wouldnt do that in the first place but i wish inazuma eleven would stop with the coaches that dont communicate anything to their players! if that grown ass man cant be bothered to tell the kids hes coaching WHY hes training them a certain way ESPECIALLY if it ends w them in tears or quitting then that man shouldnt be coaching them in the first place!!!! and they certainly shouldnt apologize for doubting him and getting angry when its the adults responsibility to fucking talk to them im gonna lose it

[vam1mav]

|| THEORY TIMEEE ||

|| DAMN- ||

|| Imagine Afo having almost the same goal as Endeavor at some point: Combining Quirks. ||

|| What if Afo wanted to have a quirk that didn't have the same weakness as his, he wanted to have an All For One that could steal quirks from distance, and what better way to do it than having an heir? ||

|| But to have an heir, he needed a woman with a quirk that could attract things to her, and that's where Inko comes in ||

|| Her quirk was just what Afo needed, and on top of that, she was manipulable, she was perfect for the plan, but then a problem came in to ruin everything: Hisashi Midoriya ||

|| Most likely by that time they would be married and happy, and just that, was a problem for Afo but when he realized that Hisashi worked in Koga Construction, something came to his mind. ||

|| Afo began to monitor Hisashi and learn his behaviors with people and especially with Inko, and one day, Afo summoned Hisashi to "build" something for him, and when Hisashi arrived... Afo killed him. ||

|| After getting rid of the body, Afo using the Quirk to change appearance, he changed his appearance and took on Hisashi's. (Evidence that Afo does have a Quirk like that in the photo ↓) ||

|| "Hisashi" returned home with his wife, and after a month or more time, he convinces her to have a child ||

|| And well, then Izuku was born ||

|| It is more than obvious that the plan worked, since in the manga Izuku currently shows TOO many signs of having a quirk ||

|| So the question with this theory is... What happened? Why didn't Afo steal Izuku's quirk? ||

|| And don't tell me that "Maybe his quirk was like Yoichi's and they couldn't tell it was really there" BECAUSE THEY KNEW. ||

|| In this publication we are taught some human biology, and, in short, The Doctor Gairaki, lie, THIS BALD SON OF A BITCH LIED TO INKO AND IZUKU IN THEIR FUCKING FACE. ||

|| But why? Why Afo ordered the Doctor to lie?? Why not steal the quirk and say that Izuku was quirkless??? ||

|| For this I bring two possible reasons: ||

1) Izuku's quirk CANNOT be stolen by Afo so he just compressed it and waited for Izuku to decide on his own to be a villain so he could tell him the truth later, and then make him his true successor and the Prince of Demons.

2) Afo ended up becoming fond of Izuku because his appearance and behavior is similar to that of Yoichi, but as we already know...

someone died for using their quirk for the first time.. Soooo Izuku using his quirk didn't seem like a very good idea to Afo.

|| Either option can be possible, it could even be both! (I say this because Afo HAD MANY OPPORTUNITIES TO KILL IZUKU OR INKO AND NEVER DID ANYTHING TO THEM WHEN THAT PLUM BITCH KILLED NANA'S HUSBAND AND THE WHOLE FAMILY AND FRIENDS OF KUDOU-) ||

|| But well now we just have to wait to see how the Dad For One Theory will become canon ||

|| And remember! ||

|| Have hope that the theory will become reality! If Horikoshi already did something like this with Tomura/Tenko and with Dabi/Touya then the theory is not so crazy that it cannot be canonized! ||

|| Horikoshi never disappoints the fandom!! ||

✧ Credits to @gothicayomi and @zelyres for they incredible theories!✧

[myheroblogs]

Yoichi and All For One are IDENTICAL TWINS (and what it means...)

Okay, I know this acc has kinda been dead for over a year or two by now and I haven't exactly caught up with MHA, I only started reading the last 3-4 chapters, and I wasn't planning to revive this acc after being inactive for so long, but I discovered something that I CAN'T keep quiet about.

In the newest chapter, further detail on Yoichi and AFO's backstory is revealed (Yes! The chapter I've been waiting for!), and surprisingly, AFO and Yoichi are TWINS! I think very few people really thought of the concept, so it was unexpected in general.

I assumed they're fraternal twins, because while they're twins, the anime showed them having different eye colors... (Yoichi has green eyes and AFO has red eyes)

...Until I realised that isn't actually possible.

Because TTTS (twin to twin transfusion), can only occur in IDENTICAL TWINS.

In other words, yes, Yoichi and AFO aren't just twins, they're IDENTICAL TWINS. Anime may be wrong about eye colors again (like how they were for Iida's).

And while it's both unexpected and funny to think about all this (I mean, c'mon, that means Yoichi could've had the exact same face as his brother-), a lot of people may have missed the very BIG implication that this has.

Remember, identical twins share the exact same genetic makeup. After all, they are basically what should've been one person but got split into two somewhere in the early process.

But aren't y'all forgetting...

...that QUIRKS are also genetic?

If AFO and Yoichi are identical twins the entire time, with the EXACT SAME GENETICS, then that would mean that the quirks they have, would be identical as well. Because quirks are also genetic.

All For One and One For All are the SAME QUIRK by nature.

You may be wondering, "if they're the same quirk, why do they seem to function differently?" Yes, OFA can pass itself on, AFO can't, etc.

Well, while they are identical twins, they did suffer through TTTS, with Yoichi as the donor twin.

This probably messed a lot with Yoichi's development, and thus, his quirk. After all, while identical twins, are well, identical, a lot of factors can change how their genetics are expressed (some are expressed more than others). TTTS would've been a big one for AFO and Yoichi.

Notice when looking at OFA's functions (minus the stockpile), it's a significantly weaker version of AFO? AFO can just take and give through close contact with another person. For the transfer to even work for Yoichi, he has to transfer through DNA (blood, or eating hair??), and the only way it can even store quirks if said person inherited the quirk and passed it on like hot potato. I wouldn't even be surprised if Yoichi's quirk could only story a certain number of quirks.

