#and for that the only good reason I can think of would be if AFO actually cares about Izuku

[gentrychild]

O great Owl and thou noble fic-finding rats I come because I have failed to find that which I need.

There is a work, apart of your Anyone universe, where Izuku is writing a Quirk Analysis Paper and he wakes AfO up so he can see a mutation quirk which enlarges AfO's arm. I have combed through all of Anyone and then through your side works that take place in this universe. But I found nothing.

The only thing I can think is that it was a tumblr post or a fanfic one of your blog mates wrote for you. But alas, I am still here.

In exchange I swear that if my firstborn ever starts stealing quirks I will buy all the therapists, and if that fails I will leave him to your fic-finders with no rivers in sight. And they may nibble on him for all of forever.

With reverence and sincerity, -me

I have some bad news and good news for you. The bad news is that his is something I wrote and posted on Tumblr, and you will never find it again even if you scroll through the entire Anyone tag. The good news is that you must be especially lucky as I found it by pure luck in a file I had forgotten.

----------

Izuku, sitting on his bed, books and notebooks opened on all of its surface, clicked his pen. Once, twice, thrice, the sound echoing in the silent apartment without doing anything to bring the answer the teenager desperately needed.

Usually, deadlines weren’t a problem for him. For some obscure reasons, the teachers in his high school were trusting him no matter what he did and forging his mom’s signatures to excuse his many absences had become the routine. However, he needed to finish this paper for tomorrow morning, so Hebisuga could read it and save her grade in Meta Analysis. That way, she would stop worrying so much about this subject, focus back on her Japanese, and write once again her ridiculously good flash cards that she always accepted to share with Yuuto and him.

But right now… Izuku’s brain just wasn’t cooperating.

He got up, his back protesting as he stopped hunching over for the first time in a couple of hours, and he left his bedroom. His notebook in hand, he walked past the bathroom and knocked at the door of the master bedroom, currently invaded by the bane of his existence while his blissfully ignorant mother was away.

The door opened in the second, All for One appearing in front of him, his hair messy and his face showing the trace of the pillow but no sign of sleepiness. The villain was one of those persons who immediately passed from sleep to alertness while Izuku needed three cups of coffee to be semi-conscious.

“What is it?” the villain asked. “Did you-“

“Show me your mutation quirks, please. Preferably the one that can offer some kind of protection.”

“What makes you think that-“                                                                       

Izuku clicked his pen once again and just stared at the quirk-stealing-fiend.

All for One finally obliged, making his arm grow in size, muscles growing until it had gruesomely swollen up, and he even added some spear-like bones. Bewildered, he answered every questions Izuku had about the drawbacks, the weight, how much he could still move his arm, and so on.

Because if analyzing quirks was his passion and could become a job, words in a book didn’t mean anything to Izuku. He needed to ask questions, to make theories, to see them in action.

Once he was done and had all the elements he needed, he thanked All for One and walked back to his room without offering any explanation. But of course, his roommate didn’t need one.

“Did you just use me to finish your homework? At three AM?”

#anyone fic #anyone snippet #Thank you for doing your part in preventing the birth of a new AFO

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 409: Bro I’m Straight Up Having a Good Time

Previously on BnHA: AFO murdered his brother like the mischievous knave he is. Bruce was all, “hey Kudou don’t look now but I think Yoichi might have given you his secret quirk that we didn’t know he had.” Kudou was all, “damn that’s wild, it almost feels like this is a pivotal moment that will change all our destinies forever, you’d think Horikoshi would have spent just a little more time elaborating on this but I GUESS NOT.” Back in the present day, AFO was all, “I’m just going to use all my quirks at once because fuck this kid,” and Katsuki was all, “lol oh shit.”

Today on BnHA: Kacchan is all, “okay, I know I should be hopelessly outclassed, but hear me out: what if I just win anyway. What if I just go ahead and blow his shit up, because this is the final battle, and this is what all of my character development has been building up to since day one. What if I just beat him, because I’m the guy who wins. Simple as that. What if I just kick his ass with my one quirk, and prove all the haters wrong.” Horikoshi is all, “okay, sure.” AFO is all, “wait, wha -- ”

oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my g

huh. well I wasn’t expecting to start tearing up less than two panels into this chapter but HERE WE ARE

I love that he’s screaming and crying with his balled up little fist right from the get go lol. he was born a pissed off baby

he’s so squishy

and so tiny!!!!?!?! !?!??!?!

and he was RAISED WITH LOVE. fucking thank you, lol. gonna print that out and frame it on my wall. turn it into a flashing neon sign to give me comfort any time I stumble across stray Mitsuki discourse lol

anyway. oh my goodness. if this is a sign of things to come, there’s a very strong possibility this chapter may destroy me. how exciting!!

yep. yep yep yep. this is for sure going to be the chapter that finally does me in. it’s been a great ride folks

you better not be thinking any thoughts about dying, young man. this had better be meant in the sense of “because I’ll be by your side supporting you instead”, as opposed to “because I will be a little pile of dust in about three seconds’ time oh shit”

(ETA: after finishing the rest of the chapter, I’m pretty sure it’s the former! the first flashback is a reference to his chapter 120 speech -- “even higher than you, Chosen One.” the second is a throwback to chapter 247, when he told Endeavor he only had his one quirk, but it was strong enough to do anything he wanted to do. and the third flashback is one he also had at Jakku when he sacrificed himself to push Izuku out of the way.

so to me, this reads like (1) a reminder of his determination to surpass Izuku and become the strongest hero; (2) foreshadowing for him defeating AFO with Explosion, the Little Quirk That Could; and (3) a reminder of his “origin.” that last one being important because nowadays it’s just as strong of a motivator as his original goal. back at the beginning of the series, all he cared about was being the strongest. now, though, he’s not just fighting for himself; he’s also fighting to atone, and he’s learned to put himself aside if necessary.

as for the dialogue, this reads like a continuation of his mental conversation with Izuku that he began in chapter 362 (“gotta win... right, Izuku?” “so, Izuku... can I still catch up to you?”), and then continued in chapter 406 (“for some reason, I feel like I could overtake you now”). so in that context, “I’ll no longer get in your way” basically means that he’s done chasing Izuku, and that he’s caught up now and can hold his own. his determination to get stronger hasn’t wavered. his confidence in his own quirk and his own skills hasn’t wavered. and his resolve to atone for everything he did to Izuku is as strong as ever. put those all together, and we have the recipe for quite a spectacular redemption fight. his follow-up to chapter 362.

because earlier when he fought Tomura/AFO, he was basically just trying to buy time. no one ever planned or expected him to have to face the Big Bad one-on-one; that was supposed to be Izuku’s job. he was only meant to be there as support. and in the end he wasn’t strong enough, and he nearly died. and rather than being able to support Izuku, he ended up being used against him.

but this time is different. he’s no longer the decoy, the distraction. he’s no longer the pebble. he won’t get in Izuku’s way, because this time he’s going to be strong enough to win the fight. he’s going to hold his own, and get the job done.

so yeah. “I won’t get in your way” = “you can depend on me”, basically. because he’s become that guy at last. the guy who shows up in the clutch and wins the day. the hero he always wanted to be. good stuff.)

OH MY GOD

once again, just really solid hero advice from All Might here. there’s a reason he’s the GOAT

lol but in all seriousness it does tug at my heart to see him shouting so desperately at this kid. especially knowing that he’s presumably feeling the same pride and awe that I am, but with a lot more heart-stopping terror mixed in because unlike me, All Might doesn’t know that Kacchan is actually going to live forever. he narrated chapter 285, All Might, have a little faith

AFO is the extra-est mfer to ever live. but also it really tickles me to think that Kacchan pissed him off THIS much. it’s kind of an honor in a way

of course his plan is to simply just blow AFO up. of fucking COURSE it is. maybe there will be brain cells later on in this chapter, but for now who even needs them lol

OH MY GOD?!?

DID THIS MOTHERFUCKER JUST BLOW THE FUCK UP FROM THE INSIDE?? am I seeing this right?? DID KACCHAN JUST SPONTANEOUSLY COMBUST ALL FOR ONE WITH HIS MIND

OH MY GOD OH MY GOD

(ETA: shoutout to AFO for being so analytical when I personally would have just been screaming, “OH MY GOD MY FUCKING EYEBALLS AHHHHHHHHHH.”)

