#stars and stripe

[delawaredetroit]

first of all, I just wanted to tell you how much I am enjoying your mha reread commentary! considering how dissatisfying and disappointing deku vs shigaraki turned out to be (and generally Act III as a whole, esp. when it comes to izuku's writing and how the league was handled), how would you have approached the final arc? would love to hear your thoughts <3

Thanks! I'm not sure if you meant how would I change the final war arc or Act Three as a whole, so I'll answer this for Act Three overall.

Rogue Arc: This arc should have been longer. Lady Nagant deserved the whole volume Horikoshi had planned for her. The Hero Commission and the threat they posed needed more elaboration. There should have been more time for Izuku to struggle so he could have more realizations about himself and the society he was raised in.

It's not necessarily an issue that 1A saved Izuku, but earlier arcs framed saving as a two-way conversation between the hero and the saved. It felt like no one was actually responding to Izuku's legitimate concerns in that fight except for arguably Shouto and Iida. And while I understand that all of 1A was involved in that fight to establish that 1A as a unit would never leave Izuku behind, the narrative didn't do enough to establish that. Izuku had so little to do with a good half of them that it dilutes the emotional weight of saving Izuku.

Maybe to establish that all of 1A was involved but keep the emotional weight, it could have gone something like this. Izuku has multiple interactions with 1A before getting caught. After the first few and Izuku realizes he is being tracked, he ditches Endeavor and co. Those first few interactions could be with the members of 1A where Izuku doesn't have much of a relationship so they can be involved in the rescue mission but don't crowd the emotional moments. The key saving scene could be limited to the characters closest to him or maybe even all the characters needed to pull off that final move from that fight (because I wouldn't change a single thing about Iida and Izuku's part of that fight).

I would not have included Bakugou's apology scene where canon placed it. When Izuku was falling apart physically and mentally was not the time for Bakugou to decide to relieve his own guilty conscience. It was also cowardly to place the apology at a moment when Izuku could not respond.

After Rogue but before the Final War Arc: There should have been more downtime for Izuku and co to process what happened to them and build tension about what was ahead of them. Stars and Stripe as a character shouldn't have existed or been used in a completely different way than in canon. Her fight made it obvious how All for One would be defeated (quirks turning against him) and it breaks the tension for the rest of the story. The traitor reveal needed more buildup and Izuku needed to have more thoughts about it.

Final War Arc: I wouldn't change much of anything about Ochako and Toga, as they had the best executed resolution of the hero-villain pairs. It would have been nice if Toga and Hawks had a meaningful confrontation and Toga's heroic sacrifice was known in order to challenge the distinction between heroes and villains.

The heteromorph subplot should have been scrapped entirely because I don't think Horikoshi was capable of handling these issues properly.

The Hellish Todoroki Family: Less focus on Endeavor and his whining and more focus on Shouto who was supposed to be the central character of this subplot. I liked the part with the whole family coming together to stop Touya, but there should have been more introspection from the non-Endeavor Todorokis. Rei should have been the one to give the exposition on the Himura family and not Geten, and her portion of the narrative could have been much stronger if we were given her thoughts on her situation. I hate the timing of the Endeavor apology for the same reason I hate the timing of the Bakugou apology. It makes sense for the apology to Touya to happen in the final war, but it would have been more meaningful if the apology to the rest of them occurred at the hospital scene at the end of Act Two.

Deku versus Shigaraki: First of all, the vestiges needed to stfu. I like them, but their bickering in Act Three took over and replaced Izuku's internal dialogue. I would have kept their interactions with Izuku limited to dreams and special situations like the fight with Shigafo. There should have been more dreams with the OFA wielders' pasts and less of their vault office meetings. Bakugou needed to be less involved. Bakugou's thoughts on their society are very status quo. Bakugou's involvement puts a lid on any resolution that would challenge the concepts of heroes and villains.

Izuku actually needed to reciprocate communication in his fight with Shigaraki. I don't mind Izuku ending up in Shigaraki's mind space, but I wish it was more reciprocal rather than a one way thing. I also think the Shimura and Shigaraki resolution was good and there should have been more of it on screen.