The functions of Yoichi's original quirk got so messed up, it had to evolve into being able to pass itself on for it to even function itself. So much so that literally no one realised he had a quirk, maybe even Yoichi himself until after his death.(Im in the camp that Yoichi died passing on the quirk and it was Kudou who discovered the transfer ability and made the plan to defeat AFO)

So yeah, Bakugo was correct about OFA being the same as AFO all along. Except he was wrong about it being due to AFO creating OFA. It's actually because the original quirk holders were identical twins, meaning the quirks they have would also be identical. But things happened, which caused the quirks to work differently from each other.

EDIT: As another addition to this post, this also explains why OFA and AFO are so intricately linked, that the two users can start seeing into the other's vestige realm. To the point that when they both come into contact, it merges their vestige plains into one. Or perhaps, it's actually two quirks temporarily merging into one.

Since identical twins are basically one split into two, then two identical quirks having contact with each other is the same as two merging back into one again.

[greenhappyseed]

Having now read the official release of MHA 407, I don’t (yet) see the argument that AFO was a traumatized baby who was just looking for someone to respond to his cries and take care of him the way that Tenko was wandering the streets. While it’s revealed that AFO doesn’t want to be alone, AFO’s backstory and Tenko’s backstory reveal two very different men with different motivations.

The narrative in 407 says young AFO distrusts anyone who won’t turn and look at him when he cries because those people don’t offer anything of value to him. He can’t manipulate them into doing what he wants, and therefore they are useless and he can kill them if he wants. This has long been AFO’s thought pattern, and it’s what he taught young Tenko — YOU are more important than anything, and YOU should always act how you desire. Nothing in the world matters except what YOU want to do.

Contrast that with young Tenko’s initial reactions when realizing he killed his family, and with Tomura’s later hesitation to kill (or even attack) Katsuki after Katsuki refuses to join the LOV. Tenko/Tomura cares about other people, even after they refuse him, in a way that AFO does not.

Moreover, look at young AFO’s faces. He isn’t shown smiling or crying or having any emotion at all until page 11, when he reveals he killed the glowing child and stole their quirk. He then grins widely as he talks about his dream of a world that exists only for him. AFO didn’t smile when killing the anti-meta group OR when reading with Yoichi. He has no happy, smiling memories prior to this moment (even with Yoichi), unlike Tenko who had fond memories of his mom, sister, friends, and dog.

As another point of contrast, look at why AFO wants to be the villain: He wants to be surrounded by people who pay tribute to him. He does not want to “battle on in solitude.” (Another reason why AFO hated All Might for smashing his face in — it required a lengthy recovery hidden away from followers.)

To AFO, people are a one-way relationship. He doesn’t want to be alone, so he wants to possess a brother who directly opposes everything AFO stands for; a brother who is family and who wishes for the best but will never be a supporter, follower, ally, or friend. AFO gives Yoichi a quirk thinking that will change Yoichi’s mind, or keep him somehow bound to AFO.

Tomura, however, wants allies, and in return he wants to give back to them. He got downright DEFENSIVE when Mirio said he didn’t have any friends. Tomura understands the give-and-take involved in working with people. He doesn’t just want followers that do his bidding.

In the end, AFO’s unrelenting selfishness will leave him alone — at some point he will run out of “followers” and paths to victory. Meanwhile, Yoichi and Kudou built a network that ensured they would not be alone in their battle. They found true allies in the other OFA holders, and in turn Izuku found allies among pro heroes and at UA, just as Tomura did in the LOV. They are not alone.

[oshiawaseni]

People really like my Yoichi abuse meta so I’ll link it here 🫶🏻

A look into Yoichi’s cycle of forgiving abuse until Kudou broke him out of that and also what sets Katsuki apart from AFO. Because Katsuki also abused Izuku and readers have been regarding him almost on the same level as AFO (like an irredeemable monster), when he loves Izuku so much now. Horikoshi is showing how much Kacchan has changed from the person who used to “get in Izuku’s way.”

This thread here too is a must read. It’s one of the first meta I wrote about Hori’s road to Katsuki’s redemption by making him AFO’s foil.

Hori writing Katsuki’s return like this surely has to be to garner more reader acceptance of the bkdk end game he wants. Western fandom is particularly stubborn with their Katsuki hate and they can’t move past chapter one.

But that’s fine because I don’t think Katsuki can get past it either. I felt relieved that he remembered his mistreatment of Izuku again in chapter 409 and thought on how he won’t bring down Izuku anymore, because that feels like buildup for that bkdk talk we have all been waiting for!! Hori is deconstructing the hateful arguments against Kacchan, one bias at a time, so that readers will be compelled to re-assess his character.

I feel that one specific thing would need its own special intimate tearful apology, and it is absolutely crucial for Katsuki’s complete redemption to (most) readers.

So when we get our bkdk talk… when Kacchan and Izuku deep dive into Izuku’s past (hopefully working through Izuku’s issues together with him), I’ll be looking out for something like them holding each other tightly as Kacchan apologises for saying that awful thing to the person he loves.

[dekusleftsock]

Yada yada, kudou looked through Izuku’s memories and saw big gay thoughts, but we already knew they were gay. Of course they were gay. They’ve always been gay.

YOU KNOW WHAT I WANNA TALK ABOUT? THIS OFA QUIRKLESS THING!

It’s so FASCINATING! And I know I’m late to the party (school, work, life, depression, art block, the list could go on) but all I can think about is the trust that this entire situation holds.

On one hand, Izuku has to trust Kudou and his abilities. Defeating him from the inside out is probably the only way Izuku will win at this point.