THAT’S WHAT I’M SAYING THOUGH!! HIS POWER WASN’T DONE AWAKENING YET, APPARENTLY??

oh no wait it’s even better. this isn’t Awakening at all, this is just Katsuki playing 5D chess

so he actually did have brain cells the whole time then! Katsuki I sincerely apologize. you somehow had the presence of mind to make a goddamn minefield even in the midst of all of this hullaballoo

AND HE’S HUMBLE TOO LMAO

it’s true!! I’m people!! please ignore the multitude of times I’ve previously called him a dumbass, including earlier in this very chapter lol

hahahahaha yesssssssss

this chapter is incredibly validating for a number of reasons. I’m going to attempt to remain calm about it. but I’m enjoying this a lot ngl

oh AFO

:D :D :D

(ETA: you know what, I actually do have more to say about this. because I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve debated with people about this very thing, lol. for a while there post-Jakku it was just constant pessimism about Kacchan’s future in the manga. all this stuff about how Katsuki doesn’t have a main villain. Katsuki isn’t important enough. Katsuki is being phased out. Katsuki isn’t strong enough. Katsuki’s done developing. Katsuki’s just a joke character now. Katsuki’s just the damsel in distress. Katsuki’s always going to be second fiddle to Izuku. etc. etc. etc.

and then this chapter -- this whole entire fight, really -- comes along, and it’s just nonstop rebuttals, lol. and it’s not just that he’s proving all the negativity wrong. it’s that he doesn’t even care about any of that. AFO is out here trying to goad him with that same “YOU’RE JUST A SIDE CHARACTER” bait, and in response Katsuki just hits him with a Howitzer and tells him to shut the fuck up. AFO thinks he can get to him by being petty, because AFO still sees him as the bratty kid from the Sports Festival. but the present day Katsuki has long since moved past all of that, and no longer gives a fuck whether or not he shares the spotlight. unlike AFO, who never lost his childish egotism, Katsuki has learned to see outside himself, and the resulting growth has made him a bigger badass than AFO could ever hope to be.)

(۶•̀ᴗ•́)۶

ouch

HAHAHAHAHA

bro I’m straight up having a good time. this recap is gonna suck this week because there’s absolutely no commentary I can think of to add other than “I’M REALLY ENJOYING THIS, THIS IS GREAT”

I want to take this entire chapter and get it tattooed on my face

sorry AFO. this must really suck for you

lmao. is that all Kacchan. tell him how you really feel

OH MY GOD NO WAY LOL

so, fun fact, I literally just read chapter 385 last night lmao. most fortunate timing I’ve ever had, holy shit

okay so lemme just add some more thoughts on this one really quick

Hawks deserves all the nice things in the world and I’m so sad I can’t give them to him, but at least he gets this. sweet sassy revenge

I am once again calling everyone’s attention to the fact that AFO continues to be his own undoing. congrats on screwing yourself over bucko

Kacchan’s sleeve ripping up Deku-style is once again making my Plus OFA Theory senses all tingly. it probably is just a coincidence and has nothing to do with OFA, but I can’t unassociate it now, so I’m just gonna sit here and read as much into it as possible

if I had a nickel for every time AFO’s eyes blew up in this chapter, I would have two nickels, and that is way too many fucking nickels jesus christ

ever since he came back from the dead, Kacchan’s been doing this thing where he is just really pretty at all times, even when he is being a gremlin. and honestly it’s taken some getting used to, although I’m not complaining

but like in this panel especially, it just really stands out to me how even his “GRYAHHH I’M GONNA KILL YA!!!” face somehow has this really cool, intense, piercing glare now and he no longer looks like a baby troll when he does this kind of thing lol

OH FUCK YEAH

୧༼✿ ͡◕ д ◕͡ ༽୨

“THERE’S NO WAY I COULD’VE WON THIS ALONE.” OMG. THAT KACCHAN CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT JUST HITS DIFFERENT EVERY DAMN TIME, I SWEAR

he and Hawks basically pulled a “you hold him and I’ll punch” lol. thanks for the assist Hawks

Mitsuki and Masaru being all, “my little baby boy!!” and “HOLY SHIT”, respectively, sent me all the way to the moon lmao

HELLO THERE YOICHI? fancy running into you here. just chilling out over in this montage of people close to Bakugou who are watching him kick ass. did you take a wrong turn, mayhap. you’re not inside of AFO, we know that much. and Deku, much as I’m sure he’d love to have a front row seat to all this, seems to have his hands full dealing with Tomura right now, sadly

so all of that does seem to raise an interesting question, no? where did you come from just now, and why? and when Kacchan says he’s not alone, is there perhaps more truth to that statement than even he knows? or am I once again just reading way too much into this lmao

anyway so yeah! that sure was fun. and with the end of the year approaching and back-to-back two-week chapter breaks coming up, I have a chance to do the funniest thing of all time, and still not manage to catch up, lol. nah but I’m gonna try my best though. pretty sure I should be able to manage

#bnha 409 #bakugou katsuki #all for one #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha manga spoilers #makeste reads bnha #sorry this is late I've been trying to post it for almost an hour #the 'post now' button was infuriatingly greyed out for some reason #ended up having to copy everything over to a brand new post and redo all the pics and formatting #thanks tumblr

[xxx-caliber]

a kurogiri theory/hc.

I have a theory for why Tomura was so much colder towards Kurogiri than he was towards the rest of League. We see Tomura be very accommodating and, dare I say, kind towards most of the League. He doesn’t get angry when Spinner gets up in his face and yells at him, he doesn’t lash out when Toga pulls a knife on him during the Overhaul arc, he never gives Twice shit for the self imposed limits of his quirk, etc. But with Kurogiri we see him be very angry, I remember him even calling Kurogiri stupid and threatening him during the USJ incident.

I think that this anger towards Kurogiri is likely a consequence of how Kurogiri’s programming effected his an Tomura’s relationship when Tomura was growing up. We don’t know much about Kurogiri’s programming (there might be more info about it in Vigilantes but I haven’t read that, if someone has and there is more info about how he was made/what AFO did to him please let me know!!) so I am going to guess what sorts of things he is forced to do and not do.

Kurogiri was made from Shirakumo Oboro’s corpse, someone who (from what little i know about him in Vigilantes) is very kind, great with kids, and a hero hopeful. I’m sure if Shirakumo saw little Tomura and how he was being raised (read: groomed) by AFO, he would try to put a stop to it, so AFO would want to ensure that Shirakumo’s personality does not break through (as has been known to happen to Nomu).

So the first bit of programming I think AFO did to prevent that is pretty obvious: I think AFO programmed in that Kurogiri cannot deny any order given by AFO to either Kurogiri or Tomura.

I think something else AFO would have been worried about is Tomura growing too dependent on or too affectionate towards Kurogiri. The reason grooming works is because groomers chose a victim who is isolated. They usually don’t have good relationships with their peers or their parents, so they latch on to their groomer who is giving them the attention that they don’t get anywhere else. Because of this lack of a relationship with anyone else, it also means that the victim does not have anyone to talk to about their relationship with the groomer, so no one will be there to point out that what the groomer is doing is inappropriate.

This leads me to my guess on the second bit of programming Kurogiri was given: do not show Tomura affection.

Showing Tomura affection would make him more attached to Kurogiri, and consequently not solely dependent on AFO, thus making the grooming less likely to work. Kurogiri obviously took care of Tomura’s basic needs and protected him, that is his job, but I think anything beyond the bare minimum was likely not allowed. No hugs, no bedtime stories, just what would keep him alive, so that AFO is the sole provider of all of the “love” and affection that Tomura craves.

Now, how would that cause Tomura to have the tumultuous relationship that he has with Kurogiri by the time of USJ? Well, from what little we see of Tomura’s childhood after being taken in by AFO, it was pretty fucked up. Getting beaten up in the streets, frequently physically ill, constantly scratching his own throat out, being forced to kill… not great to say the least. Couple that suffering with a “caretaker” who can only do the bare minimum, who cannot comfort him when he is in pain, who cannot step in when AFO is pushing him too hard, and some resentment towards said “caretaker” is likely to form.

I don’t think that Tomura hates Kurogiri, and I think that logically he knows some of Kurogiri’s coldness towards his pain is a result of AFO’s influence, but feelings don’t always listen to logic. I think that the planning of AFO in harboring a tumultuous relationship between them worked, and Tomura now has some deep seeded resentment starting from a very young age towards Kurogiri that can’t just be removed by the logical understanding he has as an adult that Kurogiri is just doing what he has to.

anyway, that’s my guess. I’d love to hear what you guys think and any other bit of programming you think AFO did.