Both Izuku and Shigaraki needed to have more thoughts about what they learned about themselves and each other in that mind space. I don't really like the All for One plotted Shigaraki's entire life twist. It broke some of the parallels between Izuku and Tenko (The only way that plot twist could have worked without ruining the parallels with Izuku was if DFO was also canon but it wasn't so...). And while Decay being copied Overhaul didn't come out of nowhere, more buildup for that was necessary. And either have Shigaraki become Tenko or something new entirely, or have Shigaraki's death be resolved in a much more meaningful way.

[slutvester-pemberton]

Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. #8

[peacerisendove]

Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E #5

So what I'm getting here is that:

Tim might as well be cosplaying as Bernard before he ever knew him. Really if I only showed you that first panel you'd think it was New Earth Bernard too. (Or like any other blonde dc character who sported that hair cut around this time. Honestly Thad Thawne and Preston Lindsay come to mind.)

The return of Carl Grummet! \o/ I love this disguise/alternate persona for Kon so much. It's such a contrast to his usual self and he played it so well in Superboy/Risk Double Shot #1.

Bart's charisma is so off the charts that he could only be himself (and rock being a skater-boy in style/just being cool in general) when he goes undercover. (And if you've read the Impulse comic you know that's true. He's just off the charts popular.

Also I really just love how Kon goes from cool as a hero to uncool as a civilian, Bart goes from uncool in public opinion as a hero to naturally cool when he's a civilian, and Tim seems pretty middle of the road when it comes to both being a hero and a civilian from what I know.

[remyfire]

[sandy-castle]

He’s just standing there… menacingly!

[nocternalrandomness]

Beautiful Livery

[just-another-nerd-blog]

Man I was having enough Feelings and Thoughts from Stars and Stripe but then the show had to go and punch me right in the face with Yessir, That's Our Baby. That episode is going to live in my head rent free I just know it.

[nightwingcouldyounot]

Will admit, I was fully expecting product placement there. 

(Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E 001)

[kropotkindersurprise]

May 1, 2025 - May Day demonstrators in Torino, Italy, burned Israeli, USA, and EU flags to protest the ongoing Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people, supported by the USA and most of Europe. [video]

[goosologist]

(How weird! To be noticed, and known!)

[peterokii]

women..............

[slutvester-pemberton]

Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. #0

This is my favorite image of Jack btw. He's been through so many horrors in his series and this teenage girl shoves him to the side. He's absolutely flabbergasted. Love them.

[spookys1fan]

Phew, finally done with the dod headshots! I definitely had a lot of fun and I loved experimenting with a more cartoony style and brush textures!

I tried to keep their designs based closely to their names and personalities! I did make tsunami a little bigger size wise than clay but she’s definitely shorter and more muscled than him.

I tried to make glory and clay almost iridescent like clays underbelly is described in the books as copper like and I wanted to bring parallels between clay and glory bc I like the idea that they are kinda alike if u know what I mean? And I wanted to give Tsunami fins like a wave of water like what surfers surf on! Like those water tunnel pictures! And I loved giving sunny features like starflight bc she’s a hybrid. I feel like if she wasn’t so unassuming you’d immediately be able to tell she’s a hybrid heheh. And I like to think Tsunami hated when her siblings got hurt enough to take all their “training sessions” with kestrel nearly every time, and continuously challenged the guardian enough that when she did take them kestrel didn’t hold back whatsoever and was constantly nearly permanently injuring her and she required many, many scars over the years.

Well, I had a blast making these and I hope you guys like em! ^^

Love yall! ^^ <3

[remyfire]

When even your CO is sick of you flirting

[wyervan]

this wasn’t suppose to look this uhhhh patriotic. but once i added the stars i was like “oh no lol” so whatever we roll with it 😝

⭐️ SUN SALUTES YOU! DCA NATION! ⭐️

[rochenn]

Never before has a guy looked this sick and problem-shaped. Petition to recanonize CW03 Cody's huge pauldrons and big arm stripes please