And on the other hand, Izuku in his own way, is having to trust shigaraki, something he hasn’t done nor even considered before. He sees that little boy inside of him, but there’s more to that little boy. The man that stands before him, broken and beaten and shattered emotionally by society, is a person too. It truly doesn’t matter that the boy exists; yes it’s a way for Izuku to understand that concept of “heroes and villains are cut from the same cloth”, but it’s also the understanding that even when someone has fucked up their life, still deserves to be treated as a person for doing so. Everyone, EVERYONE, deserves the right to be and feel like a real and alive human being.

To me, it’s in the same vain as Izuku as a little boy. We could go over he details ALL DAY as to how he became the person he is, what could’ve been different, what could’ve happened. But at the end of the day, the only thing that changes the past is how we view it; Katsuki knows this.

There’s a part of me that whenever I see a fanfic where Katsuki meets his old middle school self that he hates him, wants to kick him down, humble him, whatever other verb here:

But that small part of me always thinks that it’s… oddly out of character.

Okay, comparing Katsuki and Izuku, who is more ashamed of their pasts?

If you guessed Izuku (and you agree with me), tell me what exactly inclines you to think that?

Because the difference between them is who accepts themself, and who doesn’t.

Accepting yourself doesn’t just mean, accepting that you were a bad person but you’re better now so it’s okay. No, I think that’s actually more complex than implied.

In my opinion, seeing your past actions as something to forgive is important too. Katsuki meeting his middle school self may seem like an aggressive cat fight in idea, but it practice may turn into high school Katsuki being unaffected by middle school him. He knows why he thought what he did, understands that it was bad, but also understands why that mindset came to be. He can be sorry to Izuku AND sorry to himself.

Izuku I think feels a sense of shame for his middle school self, especially that weakness. He cried more in middle school too; he didn’t try. That’s what he’s most mad about and unable to forgive himself for, he didn’t try.

And to an extent, Izuku has to learn that his perception of his past is what matters most: Shigaraki is the same.

Shigaraki as a little boy could’ve lived better circumstances. He could’ve found a hero and been saved. He could’ve had this or that or made a better decision. And I think a small part of him feels guilty for it. Shigaraki also doesn’t accept his past.

Ofa being taken away, as saddening as it may seem to fans, was always an ending I was hoping for. Of course I could be wrong and by the end of the manga he still has it, and while I’d still be happy with that ending… I just really want Izuku to let himself be a human being. A flawed one, with things he could or could not change, and accepting that fact.

After all, “You’re still human.” Right?

And sorry to bring up the girls again, but part of the key components to saving Himiko were trusting her, and not clinging to a small part of her. She wanted to see and know Himiko as she is, not who she was.

That’s this dudes problem; even if he wants to tear that rug to pieces, there’s certain ideas that hold him back. Think, the idea that your emotions matter less over others, or hating yourself for flaws that nearly every human being has.

Izuku saving Shigaraki has always always always been about saving himself too, and I love that.

Izuku had to trust Katsuki in this battle, trust allmight, trust Ochako, trust people. He had to let them take the wheel, the burden. Maybe he and Shigaraki can lift that burden for themselves too. His mask is broken, he’s become a monster blackwhip thing…

What’s your move Izuku?

[kudouusagi]

So if you guys haven't heard, I have gone back to school in order to obtain a bachelor's degree. My school requires that I study abroad for the degree and so I have to study abroad to obtain my degree. I have been accepted into a summer program to attend a Japanese language school for intensive Japanese study this summer.

I have gotten scholarships to fund the actual program but I will be in Japan for a little over a month and will have to pay for all my own food and daily necessities and with the current savings I have, the budget might get a little tight. If any of you are able to donate even a bit it will be a huge help to me obtaining my degree.

If you don't want to donate through go fund me, you can message me and I can give you other options.

Also, if you want me to translate anything for you or buy you any merch that is hard to get, let me know! We can work something out!

I can bring back things like perfume, that can't be shipped overseas but can be taken back in luggage, so if you are interested in anything like that, now is your chance (if I can find the items you want on sale).

[amaranthdahlia]

i hnstly thought id make a solo post dt to each one of these, but i dont think ill ever come around to do that so fuck it heres every ofa au i came up on a whim on twitter (though im pretty sure one of these alrdy exists but whatever)

middle/high school au

gone bad au

paranormal twins au

(infodump ab everything below hahdjs)

anyways soo first one is just . like. a middle school au. or highschool. im not sure which one is better lol. basically its just a roles thing: afo is the student council president (that pretty much has his school wrapped around his finger), yoichi is just some student (that gets into fights with bullies) and kudou is a deliquent (that became one just cus of afo) i wanted to expand this more but im procrastinating so nvm

2nd one is well, again, an au i made out of the whim. i just entertained tbe idea of (forced) villain yoichi and rolled with it and only drew it just so i can design yoichi ahsjskg ... and kudoichi there is well . ig a hero/villain pair? and you could say theyre just unfortunate people forced to play a role (also ignore the quality in that part i rushss to draw it haha)

now last one, self explanatory? mama shigaraki lives, afo and yoichi shared their nutrients and their quirk ( where it functions as afo cant give away the quirks he attain, only yoichi could((and only yoichi can receive the quirks his brother takes)) he also cant take the quirks from the user without consent. yoichi is the same but vice versa, but he himself also couldnt give away quirks unless the user consents 👐) everything is semi-normal for the most part. also. first pic is kinda outdated.some of it anyways....... also also i tried my best to make sure afo and yoichi rlly do look like twins despite the hair difference

now i wasnt able to attach the ofa bad end au and the "theyre happy" ending au bc image limit but the 1st is smth i actually wanna work on (but not fuly expand and actively post about, its just smth i gave more thought than the others here haha) and the 2nd one is just ab designs and basically everyone lives nbd dies au (maybe afo only tho)

so yeah. thats all the ofa aus i came up? yall already saw the other aus liek demon/angel au, the childhood friend au.... does the fankids i made count as an au.....? the mlp one......? holders grow old one????

fuck theres so much aus i need to relax hahdhsjf

anyways yeah thnx for reading allthat . entertaining questions wouldve been fun if i actually put enough thought into these aus💔 the hfx just went behind the wheel for these

[thebnha-auhoard]

Still not normal about past OFA users so new au!