#bnha #mha #shigaraki tomura #tomura shigaraki #shimura tenko #tenko shimura #league of villains #afo #all for one #kurogiri #oboro shirakumo #shirakumo oboro #headcanon #theory

[itsnothingofinterest]

I actually find it funny when people will say the heroes need to kill more villains instead of arresting them when, from where I'm looking, every instance of the heroes killing a villain(s) has led to some consequence that would've been avoided had they just been taken in alive. (Which evidence has often shown them quite capable of doing.)

Lady Nagant was made to kill loads of people, driving her crazy and leading her to kill her boss and deprive the hero side of one of it's best. Her case feels like a big reason why killing on the regular would be incompatible with the rest of the hero shtick; 'cause it turns out people with lots of blood on their hands have trouble using them to then shake the hands of children.

People say All Might should've killed AFO; but you can tell both from All Might's dialogue in Kamino & from how AFO regrew his head that that's exactly how their first fight ~7 years ago ended. AFO's brains met the pavement that day. And I can only assume this allowed his body to be easily recovered & revived, letting him lay low for the next 6 years to mould Tomura into a successor and orchestrate a good portion of the conflicts we've seen in this series. Just saying, that sounds much harder to do from Tartarus. And at least the heroes knew when he broke out of jail way faster then when he broke out of the grip of death. Heck, it could easily be argued he only broke out of jail thanks to that 6 years of set-up.

Oh and where to start with Hawks killing Twice? Maybe how it enraged Toga & Dabi to make them more crazy & dangerous, maybe how it affected people's trust in heroes? Oh but the big one has to be how leaving Twice as a corpse let his blood be collected for Toga to get a parade off anyway; one the heroes were unprepared for too, which distracted a lot of the pros meant to keep AFO in Gunga. All of which could've been avoided if Hawks had just taken Twice in alive. (Which I must reiterate he easily could have done; I mean his quirk was shown pretty easily countering a Parade.) The heroes wouldn't have had to deal with a Parade in this war at all if Twice was sitting pretty in a jail cell next to Compress & Geten.

I can't help but think those last two cases could be a surprisingly common occurrence too if heroes killed as much as some readers say they should. Like, could you imagine if every dangerous villain in Japan's history was killed and then just dumped somewhere for a guy like Dr. Garaki to get his hands on them the same way he got Shirakumo?

So anyway, between the mental health issues it causes, combined with how villains keep finding ways to perform necromancy; I'm just not seeing a lot of evidence that things go well for the heroes when they kill villains, or that they'd go much better if the heroes were kill-happy soldiers of the war on villainy all the time.

#bnha #lady nagant #hero public safety commission #all for one #all might #shigaraki tomura #twice #jin bubaigawara #anti hawks #dabi #toga himiko #pro heroes #kyudai garaki #shirakumo oboro #hero society #Hell if I wanna be petty; even Endeavor roasting Hood might’ve made him harder to study than the USJ Nomu or Kurogiri were.

[mamashenanigans]

Now that the Official English translation is out for Chapter 410…

It’s very interesting how the final thoughts of AFO really harken back to his backstory chapters. It confirms how unreliable of a narrator AFO was. He wanted to convince himself that he didn’t have any emotions and that those were crocodile tears. His smile really was a way to mask his emotions(referring to Hawks’ and Best Jeanist’s conversation about it) and that thinking about his childhood and losing Yoichi brought all of these intense emotions to the forefront.

Him finally stating that he NEEDS Yoichi/everything is for nothing if he doesn’t have Yoichi by his side, is sad. For once, he finally admits that he didn’t just want Yoichi as a possession, but as his actual twin and only family member. All that talk about ruling the world and having everyone look at him is nothing without Yoichi.

And him “talking” to Yoichi about wanting everyone to look at him is a direct nod to him seeing how the Demon Lord had a bunch of followers and his need to finally be paid attention to unlike when they were orphans trying to survive on the streets of a collapsing society. All his memories of his childhood are terrible because of that and so he wants everyone else to feel as awful as he did.

Yes, his death is “pathetic”, but that word means “having pity”. You pity AFO because he was born to an incredibly shitacular life up until he realized he could use his metapower to gain followers and thus pull himself and Yoichi out of poverty and living in half destroyed stores. You pity AFO because he was born with his metapower activated and had all the instincts associated with it. You pity AFO because, even as a baby just barely able to crawl, he still tells himself he can get to Tomura, that he can take OFA back and have his brother who he admits he NEEDS. You pity AFO because he really never got over killing Yoichi in a possessive rage. You pity AFO because, as Yoichi says, his power could have been kind and done so much good, but they were born with no one to take care of them or teach them morals. You pity AFO because the twins had to learn morality through a damn comic series.

All those plans. All his cockiness. All of it means NOTHING without Yoichi. So Yoichi was always the reason in the back of his head regardless of his excuses. Once you’ve been working towards getting your brother back for over a century, I guess it makes sense that you’d convince yourself there is no other conclusion than you succeeding.

This dude was the GOAT and it took an army of heroes to whittle him down enough for Bakugo to finally get him to the point he’ll blip out of existence. And his emotions and thoughts over Yoichi and that narrow goal of needing him by his side was what ultimately defeated him because he wouldn’t give up on it.

I think it’s sad, but a memorable death of a main antagonist.

But in addition…

I find the Official translation concerning the AFO vestige very interesting. It seems to hint that the vestige DOES still exist somewhere within Tomura, which makes sense because Tomura still has the AFO Quirk. Given what we know about the vestiges AND what occurred with Danger Sense and 4th being taken, Tomura shouldn’t have the AFO quirk anymore if the vestige is dead.

It would be great to have AFO’s vestige make one final appearance that allows him to interact with Yoichi. It was very disappointing to not have Yoichi appear at all during this chapter and I know a lot of people are hoping the AFO vestige will allow for one final talk between the brothers. It would be cool, if and when Tomura steals all the other OFA vestiges except Yoichi that the AFO vestige appears to keep Tomura from having him or something like that.

#all for one #afo #yoichi shigaraki #my hero academia #boku no hero academia #bnha afo #bnha yoichi #one for all #mha spoilers #bnha spoilers #mha 410 #bnha 410

[oshiawaseni]

Japan’s concept of confession and why Ochaco might not confess

“Confession” is a big deal in a country as subtle as Japan. Not all people have the courage to confess, but when starting official relationships confessions are often expected. This is what I know confessions to be like in the world of manga: Person A talks alone with Person B and shares with them the secrets of their heart. “I like you please accept my feelings.” This usually ends either with them going out or A being rejected by B. The usual reason for the rejection is “I like someone else.”

I’ve been having some more ideas about the day Izuku fell into Kacchan’s arms and how what Kacchan did for him was almost confessional in a way. He told Izuku what was in his heart, why he bullied him and that no matter how much he tried, he just couldn’t escape him. He called him “Izuku” and we saw the impact this had on Izuku’s face. 

Izuku just couldn’t believe that Kacchan was calling his name properly for the first time in 12 years, it completely shocked him, and after apologising for everything, he told Izuku, “Come home, let’s do this together. We need to help each other in this fight against AFO.” 

The conclusion of this confession was that Izuku acquiesced to 1-A’s request for him to return, but it was only really possible because his attachment to Kacchan triumphed over his motivations to stay away. It was Kacchan who broke down his walls with his apology. It was Kacchan who filled him with hope that things would be better, and Kacchan who finally hammered into Izuku how important it was for him to be part of the collective. That his inclusion was very wanted and needed, and that he in turn can rely more on everyone as well. That together, they can push forward, trusting in and helping each other.

I think what hurt Izuku the most during his solo arc was being away from his friends, but especially Kacchan. Because that day in the rain, he literally gave up on his solo vigilante mindset for him. After hearing Kacchan’s unbelievable words he had patiently longed to hear for years, it was impossible for Izuku to stay away from him any longer. As he passed out, he stumbled a few steps towards Kacchan who, without missing a beat, caught him in his arms and gently held him. This embrace told us “From now on it’ll be different. I’m gonna be here for you, Izuku.”

So to recap all of that... Kacchan became vulnerable and spilled what was in his heart, Izuku accepted his desires, with it all culminating in them becoming closer. Which is just like a successful romantic confession!?

I think after watching this all go down, something inside Ochaco clicked. A lot of the class are rushing over to Izuku when Kacchan catches him because they’re just so worried about him, but a few of them, Ochaco included, stay standing back. It doesn’t make much sense at all. But we’re given a zoom in of her without knowing any of the thoughts going through her mind.

