#t: dying to know

[cannedbabs]

I am DEFINITELY not getting the rest of these refs out anytime soon. And I want to post to update but I also wanna share art. Dilemma. So art be upon yee!

Stupid turbo ref (he is canon turbo… minus the hair. This is just how I stylize him)

ALSO GASP WOAHH!! CANN POSTED SOMETHING NOT A SKETCH? FULLY COLORED? Haha ladies and gents,,,! Calm down,, 😏 I’ll sign autographs soon,,,

Uhhh errmmm he has. 12 T’s hidden in his design can u find them all /hj (half joke as in. They’re all there. I did it on purpose. But they aren’t apparent and I’m sure as hell not making anyone look for them)

BONUS STUFF:

More reference shtuff for my rewrite :] this is mostly for me but thought some people may get a kick out of it.

Update being I’m starting school again so art will be less. But !! I’ll be around. I’m trynna be more social :] but that’s all

[dynamightmite]

you seem optimistic so you think we’re still getting shigaraki back? :( i’m really sad the way hori has handled the izuku tenko plotline as of right now like i just can’t wrap my head around this

I mean, I definitely think it's a possibility. We still don't know exactly what happened to overhaul/decay, and how it may be used in the future. We saw Tenko and Deku touch fists; theoretically there could have been some kind of exchange there, or he could be existing as a vestige in some way.

Then again, (and this is going to piss a lot of people off :')) I kind of... get where Horikoshi is going with it?

BEFORE YOU START BOOING!

I think a lot of the discomfort and hurt from fans comes from the perception that Izuku failed to save Tenko. That, by allowing him to die, the narrative is in fact saying he didn't deserve to be save--that Horikoshi himself doesn't believe Tenko truly deserved it. I have also seen a lot of talk about how it doesn't fit in with the ongoing, overarching themes of the narrative, and (while I'm not saying these people are wrong) I would like to push back on that a little, because I think there is precedence in the story as to why Tenko's death holds up, despite it being terrible.

The culmination of Tenko's arc broaches a crossroad of two major concepts in the story: heroes, and saving, and what both of those ideas mean. And, I think, in Tenko's death, we get and answer to both, and more importantly, an answer to his overall purpose.

What does it mean to save? In BNHA, the concept is a little vague. I've often people ascribe the "total victory" mindset as one of protection, as preventing any tragedy or harm. Through that lens, Tenko's death therefore is an automatic failure--a nonstarter. HE's dead, so he wasn't saved. The end. However, while "saving" might seem like a simple, straight forward concept, I would like to dig a little deeper, because I think what Horikoshi's doing is much more interesting.

Saving (Deku's definition of it, anyway) is a lot closer to freeing than it is to protecting. Which sounds weird, but I'll do my best to explain. I think the two best examples of this particular nuance to his definition are actually in two characters people tend to forget he saved: Shoto and Gentle Criminal.

Because he did save both of them. Not in the really obvious, black-and-white way he saved Eri, no, but he did save them. And both times were... painful, to say the least.

When Deku went after Shoto during the sport's festival, it wasn't, like, nice. He dug his little nerd fingers in where it hurt the worst and dragged out Shoto's biggest fears and insecurities, and then he said GET OVER THEM. Stop letting them control you. Stop letting your father control you. You're your own person, and you get to make your own choices.

He didn't punch Endeavor. He didn't even take pity on Shoto, or say he was sorry. But you know what he did do? Deku cut the leash. AND he damn near killed Shoto (and himself) making sure that Shoto understood that he was free. He gave Shoto back something that he'd been missing, something he was afraid to look in the face; something that Deku picked up, brushed off, and said, "please stop throwing this away, it's important. You're important".

And it works, goddamit.

Gentle is both different and similar. In a similar vein, the way Deku saves Gentle is sort of... not obvious. But I think if you look here:

Gentle isn't a bad person. He's ambitious and a little lax about the law, but he never set out to hurt anybody. But we see over the course of his arc how he gets so tangled up in his own pain and his desperation to be seen that he forgets his own ideals, his own morals. In the face of becoming someone, he loses sight of what matters most to him: just like Deku, Gentle wants to be a hero.

Which, in the end, he is. And Deku's the one who pushes him there.

But what about Tenko? What about the crying child inside him? Why wasn't he saved?

When people talk about child Tenko, they often seem to see him as a symbol of the person that Deku's trying to save. But I think that, just maybe, that's wrong. I think maybe, actually, Deku is trying to save Tenko from that child.

Child Tenko is, in many ways, a symbol of nothing but AFO's power. That is a child stripped of his name, of his original quirk, of his family, of his sense of self. That is a puppet controlled by AFO, without any autonomy of its own. That child is a wound that Tenko cannot escape for as long as AFO still holds any power over him.

That's why this chapter All Might said that maybe Deku did save Tenko, if he no longer saw the child version of him in the vestige realm. Deku did save him. Because Tenko isn't a child anymore, and he isn't AFO's puppet; he's a free man, for the first time in his life.

A free man who chooses to be a hero.