Revived OFA Users but they got revived on the first day of UA. And before they could really establish that they're the past OFA Users, Izuku ran past them because he was running late. All he really said was sorry to the three people he bumped into and sorry to the seven other people he bumped into. So now we just have the Seven Users being so confused on what happened and trying to figure out the world they live in now.

They could contact the Eighth and the Ninth but thinking about it, that would be incredibly sketchy and would probably just raise more alarm bells. Plus they don't know the entire situation of the world and going to them immediately may go and make them targets so it's better to keep themselves secret for now. (Kudou and Bruce were very good at pointing that out.)

Also seeing Nana alive when Yagi saw her die would be a shock and would either lead to a very lovely reunion or the reasonable idea that someone is using an illusion Quirk on him. And then there's the other fact that Nana, En, and Banjou were heroes and are legally dead so you know. More risk of the wrong attention on them.

So how do they go and get information on the world today and not reveal their identities? Well Yoichi would say they go and look in the library and research there! And for a week or so they did do that and they get a good grasp on what's happening in the world and they even got new clothes because god forbid they just stay in the clothes they were in. They learn about USJ and oh. Oh that's worrying. A creature with multiple Quirks? Perhaps All For One isn't as dead as everyone hoped he was.

Meanwhile in terms of research, Bruce did the more...impulsive and sketchy decision.

(Nana: Bruce is that Toshinori!? Did you fucking kidnap Toshinori!?

Bruce: It is very easy to kidnap him. It is so easy Nana you don't get it. You just drug him and then I asked Banjou and Shinomori for help and welp. Here we are. He was even in All Might form. Nana he is so reckless and trusting.

Nana: You kidnapped him!

Bruce: Yes and...now that I'm thinking about it maybe those two were right about this being a bad idea.)

So the OFA Users accidentally kidnapped All Might. Whoops. And then the moment Yagi woke up Bruce may have panicked and fucking drugged him again and then Yoichi panicked and may have said that the Seven are villains and oh. Oh this is such a bad start.

Kudou has the biggest headache ever and remembers why he was the one with the Braincell. How could they have fucked it up this badly!? At least he can do damage control as the Braincell of the group.

And then En points out that Kudou kidnapped All For One's brother after being sent to kill him and is now dating him, seduced two of All For One's closest Commanders and has one of them still dating him to this day while he broke up with the other on text, and then finally he pointed out how Kudou did not go and help with the Villain thing as he kept on making vague threats to Yagi so you know. I don't think the any of the three have a singular Braincell among them.

It's even worse as everyone starts leaning in on it and it gets worse as the media starts picking up on it because. Fuck they kidnapped All Might! Forget whatever the hell happened in USJ! Some people kidnapped All Might and all they asked for was information! What are these Seven people planning!?

(If you ask All Might he would say that it was the nicest kidnapping ever. He was of course on edge and you know being drugged sucks but they were generally friendly and one of them felt...familiar somehow? He isn't sure of it. He doesn't think they're villains, or at least the villains that people make them out to be. It is however hard to go and justify why they kidnapped him though.)

Meanwhile the Seven OFA Users are all screaming internally at this and then decided that okay. Sure. Sure we'll work with this. They can work with this and become Villains or Vigilantes, figure out if All For One is alive, and somehow they now have one-upped the League of Villains in terms of news coverage and for danger level. Great. Okay.

Anyways, this is the story on how the past One For All Users accidentally became villains. Or at least the very loose definition of the word "villain"

[mamapyjama]

Thought I ought to bring this over here for the Tumblr crew since it’s making a little buzz in the other place and I want to gather all my thoughts in one place.

So, back in 2022 I was in my feelings about Izuku (when am I not?) and wrote the following little sad headcanon on twt:

Made myself sad thinking about how the original Japanese word for Quirk is ‘kosei’, which means ‘individuality’ or the unique part of a personality. It’s no wonder Deku thought he was plain and useless. Everyone has literally been telling him since he was 4. 😓 Like, there’s no way at that age he could separate people talking about his lack of meta-ability from his own unique value as a person when they’re using the same damn word. That’s the kind of stuff that’s going to stick with you. 🥺

Sad to imagine, eh?

Fast forward to 2024 and chapter 412, and as always, I was browsing the jp fandom tweets for reactions after the official release. They often pick up on things we miss like Katsuki’s childlike language, the NTR implications of the kudoichi plot etc.

As I scrolled, I realised there was a HUGE disconnect between what we in “The West” were experiencing (mostly rage at yet another translation ‘choice’) and the existential questioning that was occurring among Japanese readers.

This is just a tiny glimpse, but you should know that every single one I saw was doing the tweet equivalent of staring into the middle distance with a haunted look.

It’s all about the panel below, which was mentioned by the incomparable Pikahlua, as it is unusual in writing ‘mukosei’ without the speechmarks that signify ‘quirkless’ (to use the English term) rather than ‘lacking individuality’.

Horikoshi always uses speechmarks around “Kosei” when talking about quirks, so the implication here is that Izuku never believed he had actual individuality/personality.

Using this interpretation, Kudou observed that Izuku held the hope that even people who were detestable (Katsuki) and those who had no individuality (Izuku) still had human hearts.

Read that again. Izuku hoped that both he and Kacchan, despite their shortcomings, had human hearts. He thinks his only worth is as a vessel, a holder of OFA, and without that he’s barely human.