They got Izuku back, but she doesn’t really seem all that happy. Momo says to her “this is just the first obstacle we aren’t done yet” and she agrees. Ochaco knows that there’s still more they as a group need to do for Izuku to make his return happen. But the fact that there’s a few panels dedicated to zooming in on her staying put, her almost emotionless face (mirroring Shoto’s) while she’s watching Kacchan save Izuku and his new unbridled intimacy he has with him - could be telling us that there’s something else she’s processing.

Is this moment somber for her because she realised the person Izuku needs the most is none other than the person he has openly admired since she first met him? The very same person who always bared his fangs at Izuku because he was scared him getting close?

Was Ochaco witnessing the beginning of something new between them and suddenly finding herself sidelined as a contender for Izuku’s affections?

Somehow… this could be what it was all about. And that’s why I think there’s a good chance Ochaco gave up her crush on Izuku for good when she witnessed Katsuki return his love and embrace him after that emotionally-charged apology. After this, a more defined distance between her and Izuku appears visible in their next scene together. A respectful distance of Izuku’s own choosing.

It was like a definitive line had been drawn out that can’t and perhaps shouldn’t be crossed. Maybe they both understood that the person Izuku wanted close by his side has always been Katsuki. That desire wasn’t simply a pipe dream to Izuku anymore, it had become reality. And who is Ochaco to get in the way of that?

And then it’s almost like she is bookending Katsuki’s confession to Izuku with a confession of her own about Toga, putting a close to the Izuocha chapter and she makes a comment which feels double in meaning. “I guess that means we are the same.” or You love a boy, just like I might love a girl. (To put it bluntly)

And Izuku remembers this line again after he gets separated from Kacchan and Ochaco is telling him to go. Go back to Tenko. Go back to your Kacchan.

The concept of “knowing how someone feels because you love them and always watch over them” comes up from time to time in manga. In a way, that’s also a reason why Kacchan and Izuku understand each other as deeply as they do and they aren’t afraid of showing it off. They were always watching each other from a safe distance and learning things about each other in this way. I think during chapter 322, this concept is what was happening to cause such a realisation in Ochaco. (And it’s also for this reason Tsuyu, who never had feelings for Izuku, still doesn’t get it.)

It was hard for her, knowing everything she does about Izuku’s deep attachment to Kacchan, to learn that Izuku’s affections for him weren’t one-sided and they were now closer than ever before… That’s why I don’t think she’ll want to get in the way by confessing anymore. If Kacchan’s apology was intended to be compared with a romantic confession, then Ochaco is probably aware that Izuku already “has someone he likes”… and that person isn’t her.

#bakudeku #idk if this is Hopium copium or whatever it’s just my thoughts and feelings lately on ochaco’s state of mind #and why I don’t think a confession is going to happen #prone to being wrong at any time ofc lollol #but that said I also fantasise about Izuku rejecting her if she does haha 😂 #it would make for the best kohei troll ever #I think she’s going to accept togas feelings too #so there’s that #Katsuki’s feelings for Izuku aren’t going to be shoved aside #it’s mutual lol it has to be #kacchan loves deku #deku loves kacchan #op #Bnha meta #kana writes #I WAS GOING TO WAIT TO POST THIS BUT NO MHA THIS WEEK #LETS FALL INTO DELUSION TOGETHER MY SISTERS #i hope this makes even a little bit of sense but even if it doesnt then #I still hope you got a kick out of reading it! #this is all only my thoughts/theories - hopefully something nice to think about :) #<3 #must read meta #bkdk canon #oopsss

[aimportantdragoncollector]

Yoichi got kicked around like a football as a baby by AFO :(

Jail for AFO! Jail for a thousand years!

Joking aside, that didn't really surprise me. Hitting each other is normal sibling behavior, not a sign of evil. AFO didn't have a mother to tell him not to hit his sickly brother. Since it turns out Yoichi and AFO were twins, it makes sense for AFO to be less physically protective of someone the same age. There were already hints in the manga that AFO doesn't mind hurting Yoichi as long as he's alive.

That said, I don't think AFO kicked Yoichi on a regular basis. Yoichi hit him with a can first, and AFO reacted. I don't blame Yoichi either, he's a kid too who wants to help people. However there are some huge clues that AFO only attacked those men because they hurt his little brother first:

1. Yoichi already has a bruised face and missing tooth, implying someone hurt him shortly before the fight started.

2. Yoichi is clearly wearing better clothing than AFO, suggesting AFO looked after his brother.

3. I don't think AFO just went around randomly murdering people for no reason pre-puberty, because it would have endangered his own life. He's not invulnerable. Someone would have hunted him down if he didn't keep a low profile.

4. Later, Yoichi is surprised that AFO killed the grown-up glowing baby and treats it like a moral event horizon. So clearly Yoichi is not accustomed to his brother killing yet.

Yoichi would have tried to run off a long time ago if AFO was just serial killing to his face. But even after the kicking incident, the brothers still seem to have a good relationship for long enough to read comics together. Therefore I strongly believe that AFO was protecting Yoichi, and Yoichi just thought he went too far.

#Yoichi Shigaraki #All for One #bnha spoilers

[kitsunefyuu]

-me seeing someone say dad for one isn’t realistic because afo wasn’t a good dad to Shigaraki-

That’s assuming that dad for one means he’s a great dad. It has no relations on him being good or bad parent nor can Tomura be used as a way to ‘disprove’ anything when he’s a purposeful victim/replacement.

Sometimes I wonder if they assume all dad for one believers think AFO is sunshine and roses to his family. Or that he can’t be both callous and cruel to Tomura yet marginally better when with family/kin. Dad for one is simply the belief that AFO is Izuku’s biological dad it can’t tell you how that relationship actually is. Also if going to use relationships with family you can only use Yoichi as a more accurate measure.

Everyone theorized Dabi being but were very wrong about his relationship with his siblings. Since they thought he liked them for some reason only to be shown he could care less as considered them part of the problem.

But most people believing in dad for one kind of believe that AFO even if is ‘nice’ to his family still has a dubious connection. As likely would lie or omit information from them about his villain life. Also the man would be ‘Hisashi’ who is always over seas so isn’t even around much which can be seen as neglectful. Never even a damn phone call.

Sometimes I wonder if people only see dad for one and assume, There no way it canon AFO is terrible to Tomura!

And seemed to forget that Tomura was chosen specifically as a vessel. His purpose was never a ‘son’ but a replacement body. While family as he shown with Yoichi don’t have a role in the villain empire. He doesn’t need them to do anything but be beside him. And that’s the minimum, but is also willing to do excessive force as seen when threw his little brother in a vault.

I dunno it just there always someone that anti-dad for one bringing up Tomura or how cruel he is when it has literally no bearing on dad for one theory heck he could just be a sperm donor and it works. Also Tomura would be justified in being pissed the fuck off that AFO had a semi-normal life while making him suffer. Because it truly fucked up how he will truamitize and hurt Tomura then go home to his family like nothing.

#all for one bnha #my hero academia #all for one mha #dad for one #dad for one bnha #all for one #yoly's talks #Reminder that AFO can and would be capable of doing both. #He has zero empathy and thus can play both roles without guilt. #God it like you guys never watched any true crime or seen serial killers!

[marunalu]

Hi. What do you think about new chapter?

Honestly? For the most part I was just bored. As much as I love that izuku got his arms back, you can see that the only reason why hori let him lose them in the first place was to shock the readers. This is the same bullcrap he did with bakugous fake death. To let him get "killed" just to let him get resurrected in the very next chapter.

It was clear izuku would get his arms back, but at least it should have lastet a few chapters to show readers how serious the whole situation is. There are no stakes in this "war". The good guys dont die and if they get injured a "wonder" happens so they will not die or end up terrible disabled for the rest of their lives. And just like I said after the latest chapter, deux ex machina eri is the one who saves the day of course.

Again, it was clear izuku would get his arms back and that it would be eris doing. Thats not my problem. My problem is that I dont like it when an author writes shocking scenes simply just for the shock value and to trend on twitter and not because its important for the story. Thats horrible and lazy writing and just screams "I want attention!"

An other problem I have is that eri can simply just "cut her horn off" it seems. By that logic there was never a reason for chisaki to abuse eri like he did. He could have simply waited till the horn was big enough and then cut it off and I dont think chisaki was to dumb to not realize that by himself. I dont know if it means that eri is kinda quirkless from now on, but knowing hori I wouldnt bet on it and I think the horn will just grow back. I also dont like how eri calls bakugou "kacchan." We never see them interacting in the manga or that they formed a relationship. As far as I know only in the light novels in which eri is scared of him they interact. I just dont think hori should put things that happen in other medias like the light novels or movies in the manga, because it could confuse people that only have read the manga and nothing else.