Heroes get talked about a lot in BNHA (duh), but what is the defining quality of a true hero? Someone who wins? Sure. Someone who saves? Yeah, of course. But the actual test of what differentiates a hero from everybody else is their willingness to sacrifice. To give up everything for the greater good. Even if it hurts. Sometimes especially if it hurts. I mean, this has come up a lot through the manga. Deku running in to attack the sludge villain, Mirio giving up his quirk, Eraserhead throwing himself in front of his students, Edgeshot shortening his lifespan to save Bakugo, All Might standing quirkless in front of the greatest evil of his time-- literally the constant refrain from the narrative has been that being willing to sacrifice it all is what makes a hero a hero.

Tenko's final wish from last chapter is gut wrenching, but: he wanted to be a hero for the Villains. The rest of the world can rot for all he cares, but his friends, those disenfranchised, hurt people that everyone else gave up on? Those people who have never been saved, those people who have never been protected... he wants to be their hero. In the face of danger, of certain doom, he is a free man, and he has a choice.

So he makes a sacrifice. His final act is to become a hero. For them.

Cue the sobbing tears.

Additionally, I think it's relevant to point out here how strongly the narrative has advocated for victimhood to be divorced from being a perpetual self-identity. It really emphasizes the power of choosing to rise above your situation and pain to help other people, while also suggesting that your pain does not excuse you from hurting people. You can be a victim and you can be a perpetrator; they are not mutually exclusive. And because of this, after Deku saves Tenko, he does not owe him. He saved Tenko, but he could not keep him alive, and... I don't think that it's about Tenko deserving or not deserving to die. It's just that Tenko had reached a point of no return where his only choices were to die a slave or die free and he broke his shackles. But he was always going to die. Doomed by the narrative, both literally and figuratively. We can argue all day as to what degree of responsibility he holds for his actions as a highly abused, traumatized, often shell of a person. But the point is that at every junction of the story, Tenko (and the story around him) escalated until he was trapped. There wasn't a way out, and it's heartbreaking, and maybe that's the point.

I'm not saying it's fair. I'm certainly not saying you have to like it. But... I don't know. I don't feel like this is some completely out of pocket, off-the-rails end that destroyed all its characters. And who knows! Maybe Tenko will be brought back later. Maybe the epilogue will get progressively worse and I'll hate it. Maybe I'll finally get some sleep and regret writing this at all. I have no idea. Really. But we're all in this together, so these are my thoughts right now :)

[raccoons-in-a-trenchcoat]

I can't stop thinking about them they're SICK 😭. Also check out Boys Go To Jupiter and their new song Wish U Were Here!

[fishtoy]

I think looking at a body of water with a cute boy would cure me actually

[silverskye13]

Complete derailment of the rest of my morning, but the phrase:

"They love you. They will not love you less for being whole."

Followed up by:

"It was a hard thing to admit that a noble sacrifice wouldn't do any good."

Just. Knocks me out every god damn time. Man. [Laying on the floor] Just. Man.

[babylonqaf]

it's missing dead boy detectives hour 😔😔😔

[sukugo]

question!! if tumblr does go down, where are you guys going to? or at least where are u most active outside tumblr?

[narianders-gt-hell]

Back to posting art once a week let’s freaking go

[blessed-pineapple-cruncher]

man, ace attorney really is just "people with abandonment issues" central, huh?

[hyperionshipping]

I want really really gutwrenching angst with Caleb it's there I just can't think of anything because like, with him the drama of "I can't be with you!" Isn't what I want. Not what I need. Because that Happens in the ship already. Literally an integral thing for Tricks is learning he's allowed in the group. So if Caleb was like "oh I can't be with you" Tricks would go 'Ok. So I was never really here.' and go back to the Gentleman. But like. I can't THINK of anything. If I could just continue the show I'd know things better than I do and I could probably work in something but I can'tttt

[demonstars]

dream being like wow george is a really good kisser for never dating anyone

BYTHE TIME THEY WERE KISSING HE DID KNOW PLEASE.

[kananjarus]

why the hell would they let *****s death leak like that. im actually really mad about it

[gangle-cult]

they are so not serious 😭

[gay-arsonists-lullaby]

{Un}Lawful Good VS {Un}Lawful Evil

or

´This Barbie is a feminist icon. and This Barbie refuses to just die.´

[raddestrose]

Sorry, I’ve been busy yall BUUT I think it’s letting up, maybe only slightly but still letting up so i’ll have some time again

A very long way for me to say I’m reading bsd 121 tomorrow

[vamptastic]

like the last T/ERF i had a cordial conversation with told me that testosterone causes 'organ failure' (which organs?? she cited a paper about heart disease rates) and vaginal atrophy so severe that it requires vaginectomy. to her credit she was very cordial and gave me sources and whatnot. but at a certain point no matter how deep you are in the ideological information bubble you have to realize that that is simply not true, right? like, post-menopause women are not getting vaginectomies en mass. i think literally not a single person has ever gotten a vaginectomy because of vaginal atrophy from low estrogen. vaginal atrophy just sounds scary so people deliberately exaggerate the chances it will occur and the effects of it. saw another person saying it causes the vagina to 'rot and decay'. like brother. you have gotta know you're lying. or you really really do not know how vaginas work, which is not very feminist.