Ever noticed how some parts of the fandom complain that Deku is a boring MC, that he’s just ‘nice’, and we never get his opinions on things? Yeah.

Remember how hard he cried when All Might said he could be a hero? That was the first time in his life that someone acknowledged him as someone with potential, with worth. (In ch2 he also says “I have no reason to refuse!!” when offered OFA, which always struck me as slightly anticlimactic but makes way more sense now).

And remember how he cried in a similar way when Ochako told the world that he wasn’t special but that he had a special power? She couldn’t have known she was reinforcing his deepest held insecurity, and for a moment his mask slipped. Or maybe he was touched by her assertion that he was just a ‘regular high school kid’? We don’t know, but it’s worth taking a look at these moments in this new light.

You staring into the middle distance with a haunted look too yet? I know I am.

If you’re interested in the bright side (I needed this, I hope it helps):

Narratively speaking, this is the angst section that will lead to Midoriya Izuku: Rising and the happy ending they all deserve.

And the person most likely to disavow him of this sense of inherent worthlessness is the one person who added to it the most in their childhoods.

✨KACCHAN!!✨

No one else can reassure Izuku that he is special, that he’s worthwhile and—crucially—that he always has been, because he’s the only one who knew that all along.

If you need more reassurance, remember that their Origin and Rising chapters so far have all involved each other and have mirrored the emotional journey they’re both on.

Bakugou Katsuki: Origin: Katsuki struggles to accept Izuku and work as a team to battle All Might. Eventually does the bare minimum to cooperate by lending him his gauntlet.

Bakugou Katsuki: Rising: Katsuki coordinates the pro heroes and sacrifices himself to save Izuku. His body ‘moved on its own.’

Midoriya Izuku: Origin: Izuku is bullied by Katsuki, tries to save Katsuki from a villain—his body ‘moved on its own’, and is consequently told he can be a hero by All Might.

It isn’t a reach at all to pretty safely assume that Izuku’s Rising chapter will also be intrinsically linked to Katsuki, and it is his cooperation, faith and love (however you interpret it) that will finally save Izuku from his own sense of worthlessness. Closing the circle.

So yeah, this bit could be rough for the next few chapters, but I have faith that Horikoshi will wrap it up in a way that will be so rewarding and satisfying.

I’m gonna stop now because I’m ill and I need to rest my head, thanks for reading! 😮‍💨

[thealiveshadow]

You know, I find it sort of ironic that the same people who were saying that Caleb was disrespecting Horikoshi’s work by mistranslating the Bakugou’s line at the end of chapter 405, are the same people who are kind of doing the same. Katsuki, in fact, does have parallels with AFO and Endeavour. And you know what, Izuku has parallels with Yoichi and Touya. Bakugou was a bad person before, but as he grew and matured he became more aware of the world around him and now he has changed into a better person who wants to be a good hero. Pre-development Bakugou was a direct parallel to AFO because of the way they viewed their society and the people around them. However, post-development Katsuki is a direct parallel to Kudou. That is the beauty of his growth, he was able to mature and just like how Kudou took Yoichi's hand in the vault, Bakugou is able to the do the same with Izuku, by taking his hand in this war and helping him win against the villains. Just because certain characters parrallel each other, does not mean they are those characters, it just means that they have similarities to each other, therefore you can ship them however you want. But, when you blatanly refuse to acknowledge the growth the Katsuki's character had, and thus don't see the amount of care, effort, and work that the author put into paralleling characters to match with each other, than you yourself are disrespecting the authors work.

[spinji]

How old is AFO and OFA

[Mile long post incoming]

Long story short this is a theory/headcanon/thought exercise to keep my brain busy while I'm bored at work. I wanted to figure out a more precise estimate for how old All for One is since his birth is essentially the earliest moment of quirk society emerging and so his life spans the entire timeline of this story which I find interesting. And then the whole thing spiraled into a full One for All timeline of headcanons, so enjoy that.

To start though, it would be easy to guess that he's 120-and-some-change because of Garaki. Mic claimed Garaki would be about 120 (and we're just assuming he's exactly right instead of guesstimating for the sake of things) and Garaki confirms that his quirk allows him to live longer than a regular human lifespan, and when they met, All for One was given a copy so he could also live absurdly long. But I want to try a more exact method to ensure that his generations of adversaries could have actually reasonably worked time-wise. So, we can use Garaki's age to check our work but, reasonably, All for One should fall somewhere in the 120-140 range.

Right off the bat, we do have a frustrating lack of information regarding ages and time passing but there are a few things we can establish. Firstly, we know AFO and Yoichi are twins, so when determining age we can start both AFO individually and the OFA users as a collective at the same point. Secondly, Yoichi and AFO are shown to be the first people to have developed a quirk in the way we see in current time. There were vaguely quirk like mutations in people before that (like with their mother) but quirks as we know them are presented to us as originating from these two twins.

I bring this up because while Yoichi, Kudou, and Bruce are all in the same vague realm of "adult" at the same point in time, Yoichi has to be the oldest of the three. Even if it is only by a few years, Yoichi and AFO preceed any characters with a quirk. And while we're on the topic of Kudou and Bruce, we can safely say Kudou is the older one of the duo. He's confirmed to be the head leader of the resistance group against AFO and Bruce is second in command, so, frankly it would just be bizarre if Bruce was older in age but lower in rank. That being said, I don't think their difference in age would be significant.

Exact ages is where things get vague and headcanon-y. There isn't really any hard evidence I can point to other than "that sounds about right" and "I guess they look about that age" in an animation style that is notorious for just slapping a, borderline arbitrary, age on any design regardless of logic. So, rather than trying to justify it too much, my personal choices for their ages are, at Yoichi's time of death, Yoichi is 32, Kudou is 28, and Bruce is 27. At this point in the story AFO has been amassing power and followers for a while now, long enough for a resistance force to rise up against him but not long enough that he's considered it more than a nuisance for other people to handle until now. Early thirties seems pretty reasonable, possibly a bit too young but this man has also been killing people since he was 0.