About the whole kurogiri vs aizawa and mic interaction. The whole thing just startet so I guess we will see an other flashback so I cant say much about it yet. I just wished hori would stop skipping whole fights of other characters just because he likes to focus on bakugou instead by giving him TWO fights! Bakugou has enough spotlight, other characters deserve it more and not just flashback fights.

I liked though that it was mentioned that eri is learning from aizawa and thinks rational like him, so thats why she cut her horn just like he did cut his leg off. Its also cute how she mentioned that she wants to become a singer like jiro. The only other thing I liked was that afomura is starting to look more like the original afo now, because thats a thing I was wondering if it will happen. Him looking exactly like his original body and then fighting izuku would be great.

All in all the chapter was meeehhhh from what I have seen so far. Its funny because I hated the last chapter at first because the spoilers and translation were worded so bad but now I actually quite like it. For this chapter I dont feel much except maybe bored and annoyance over hori writing shock moments that dont mean anything but to shock his readers. I simply dont like it when authors do that.

#bnha #bnha spoiler

[bibibbon]

MHA and mixed messages

Every series has a message that it sends to its readers whether it be something unique or cliche there is a message but with MHA A LOT OF ITS MESSAGES OR ARCS SEND MIXED SIGNALS. This really ruins the story because you have mixed messages like :

Anyone can be a hero ( only if you have quirk). This message of anyone can be a hero is instantly ruined the moment izuku gets OFA and then hori tired to bring it back with making mecha all might which makes me even more angry because if it were anyone that should of and deserved to become a quirkless hero it should of been Izuku

Forgive your abusers ( it was your fault in the first place). The poor todorokis and how badly endeavour abuses them all. I hate when hori and general endeavour stans try to minimise the amount of abuse enji inflicted on his family which varies from physical to financial abuse. I don't think enji should of been redeemed at all like honestly there is no way to redeem that man. I can go on and on about how badly done the arc is and how by making the todoroki family blame themselves for touya made NO SENSE AT ALL.

Anyone can be saved ( half of the villains weren't redeemed and shigaraki). This one has me so pissed honestly. Heros are there to save people or the idea that anyone can be saved but have any of the villains been saved and do they even want to be saved. The current leaks literally show shigaraki calling himself the incarnation of destruction and there is izuku somehow still trying to save him?!?! Like tell me how that's gonna work because it really isn't.

Someone with a provisional license can legally use their quirk ( Izuku gets in trouble). Izuku should of never gotten in trouble for fighting gentle criminal. He done everything legally and literally didn't break any of his bones. He took down gentle criminal without any fuss, almost no property damage and allowed the festival to still go on but somehow he gets in trouble ?!?!

Violence is never the answer ( bakugo exists and is popular). What I mean by this is that bakugo can be as violent as he wants towards ANYTHING and people will think highly of him and love him.

Doing bad things is bad ( have the hero's do bad things that the villains would get hate for). This has happened multiple times MHA seems to carry this idea of oh the villains can't do that because it's bad but it's ok if the hero's do it because they probably have a good reason. This can be seen with having shinso brainwash gigomachia but then it turns out that it's ok because machia has always had a grudge against AFO after abandoning him.

THERE ARE MORE IAM PROBABLY FORGETTING (this is all I can currently remember that really bother me)

So overall, MHA has a lot of mixed messaging that really really harms the story and characters. How are we supposed to believe in messages like anyone can be saved when in reality they can't. Stuff like this shows you how horikoshi fails at show and tell because all he usually does is tell not show and when he shows something it doesn't match up with the tell he tells us.

#mha critical #bnha critical #hori is a bad writer #horikoshi critical #anti bakugou katsuki #izuku deserves better #mixed messages

[ravelights]

head canon/ theories for who Hisashi is and role he'll play in the story

With DFO resting in the grave, I thought I'd give a few of my other theories I have come up with for Hisashi over the years.

He's the person the Deku narrating everything too. IDK why but for Some reason I always liked this theory. Although there no evidence that Deku is telling the story to anyone, I can't help but think it's neat.

He studies quirks, like that his job. Considering 80% of the world has a quirk I think it's fair to say there would be people studying them for many different reasons. I think he be this strange mash up of a doctor, scientist and academic. His job would make him travel around the world and study bizarre, amazing and dangerous quirks. It also be a great tie in stories wise to the quirk doomsday theory, if it turns out he was really away studying to see if that theory is actually true. (I also think that where Deku pick up his hobby for studying quirks as well) his job would make him have to be away from home for long period's of time and not easy to contact sometimes. Despite how interesting his job sounds, it actually involves a lot of paperwork and reviewing and research.

When he's home he's usually home for a good six months or more, and typically the three would do things together when he's home. Inko doesn't mind Hisashi job because he was doing it long before he met her and didn't want him to quit doing it just because they got together. And like most Japanese housewives she controls the finances he just makes the money that give them all comfortable lives.

I think he's a quite, charming guy who keeps to himself, unlike Izuku and Inko he's much more calm and never cries. He very much like's his life, he has no dreams or goal to become a hero or be out on some battle field. He's a passive guy who isn't big on violence, and see's the value in a ordinary life. I wouldn't think of him as a pushover, but like Izuku he's nice to everyone he meets. Also like Izuku he is the person you do not fuck with, he seems like a guy that vaguely feels like he's been through some stuff, it take a lot to get him mad but when he is, you run for the hills.

Izuku doesn't think of him much because he knows his dad doing just fine and is used to him going away on long trips. But also because as much as he hate to admit it, Izuku does not want to end up like his dad when he grows up. As much as he loves and respects Hisashi and think he's a good man with a stable job, he feared that if he grew up to be his dad then it's an admission to giving up on his hero dream, and just being content with ' an ordinary life'. Something he does not what to think about now that he had a real shot at being a hero. That being said, If Hisashi where to come home at anytime Izuku would absolutely be happy he's home and they go do something together.

Hisashi is the person who introduced heroes and heroics to Izuku, and arguably shaped how Izuku viewed them, and how Izuku would believe a hero would act. Hisashi like Izuku is an All Might fan, just not to Izuku level. Izuku only vaguely remembers, but Hisashi was the one installed a lot of values that is ingrained in to Izuku being, of being a good person. One of them being to never give up on saving a person and that everyone deserve a seconded chance. (I think he'll show up at some point in the flash backs that are happening)

His is neither supportive of Izuku hero dream nor is he dismissive, ultimately he just believes that Izuku life is his own and Izuku can do what he wants. Hisashi just there to provide Izuku with every possible pathway he can get, no matter how impossible they may seem.

He's AFO son, because can you imagine how hilarious that would be.

#I joked about it in a another post but if Hori ever dos do a sequel comic to mha I want Hisashi to be the main character #and for it to be a prequel story that just follows the crazy shit Hisashi got into in his youth and what a world look like pre-All Might #Telling Izuku about some major stuff that went down with AFO and heroes and the likes. #Basically acknowledging that if Hisashi had been in MHA it would have been a lot shorter story and they would have known things a lot soone #bnha #midoriya izuku #bnha spoiler #boku no hero academia #midoriya hisashi #hisashi midoriya #dad for one

[mishy-mashy]

A bit of a toss to the wind, but what if Shinomori is related to Bruce? Probably not gonna happen but

They have:

Straight nose bridges

Thick necks

Same ears

Spiky yet fluffy hair that's still somewhat cooperative

Both their eyes are flat on top with small/single eyelids, and a bit of a tired or intimidating feel about their eyes

Small pupils (sanpaku eyes)

Mouths that naturally frown the same way

Similar chins and jawlines

Long legs

Both are weirdly, VERY tall, and intimidating on first impressions

Both are cautious individuals that rebel against society in their own way: Bruce by fighting directly, and Shinomori by ducking out

The fact Bruce knew where to find him and gave the Factor to some guy he met in the forest, and being as level-headed as Bruce, there had to be a deeper reason for his choice (unless it's just desperation and Shinomori's the most level-headed existence after Bruce dealt with Kudo's experimenting) beyond simply "Shinomori's a good choice"

Because Bruce was not one of the "as they laid down to die, it was passed to an unfortunate soul" vestiges, he had time and passed it on his own terms. There's also some degree of trust when every user passes on the Factor, and Bruce had space to choose his next person.

Shinomori and Bruce are level-headed and self-sacrificial without thinking. (Technically this applies to a LOT of characters, but-)

Shinomori pushed everyone behind him and got snatched by AFO so no one would be stolen, even though he hid from the guy his whole life. No hesitation at all in this.

Look at how there's multiple "whams", he didn't just push one person. Even Kudo's legs are blurred, his arms are raised, and he looks mid-air, despite being on his feet earlier. Like he was thrown back. Banjo and Nana's mouths are open in shock, and you can tell by their bodies' positions they weren't running (except maybe Bruce).

They all look like they were pushed. En got shoved in the middle of his back, and his blur even lines up with Shinomori's hand, Yoichi got thrown back, and Nana doesn't look like she was running, but that she was being tripped from Shinomori.

Banjo panicked and the first thing he did was yell the news to Midoriya. AFO surprised them, but Shinomori did too.

Like I mentioned in my [Shinomori is cute] post,

"His sense of self-preservation is probably heightened by the nature of his Quirk to keep him out of danger too."

And he still put everyone else before him. Even when he was caught, all he said was along the lines of "I leave the Ninth to you!".

Meanwhile, Bruce was willing to go against AFO in a closed space, back when AFO was at his peak and just killed Yoichi. He wasn't thinking either, he just took a stance. And Fa Jin was not as strong as we see Midoriya use it back then. Meanwhile, this is AFO at his strongest point.

Are both very "Do or Die". And both have died in the Do. (Protecting OFA, when alive and dead; passing it on, cultivating on their turns, giving up their Factors to damage AFO and protect OFA in their own ways [being taken, forceful transfer], etc)

Like Bruce, Shinomori communicates. He's eloquent, and explains a lot for Midoriya to understand about OFA's mechanics.

He explained how OFA couldn't be wielded by naturally Quirked people.

He explained his own life story to elaborate and add reasoning and consequence.

He introduced himself and asked Midoriya questions so he could participate and further his understanding about OFA.

When Midoriya was clearly hurt and tired in his running around alone, Shinomori calls him out with "Ninth, your injuries aren't fully healed yet". He remained and watched him go as Midoriya pushed them all away. And Shinomori could tell their Quirks were only giving Midoriya the power he needs to accomplish his goals. He didn't keep this knowledge from the other users, saying it immediately.

Though he's also a bit roundabout in communication like Bruce

"One For All cannot be wielded by a normal person." meaning normal, Quirked people

"This too, is destiny." *is immediately contrasted by Banjo saying it's timing*

"Do you know how I died?" *knows the answer is no. answers himself* "I died of old age."

"I'll get straight to the point." *has to correct himself before he starts to go on for too long*

Maybe just because they're both tall and have muscles, but. Shoulder blades and biceps. (Oh boy, two things most humans have)

If they're related, it just gives more reason to why Bruce can put up with Kudo; he's dealt with Shinomori and his weirdness

#originally part of the [SHINOMORI IS CUTE] post but this was getting long and i needed pictures #they had resemblances so i thought this #a theory thats probably not gonna happen tho if we wanna give each vestige their own identity #apart from each other. like tayutai en and shimura nana. they could be related but they also have different last names #mha #boku no hero academia #bnha #my hero academia #spoilers #hikage shinomori #bruce #image limit so im rbing this with some cute pics i wanna add

[makeste]

I think there’s some speculation that AFO made sure Yoichi got actual clothes and that was the discrepancy between their clothing choices. It could also be a reference to AFO’s current clothing choices

okay first of all you have the best user avatar I have ever seen on tumblr dot com, just wanted you to know that.

anyway, re: AFO, I agree he was almost certainly the one who found clothes for Yoichi. although I don't necessarily think it's some kind of self-sacrificial thing, like "I don't care if I'm out here dressed in a trash bag as long as my baby bro has something decent to wear 🥺", lol. I count five different guys in the panel right before Yoichi throws the beer can, all of whom are wearing perfectly stealable clothes. AFO's whole thing is that he does whatever he wants and takes whatever he wants. so if he wants clothes, he's getting clothes. I think it's more likely that he just didn't care about that for whatever reason. maybe he stole some quirks that kept his body from feeling cold, or thickened the soles of his feet to prevent damage, or whatnot.

but as far as Yoichi goes, it's almost akin to buying a decent case and a screen protector to make sure your cell phone doesn't get damaged. Yoichi is AFO's favorite possession, but he's weak and frail and vulnerable to the elements. so yeah, sure, get the lil dude some clothes. because you gotta make sure he doesn't up and die on you, because he's not allowed to do that, because he is yours.

like it's just so fascinating to me how he's constantly on the cusp of almost genuinely caring about his brother, but his own selfishness keeps holding him back. Yoichi is incredibly important to him, because he was his only companion during what must have been an incredibly lonely period in both their lives. Yoichi knows him better than anyone. Yoichi reads to him. Yoichi believes in him. so of course AFO is attached to him and wants him around. and he protects him and takes care of him. but it's because Yoichi can give him something that he can't get anywhere else. it's a selfish love. and that's where the whole thing ultimately falls apart. when Yoichi stopped listening to him, AFO locked him up and tried to force his obedience. and it's very strongly implied -- guess we'll see for sure in two weeks -- that when even that failed, AFO decided that if he couldn't have him, no one would.

anyway so yeah. tl;dr I'm not sure why AFO was so opposed to wearing pants for so long, but for what it's worth he did make sure Yoichi never went without. just not necessarily out of the goodness of his heart. I love their relationship though, and Horikoshi has me 100% invested in seeing how this will all ultimately play out.

#bnha 407 #all for one #shigaraki yoichi #ofa the first #bnha meta #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha manga spoilers #makeste reads bnha #asks

[grimalkinmessor]

Okay okay okay. So. I have yoinked the translations. And here are my thoughts on chapter 407.

All For One was not born evil, he was literally just born as a baby. Do you condemn people that ate their twin in the womb for killing their would-be sibling and say that they're born evil? NO.

I very much think—especially with the rats and the river thing even though I also think that's some mythology bullshit Remus and Romulus style—that All For One and Yoichi likely weren't taken in by humans for a WHILE. LOOK AT BABY FOR ONE. NO ONE IS PICKING THAT FUCKING THING UP AND TAKING IT HOME. Do you expect children raised by wolves not to bite you? Honest to God the most surprising thing about that whole chapter was the fact that Yoichi had morals. And that either of them knew how to speak human language at all. Like,,,,Yoichi becoming a morally good person after having his twin yoink most of his nutrients in the womb, cannibalizing his mother's corpse with said twin, and then likely growing up in the fucking woods after almost being eaten by rats and drowning in a river—that's a fucking miracle!! Yoichi is the odd one here!! Where did his morals come from?? Sir where did you get those? The world sure as hell didn't give them to you because DAMN.

My point is that had Baby For One been taken in by a nice family and gotten a shit ton of fucking therapy for his apathy and feralness he might've been alright. Or—maybe not alright but definitely not the creature that we saw in this chapter good LORD. I'm now convinced that any humanity that All For One developed came solely from the need to manipulate people. Otherwise he'd still be stabbing and biting them to death in complete silence like (⁠●⁠_⁠_⁠●⁠)

ANYWAY. Their backstory very pointedly focuses only on several key, damning points in All For One's history. The sapping of nutrients from Yoichi, the eating of their mother, the stealing of her Quirk, the killing of civilians and law enforcement alike—everything that leads up to his name. All For One. And yet it doesn't answer any of the other questions! Like where he and Yoichi grew up, WHAT HIS REAL NAME IS (which. is this now confirmation that AFO named Yoichi. did i get that part right at least. did i.), how they survived beyond that initial river flood, the progression of the world beyond them. I have more questions, not less.

Plus—Yoichi was clothed. All For One was in what seemed to be rags. Yoichi did not seem to be starving or severely ill. Which means that All For One likely was taking care of his basic needs as the "stronger" sibling. Because Yoichi was one of his "things", and of course he wouldn't want his things to be overly sickly and thin and dirty. If I'm not mistaken I'm pretty sure Yoichi even had shoes, while All For One was wandering around barefoot like a little vagabond. Now, All For One definitely beat Yoichi up plenty, we can see plenty of evidence of that both in this chapter and past ones—as long as Yoichi isn't irreparably harmed then AFO doesn't seem to have a problem whacking him around to keep him in line. They were probably never openly affectionate or even emotionally close, but Yoichi was still the only person that All For One seems to see as...a person. And even then :')

ANYWAY, my point is that you can't criticize the chapter for having an unreliable narrator, because they've literally done that before. Multiple times throughout this series, there have been multiple backstories revealed ONLY TO BE REREVEALED FROM A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE. I'm fairly sure, since we get All For One's inner thoughts and not Yoichi's, that 407 is from AFO's perspective. Another reason to believe it's from his perspective is because there's no other way that anyone could've known that their mother was a prostitute and she died by the river giving birth to them, other than All For One having access to those memories through the vestige of his mother's Quirk. I think that's also why Yoichi's death scene was so vague—All For One likely blocked a lot of it out.