For Kudou and Bruce I aimed for the older side of military age. Old enough to lead an operation like this but still young enough that AFO's rise to power was during most of their lifetime. Also, there's the issue of the age ceiling. Thanks to Shinomori (who I will get to), users 2 through 7 cannot have lived to be over 40 years old. That is a hard, non-negotiable cap on their ages as the strain of OFA alongside a different biological quirk drastically shortens a person's natural lifespan.

Anyway, back to AFO's age. If Yoichi dies at 32, this would also make him 32 (duh) and given the climate of the world at this point, I think Kudou lasted the shortest with OFA, personally. He receives the quirk immediately upon Yoichi's death after getting his blood in his mouth (Yoichi probably thought of him in his dying moments aww) and likely a week or two later is when Kudou and Bruce find out about it. The chapter frames Kudou finding out Yoichi carried on into him at the same time AFO has the same epiphany so, generously?? I give Kudou a year. Max.

All for One is now filled with seething hatred for Kudou specifically after Yoichi's death, so everything has been put on the back burner so he can both take the quirk from Kudou to get his "possession" back (ew) and to kill Kudou along with everyone he ever knew, loved, spoke to, looked at, or had any genetic lineage with. Even for a guy this powerful that is going to take a bit. A year gives AFO time to find information and strike down the entire resistance and time for Kudou and Bruce to think of a counter strategy and gain an understanding for how OFA works. So, Bruce takes the quirk at 28, Kudou dies at 29, and All for One kills him at 33.

After Kudou's death is a very big blank spot where I need to unfortunately just blindly headcanon again, so bare with me. Kudou and Bruce's plan was for Bruce to take the quirk and slip away from the massacre of the resistance to build OFA stronger and come back to finish the job. I believe that Bruce met Shinomori while he was lying low. Judging by the one image we have of Bruce confronting AFO, he did seemingly attempt to rally people together to defeat him, which would have taken a bit longer than when Kudou was leading an established resistance, since he didn't already have people under him. But he clearly thought to pass the quirk on again as a backup in case he lost, which is why he chose Shinomori to take it. With time needed to plan this attack and also get AFO's sights off him, I'd give it about five years between AFO's fight with Kudou and his fight with Bruce. It's estabished that Shinomori takes the quirk at 22 so, Bruce dies at 33, and All for One kills him at 39.

Shinomori is actually a very clear-cut piece of the timeline. He takes the quirk at 22 and dies at 40, having passed the quirk to the next user shortly before that because he realized his health was rapidly declining. He keeps the quirk for a total of 18 years, making All for One 57 at the time of his death. Judging by how the flashback panels are structured, AFO has received Garaki's quirk by this point.

Also, we have reached the point where every following user of OFA has been a professional hero, so I think it's safe to assume that each link in the chain met through either being colleagues or possibly through a sidekick internship. I doubt All Might was the first one to think of scouting hero students for successors. I'm going to assume that users 5, 6, and 7 were somewhere in the 16-24 range when they received the quirk for that very reason.

Moving on though, Banjo is the next user. I do think Banjo knew Shinomori for a somewhat significant time before his death. Banjo clearly knows about Shinomori's reclusive nature in some level of detail based on how they interact as vestiges and while it is possible for the already deceased OFA users to peer into the thoughts and memories of the current user, it doesn't appear to be the same retroactively, unless it's something the vestiges want to show the current user. All this to say I came to conclusion that Banjo was already likely a pro hero when he recieved the quirk from Shinomori. Shinomori realized what was happening and reached out to one of the few trusted friends he had to carry on the burden because he knew he could handle it. So I'm going to peg Banjo at being about 22 when he took the power as well. Old enough to be experienced as a pro with enough time to have actually met Shinomori before he died. Just like all the others, Banjo died to All for One after being trapped under rubble and gave the power to En just before he croaked. Given his bordering-on-middle-aged appearance, I'm going to put forward Banjo dying at 37 and All for One killing him at 72.

En also has very little information on him but since we only have speculation to work with, might as well stop apologizing for it. En appears to be significantly younger than Banjo, so I suspect he was an internship student to Banjo while he was a pro. Putting En at 17 when he recieved the power is both enough time for them to meet and get to know each other with En having to take the mantle from him sooner than either of them anticipated. En's appearance is still quite young, but he was confirmed to be a pro hero for a time, so he didn't have as short a run as Kudou. Nana was also already some level of hero (whether student or pro is unclear) at the time she recieved the power. Rather than mentor and student I believe they were fledgling colleagues, since Gran Torino fills the role as Nana's older pro mentor. All of this makes me vaguely place En dying at 25 and All for One killing him at 80.

I already mentioned Nana potentially being colleagues with En as their way of meeting. I still think she may have been younger than him at the time but not significantly so. En is another user that is shown passing on the power while at death's door and the following panel that shows Nana accepting it doesn't make her look significantly younger than how she does in any given scene in the series. So I don't think she was a child when she took the quirk but I'm going to set my guess at 20. But! While Nana is another character without a listed age, surprisingly, we can figure it out a good guess with actual evidence this time. Her son Kotaro, grandson Tomura, and pupil All Might all have stated, confirmed ages that we can use to make a feasible timeline for Nana.

Currently, All Might is 57 and Tomura is 21, meaning All Might was 36 when Tomura was born. Kotaro was killed at 32, when Tomura was 5, making him 27 when Yagi was 36. Nana died when All Might was in his last year at UA, making him 18, meaning Kotaro was 9 at the time. Nana gave All Might OFA when he was in middle school, judging by his uniform, so we'll assume he was 14 and Kotaro was 5. When Nana and All Might first meet, Nana states that her family is all dead, in a cold and distant manner. But that wouldn't be true if Kotaro was still in her life. This would mean that she met Yagi after the death of her husband and after Kotaro was sent away. And I'd wager to bet it was very soon after. Assuming Nana gave birth to Kotaro at around 25 years old (perfectly reasonable) then she would have passed the quirk to All Might at 30 and died at 34 after having the quirk for 14 years, making All for One 94 at the time of the transfer.