I think we'll get Yoichi's perspective at some point too (we BETTER get Yoichi's perspective), but for a chapter seen through All For One, it's a lot like Tomura's origin chapter. Of course All For One, the chunni asshole edgelord, paints himself as someone who was BORN evil. Who ignores the nuance to go NO I WAS ALWAYS EVIL I WAS MADE TO BE LIKE THIS BECAUSE I ENJOY IT IMMENSELY.

Tldr; 407 was AFO's perspective of his own origin, which includes an incredible amount of bias and lacks a lot of the basic answers that an origin story usually gives. He IS evil, but it's naive to say he was born that way.

#bnha manga spoilers #all for one #shigaraki yoichi #first one for all holder #shigaraki brothers #grim rants #bnha #boku no hero academia #if this is incoherent its because i am also incoherent thank you #the fucking RATS— #THE ABSURDITY LMAO #remus and romulus ass twins story what YEAR is it

[itsnothingofinterest]

If I may get out one last post for the year, something I thought of when answering an ask recently is that I think I've got why I’m not getting behind the next generation of heroes surpassing their predecessors. The manga’s still trying to make those predecessors so inspiring and right in what they do that it’s stopped acknowledging the flaws that the students are supposed to be surpassing. Like, sure Hawks had his "contributions" to the 1st war; but the manga will still let him get a few cool one-liners off on AFO. He's still presented as someone for the kids like Tokoyami to aspire too. As a result, the students end up doing all the same things as those inspiring current pros would do instead of surpassing them.

I mean I recently saw it said that Deku was surpassing All Might by doing the one thing he couldn’t; saving Tomura. But did All Might not do that because he was incapable, or did he just…get forced into retirement first? We know he wanted to save Tomura. Do we really have reason to say he couldn’t besides not being given the opportunity, and if so, is that opportunity really the edge Deku has over All Might?

And Shoto and Endeavor both conclude their arcs trying to save Touya. They fail at this if you ask me but Shoto at least stops him from exploding…but his quirk is the only reason he manages that. That really ends up being the difference his contribution to the Todoroki finale has over his father's, he had an ice quirk to help cool Touya.

The students have even ended up participating in the really morally grey stuff we'd criticize the pros for, at least on the professional side; like using a hospital to hold Kurogiri, brainwashing Machia, and Deku still seems the only one who wasn't trying to murder Tomura in the Sky Coffin. And they get the same justifications of “but this villain’s so dangerous” and “the greater good” thrown around for them like when the current pros got criticized for doing stuff like this. Which tracks when, like I said, those criticisms didn't stop Endeavor from being shown as a good guy or Hawks from getting a cool one-liner or two off on AFO. Why would Class 1A avoid being like this?

There’s just not a lot of sense of actual improvement going around, I'm finding; the kids are only doing marginally better because the story lets them in this instance (and often in ways not replicable or applicable to their future heroics: I don't think Ochako can date every Toga Himiko-type she'll come across after all. So they're not beating any "treating the League as one-time exceptions" allegations either). Otherwise, they act exactly the same; Deku does what AM would do and (baring Ochako) the rest of the kids do what any general pro hero would do in their circumstance. In the end it leaves me feeling like instead of surpassing the pros, they’re simply ending up standing by their side as equals ready to be the next verse, same as the first. Everything will go back to normal, good and bad, including everything that brought us here in the first place.

It's like the series is now going "C'mon, the old pros weren't so bad, right? All Might wasn't so bad, right?" And strictly speaking that's even correct, All Might wasn't bad. In fact as I went over in that ask, he was frankly the best; the best any hero could ever be. It makes sense how Deku struggles with surpassing him in terms of behaviour while striving the same goals the same way. But All Might also wasn't enough. So if Deku's just acting as an extension rather than an improvement, I don't think he'll be enough either.

And I guess that’s the main problem I’m hoping gets addressed by this series in the new year (or if my part two theory comes true, then in the years to come after Hori takes a long break).

#Wanted to get one last original post out for the year. #bnha #midoyiza izuku #shoto todoroki #uraraka ochako #class 1a #shigaraki tomura #dabi #toga himiko #kurogiri #gigantomchia #paranormal liberation front #PLF #league of villains #lov #all might #hero society #anti endeavor #anti hawks #pro heroes

[linkspooky]

My Hero Academia, Chapter 374 Thoughts. 

Why did the tide turn in the battle, just when Deku was about to finish off a ShigAfo who was well past his limit. Well, it was because Spinner managed to wake up Kurogiri, therefore teleporting all of the villains to the same battlefield sabotaging the hero’s strategy to keep them separate and finish them off individually. However, there are deeper thematic reasons beyond just the strategic aspects of the battle. The villains triumph when the heroes refuse to fix or face their mistakes, so how appropriate the last page of the chapter is Dabi and Twice facing two heroes who don’t want to own up to their mistakes?

1. Endeavor and Hawks. 

There is a lot that can be said about Endeavor and Hawks, but I think for the sake of directness rather than delving into their backstory and motivations, it’s more appropriate to focus in on why they haven’t changed.   

Before I being though let me explain personal narrative. Narrative is well.. you know... a story. It is how a series of events are told. There are different kinds of ways narrative are written up, for example first person is told as a limited personal account from a single narrator using “I”. In third person the perspective is told from outside of the characters. There are even differences in third person, third person limited can still be told in one character’s limited perspective so they are not privvy to the thoughts and motivations of another character, whereas third person omniscient can randomly jump around into anyone’s heads. 

All of this to say is that narrative is telling a story, so one step ahead personal narrative would be like a first person narrative, or a third person limited... it is the story as told in the character’s own head. Oftentimes however, this personal narrative they have will be different from the objective events that are happening in the story. 

There’s one thing you should always remember when reading a story, “Characters are liars.” There is text, which is the things either they through internal or external dialogue, or the narrative through prose blatantly say and then there is subtext the underlying theme or implications and you have to consider both when reading. 

In other words, Endeavor and Hawks are liars. The internal monologues inside their own heads, often disagree with the reality of their actions. Many times viewers have commented they seem out of touch with the reality around them and this is caused by them being so wrapped up in their personal narratives they can’t see what is happening around them. ANd in doing so, they ignore the feelings of the people around them. I think AFO, as awful as he is, makes some good points sometimes. 

I’ve said as much in previous metas, but the heroes as a whole tend to dismiss or even outright ignore the feelings of the villains they are facing, even when villains make honest attempts to communciate why they are doing what they’re doing. When AFO is making that speech, who shows up but Dabi and Twice, the two people that Endeavor and Hawks ignored the personal feelings of. 

Toya, was created by the Todoroki Family at the behest of Endeavor ignoring his feelings until they exploded out of him accidentally starting a fire and burning him to death, Twice’s return was facilitated by Hawks coldly stabbing him in the back because Twice did not accept his offer to betray his friends for a chance at rehabilitation. Something which also trampled all over Twice’s personal feelings of affection and desire to protect his loved ones, by asking him to do something he would never do. 

Hawks and Enji also have character arcs that have basically ground to a halt, ever since the first War Arc. Hawks reaction this chapter is pretty much proof of this, when he is faced with his failure to help rehabilitate Hawks his only reaction is “Just kill him again” which is exactly what he had done in the war arc. This is what I mean by character stagnation, characters refusing to grow or learn over time and instead making the same decisions over and over. 

In Enji’s case the reason is much clearer, because we spend more time in his head than we do Hawks. It is a common criticism that has been levvied against Enji’s “redemption” since the start. Enji’s redemption really isn’t about doing what is best for the feelings of his victims, but rather Enji is always focused on himself, he doesn’t want to be a better father, he wants to be a better hero. He doesn’t want to help ease the pain of his victims, but rather the guilt he feels over it. Nowhere is this best exampled then his own internal monologue. Enji has a single moment where he might have let things be about his sons and not him for once. 

But, then it immediately centers on himself. For the most part, Enji seems to truly be upset not about the people he hurt, but rather he’s lamenting the fact his life has gone so wrong that he has to feel guilt in the first place. I think this is central to Enji’s stagnation and the lack of overall progress in Enji’s arc, he still doesn’t really think he did anything wrong. 