From here things get a lot less speculative. All Might is listed as 55 at the beginning of the manga, adding on Izuku's last year of middle school and first year of high school puts him at 57. We already established he received the quirk at 14, meaning he held the power for 42 years + 1 year quirkless before All for One was finally killed at the grand age of 136. Which would mean that quirks have existed for just shy of one and a half centuries now and we fit comfortably inside our estimate goal!

Now, I'm one of those bad at math gays so if you have other thoughts on this, feel free to speak up. And you're more than welcome to adopt these age headcanons if you want. Later.

[quotedfictions]

Arranged

Synopsis: What if Miyo had a twin sister? What if the Saimori's had three daughters instead of two? Miyo's twin was sent off to marry the only son of the Raiden family under the assumption that she would end up like Miyo and begging on the streets for money because of her lack of spirit sight.

Themes: Crossover, AU, My happy marriage, fluff, soft Scaramouche, hidden power, Time skips Husband scaramouche

Warnings: Depictions of trauma, Violence, depictions of depression. physical abuse

Word Count: 1,450

Note: My phone published this before it was finished I apologize readers for the double notification from this post.

It had been weeks since the meeting with your father. Miyo had been sent off to marry Kiyoko Kudou, and Kaya was to marry Kouji; you've been hidden from most people because your father was ashamed to have two giftless children, unknown to your father. You had a gift; you had been keeping it hidden to protect you, lovely twin sister, from being alone through the abuse. When she was sent off to marry, you were lost, no one to talk to you, no one there to comfort you when you were denied your requests to leave the Saimori home. One day, your father called you to a room for a meeting, and something inside you felt excited and scared.

Reaching the door, you gently knock on the shoji. "Father, it's me, Y/n." Your voice is soft and quiet, your father responds, allowing you to enter. You sit on the floor, your ankles tucked underneath you as you use your left hand to open the door; you bow gently before standing up and stepping over the edge of the tatami while turning to close the door before waiting on instruction. "Y/n, do not just stand there. Sit." You jump a little before gently pulling out a pillow to sit on, sitting the way you were when you opened the door. When you have the chance, you look at your surroundings. You see an unfamiliar woman with soft purple hair in a thick braid cascading down her back, her purple kimono nicely complimenting her hair and sparkling lavender eyes.

"Y/n, this is Raiden Ei. You will leave to meet your fiance, her son, in three days." Your soft eyes widen; you are leaving this awful place. It was still a form of freedom even if you were marrying someone you had never met. You nod politely at Ei before excusing yourself to pack your things. Outside your room, you can hear Kaya and her mother celebrating that the second useless child would now be gone; luckily, you were celebrating that you could finally use your gift freely and have it documented for the first time. You never once used your powers in the Saimori home, didn't want to be separated from your sister, and didn't want to be married off because of your abilities. As you finish packing, you open the floorboard and place a beautiful pink braided cord with sakura flowers your mother had woven for you before she passed. You then place your belongings to the side, ready to go to bed, before a servant comes and hands you a lovely purple kimono lined with gold, telling you to wear it the day you leave.

■━■━■━■━■━■━■━■━■━■━■━■━■━■━■━■━■━■━■

Sitting in the back of a car, you watch the trees pass by you. You had never been this far away from the saimori house, and you hoped that your new fiance liked you because you had nowhere else to go if you were rejected, but your father and his mother had already signed a betrothal agreement. Like he did for your sister, your father gifted you a fresh kimono suited for meeting your new fiance without putting the saimori household in a bad light. You smile softly at the trees and farmland you pass, knowing that even if you were kicked out, you would be happy to work. Anything would be better than the abuse from your stepmother and half-sister.

The car slowly pulls to a halt, and you are greeted with a gorgeous home, with large cherry blossom trees everywhere, touching your heart as it reminds you of your sister and mother. A young woman dressed in a servant's kimono helped me get out of the car and offered to carry the small luggage. You politely declined and asked to be shown to your new room for the afternoon before meeting your future husband. You place your stuff in a drawer and explore your new home. Stumbling across a small kitchen, you smile softly, reminded of how much time you spent with your twin learning to cook.

You and Miyo spent much time together, but she focused more on surviving. You honed your homemaking skills just in case you were to be married off to be a housewife; like your sister, you knew how to cook and sew, but you also spent time learning flower arrangements, caretaking, and calligraphy. You wanted to be prepared to have a middle-class housewife's responsibilities instead of a noblewoman's. You were lucky that your father even agreed to marry you, especially with how well hidden from the public eye and other people you were. When the saimori house had visitors, you would stay in the kitchen or your room. You assume that Lady Ei was there for Kaya under the presumption that Kaya had not yet been engaged, but when you got summoned by your father, you knew you were bound for freedom.

You familiarized yourself with the household, your new maid following you quietly. You had already gotten acquainted, and she was kind enough to ensure you wouldn't get lost while exploring your new home. You've heard from some of the staff whispering that your Fiancé is blunt, with a heart of ice, but my maid, Aki, Reassured you that he was kind at heart, much like Miyo's fiancé Lord Kudo. As you venture around the house, you hear soft but upset footsteps from a hall just ahead. Not paying any attention, you pause with Aki behind you to look at the cherry trees that lined the property.

You begin to venture back to your room, but your path is blocked by a simple, pale purple kimono with a white haori resting atop it. You gasp softly and bow your head, apologizing profusely for not paying attention before the taller male huffs. "Do not apologize. You have done nothing wrong; I was the one who blocked the path." You keep your head down but stop apologizing as ordered, scared you will be punished by the man in front of you; his attitude and how he carries himself are intimidating. You slowly lift your head, observing the male before you; he has jellyfish-cut indigo hair and sharp violet eyes. You could tell he got his looks from his mother, but you couldn't say about his personality.

The male grabs your chin and inspects your face before letting go and huffing, "So your Y/n Saimori?" Your eyes widen in shock as you bow gently, being briefed by Aki on how to greet your new fiancé. "It's a pleasure to meet you, lord Scaramouche; please treat me well." Scaramouch rolled his eyes, pulling you out of your bow and making direct eye contact. "You are to call me only Scaramouche, understand? None of that Lord crap." You nod softly as he releases you and starts walking. "It's almost time for dinner. Are you joining me or not?" His tone was stern, but you could hear the curiosity and concern. You follow him quietly, dismissing Aki to the kitchen.

■━■━■━■━■━■━■━■━■━■━■━■━■━■━■━■━■━■━■

Months had gone by; you and Scaramouche had gotten married before the incident with Miyo and your father, and you had learned of your Usaba bloodline through your now husband after the incident with the Saimori's. It was interesting being Lady Raiden Y/n, especially with how long it takes for you to even sit next to your husband when having tea. You had grown relatively close to him after your wedding. You had spent a lot of time together. Over time, you had learned how to control your telekinesis, and you had even informed Scaramouche of it, but something seemed off lately; it was becoming irritated when you called his name.

That evening, you couldn't seem to sleep and were staring out at the cherry blossom trees and their falling leaves as the fall season grew close. You feel a pair of arms wrap around you, and you melt softly; all those rumors you had initially heard before meeting him had disappeared quite a bit ago, shortly after your marriage. "Scara-" "Its Kunikuzushi, I just go by Scaramouche. I should have told you sooner. I've been annoyed that my wife wasn't calling me by my actual name, but god knows why my mother named me Country Destroyer." You try to hold in your giggles, but they spill through. Kuni looked at you with a strange look before you turned and kissed his cheek. "Better late than never, I guess." You both smile softly.

You both walk back to Kuni's room; tonight, he invites you in, and you spend the rest of the night enjoying each other presence and company, and you talk until you both doze off in each other's arms.

END.

[greenhappyseed]

MHA 409 Review — The Extra and the Pebble

Ch 409 is a really interesting continuation of the action in 405-406, prior to the AFO backstory in 407-408. These few panels of Yoichi and AFO in the OFA-AFO mind palace (406 on the right; 409 on the left) tell us a LOT about AFO and how he’s been affected by Katsuki.

I’m not even sure what’s left of AFO. Is he fully baby-fied now? Is he down on the ground like Toya and Himiko? Throughout the chapter, it looked like AFO was gaining a pupil in his right eye, which is the one Katsuki doesn’t have at the moment. Is this just clever art mirroring or hinting at AFO’s next move????

Unlike 407-408, this chapter focuses on Katsuki. I don’t think it tells us something we didn’t already know — Katsuki was born to a couple with a happy, functional marriage who loved and wanted him. He has a strong and versatile quirk. He’s powerful, smart, and strategic. And yet, at the start of the story all those advantages combined made him more of a brat than a hero. But it’s different now. The final page really shows how Katsuki has connected it all. See how the lines of his explosion frame the rest of the page? How the left line points directly to his dialogue about not being alone? And below Katsuki are all the influences that have supported him — All Might, his parents, and Yoichi/OFA (via Izuku).

Katsuki is going all out at the end, breaking his right arm (again) but able to pull off one last huge blast due to the brace All Might gave him (like Izuku using Melissa’s gauntlets in Two Heroes). If his gambit of dropping sweat beads in AFO’s mouth didn’t pay off, he would have delivered the blast sooner, but luckily his ploy worked.

FWIW, Katsuki dropped the beads in AFO’s mouth right when AFO was shouting about Kudou and Katsuki said his name was Kacchan, because Kacchan is a clever kid.

Katsuki is also acknowledging directly that he could not have soloed AFO. Even though he’s awesome, there’s a limit to what he (or ANY one person, including All Might) could do alone. Seeing as Yoichi’s message to Izuku has always been, “You are not alone,” it further emphasizes how Katsuki has grown to adopt the spirit of OFA. The kid who thought needing help was a sign of weakness, and who thought Izuku holding out a hand was mocking him, now understands the importance of accepting that hand. Standing on the shoulders of giants helps one see further. :)

Moreover, Katsuki is now motivated by helping Izuku and getting out of Izuku’s way. Izuku isnt the pebble in Katsuki’s path — Katsuki is the one in the way of Izuku. Back when 362 dropped, I wrote about how Katsuki’s death was very Buddhist in that he had to lose all his physical attachments (including his body and quirk) to achieve a spiritual awakening. It seems like that worked, and now Katsuki is genuinely, truly appreciating all the gifts he has, as well as his role as a piece of something bigger. He’s no longer demanding that others get out of his way, but rather thinking about when HE has to move for someone else. The kid who pathologically couldn’t walk behind someone else is now able to get out of his own way AND clear the path for others.

This fits the pattern we’ve seen numerous times in the final arc with a hero accepting a villain’s taunt in order to defeat them. Of course Katsuki takes a different tactic than, say, Shoto (“A half-baked dummy, that’s me”). Katsuki yells he’s the final boss, he’s not a filler character, etc. But the point is the same. Katsuki is accepting he has one quirk; he’s NOT physically bound to the OFA-AFO quirk; he IS a pebble compared to AFO. His role IS to support Izuku….and it takes absolutely nothing away from him whatsoever. Katsuki has his stupid awesome quirk, his intelligence, his strength, his commitment, and people who care about him. He can play his part to the best of his ability and deliver a big win for the heroes.