Or rather. Look at hos he frames Toya’s funeral portrait a “Mistake.” He also repeats the same thing when he tries to talk to Natsuo. He says that he was never trying to neglect any of them. Which is, you know, a blatant lie if there ever was one. Toya calls himself a failure, because Enji literally referred to him and his brother and sister as a failure. We’re shown the flashback where he was kept away from his brother and sisters multiple times. He literally chose to treat three of his children like they didn’t exist, and not even let the youngest talk to them and he can’t own up to the fact afterwards. 

And, this once again ties back to personal narrative. Enji believes, and this has been the problem with him since the Pro Hero Arc that his true problem is that he wasn’t a good enough hero. A lot of people didn’t like the sudden inclusion of Enji’s backstory, but it makes sense to some extent, Enji’s regret is his father wasn’t strong enough to protect an innocent girl from a villain and died when he was young, therefore becoming the strongest hero makes it so he can never die and abandon his family the way his father did. Except. He does abandon his family. 

Enji can’t face what he has done wrong, because of his self-justification. He is a hero, and therefore he always has good intentions, and he can’t be the villain even when his own actions would make him one. Enji is on such an insane level of sunk cost fallacy, that in his mind, after the death of one son continuing to abuse another son is justifiable because otherwise he quite literally let one son die for nothing.

And, it’s this refusal to even face the fact that he can be wrong, which is why Enji ignores the feelings of everyone around him, and generally lets things fall into ruin. All Enji had to do was show up on that hill the day Toya burned to death, but something so small as lifting a finger is just impossible to Enji who cannot confront his own flaws, or even think of himself as the bad guy in any way.

Which is where we get a common trend between both Hawks and Endeavor, in which, they do not want to face the feelings or even the memories of their victims. In the Todofam dinner arc Enji tells the funeral portrait of Toya he wants him to come home and have dinner, but when he has the oppurtunity for that he won’t even face him and talk to him. Toya is just so much more convenient to face when he is a regretful memory, a mistake on Enji’s part, because then Enji is completely in control of the narrative. He barely thinks of Toya at all, and when he does it’s almost entirely on his own terms. 

Toya even comments on this, that he was always running and crying to Natsuo and Enji didn’t even know because he didn’t care to know. We have this same behavior repeated in Hawks. Hawks is really only comfortable seeing himself as the good guy. 

@thyandrawrites​ wrote two meta in regards to Hawks I want to reference now. This one on how Hawks thinks he has to continually justify his existence by acting as a support and helping others, and this one how Hawks in turn dodges responsibility when it comes to light he’s not the good guy. 

Hawks is someone a lot more complicated than Enji, because he’s not selfish, and he doesn’t really hurt others for self-gain. If Enji is a black hole, then Hawks is more like a sattelite. He does everything, including dirtying his own hands for the sake of others, and a greater good he likes to believe he is serving rather than for himself. In fact, it often comes at expense of himself, as Hawks has no real life, or friends or place in the world outside of being a hero. 

While he is different in intention than Enji, however, I believe it’s still right to call him out on basically everything he does to avoid guilt after the fact. “Doing dirty things for the sake of the greater good” is one thing, but Hawks in total denial of his actions can’t even see himself as dirty. Which once again we return to personal narrative, Hawks’ personal narrative and his self perception trumps everything, even the feelings of other people he is stomping on. 

To quote Thy on this: 

So this brings us to the present arc. Right after a raid that failed largely because Hawks wasn’t able to warn the heroes of the threat they were about to face, Hawks reacts by shutting down. If his existence is defined by how helpful he is, it goes without saying that he cannot accept being responsible for the huge death toll resulting from the failed ambush. So we witness Hawks not thinking critically at all about his share of responsibilities. He doesn’t think about what it meant to kill Twice.

This was the post-apocalyptic scenario that Hawks envisioned and wanted to avoid, the scenario he killed Twice in order to avoid. But it still happened, and yet we don’t see him reflect on it at all. What he does instead is clinging to something that gave him a sense of purpose before.

Being a tool instrumental to other people’s success.

Which in a way means that the same character stagnation that is present in Endeavor is there for Hawks as well. He has not changed in any significant way since his introduction in the Pro Hero Arc, effectively holding the same beliefs and making the same decisions as he did back then. That he needs to uplift Enji as a hero, and his own personal hero, even after learning the truth of who Enji was. 

And, we have this same guilt-avoidance mechanism that is at the root of Hawks’ stagnation the same way it is with Enji’s. Hawks practically does the same thing that Enji does to Toya with Twice, despite literally murdering him with his own hands, instead of taking responsibility for his own actions, or even I don’t know... at the bare minimum... feeling sorry about it, he chooses to remember Twice as an idealized memory, compartmented into a neat little box in a way that’s very flattering to Twice. 

It’s not “I killed Twice and I regret it” it’s “I want to learn from Twice and be helpful just like he was.” 

In doing so he belittles and ignores not only Twice’s feelings, but also his entire memory. Hawks and Enji both kind of want to believe their own internal narration that deep down they are good people, and their intentions and actions are those of a good person, and therefore everything they might have done wrong along the way is just a mistake or a slip-up on the road. Hawks always returns to the memory of him selflessly helping the people on the bus, because he wasnts to believe who he is at heart, but that’s also not how he is. 

They have no identity outside of being heroes, and yes it’s tragic to think they would crumple if ever faced with or trying to process the feelings they outright ignore, and also doubly tragic in Hawks case that he was groomed to feel that way by hero society at large from a young age, I also think it’s important to look at the cost of their actions. Hawks and Enji actively harm people, and get away with it with a slap on the wrist, and because of that they don’t reflect or change on their actions and they continue their bad behavior. 

It’s important to remember in Toya’s backstory, if Enji had just stopped and given up on his abuse of Shoto after Toya died, then Dabi would never have come about, and Toya would have come home. It’s this subtle escalation that happens when Enji is not confronted about his actions, and even enabled by the people around him to keep doing his bad behavior, it gets worse and worse over time. 

The whole point of the Todoroki household is that it didn’t have to get as bad as it did, but it happened because no one tried to stop Enji, and Enji was so good at self-justification he didn’t try to stop. Which is why I want to point out, it’s not just harmful for Hawks himself, it doesn’t just stunt his growth as a person, it’s extremely harmful to the people around him, because he cannot admit his mistakes and he cannot grow for them and so therefore inevitably he will repeat them again. In fact Hawks has gotten worse in some ways, which is where I want to reference Thy again.

Hawks even outright plays the victim. He’s not doing a public apology through a press conference because his personal ethics tells him it’s the right thing to do. He’s doing it because he knows it’s expected of him, which just isn’t the mindframe of someone who understood the gravity of his actions. From his phrasing, we can parse that he thinks that heroes like the top three are being put under scrutiny for no good reason, and like this is a test of his own endurance, when it should be a matter of proving his good faith. Hawks just killed a man who was running away, and he’s acting like it’s unfair that the world is holding him accountable for it.

The reason why Hawks thinks that society turned on him is because he justified Twice’s extrajudicial killing to himself as something he was doing to protect that same society that is now ungrateful for his personal sacrifice.

Hawks own motive of doing everything for the greater public good has been corrupted, because his killing of Twice did not give him the validation he was seeking. Which reveals once again, Hawks is not entirely selfless, just like a person he wants validation, he wants encouragement, he doesn’t do everything for the sake of the greater good. If he really believed his own personal narrative that he can sacrifice himself and others for the greater good and get his hands dirty and it will all be justified in the end, he wouldn’t be pouting because people criticized him. 

There’s a certain fragility to the ego of both Hawks and Endeavor where they can’t really accept any outsiders perspective on their actions at all, because everything has to be in line with their narrative, their own personal hero stories. 

Everyone talks about the differences between Nagant and Hawks, but there is one new angle I would like to bring in. Perspective. 

In the end what stopped Nagant from blindly following orders was her seeing her own self as dirty, after doing the dirty works of others. Nagant accepted the guilt of murder, and realized in comparison to the ideal way that the kids she was signing autographs for her saw her, she wasn’t living up to the hero they saw. 

Nagant was able to divorce herself from her own self image, and because of that she actually changed and took action against the corruption of the hero’s council. Lad Nagant if anything is capable of change in a way that Hawks isn’t, because Hawks can’t perceive any fault in his own self.

“I am optimistic to a fault.” almost quite literally in this case. When he is confronted with the reality of who Endeavor is he prefers to choose the image of a hero he saw as a child, and on the way he actively enables Endeavor to keep doing wrong by his abuse victims. Of course he says Endeavor is living to atone, but Hawks essentially advocates for doing what is worst to Toya which is ignoring Toya entirely, and on top of that making Shoto fight against him for Enji’s convenience. 

He remembers Twice in a positive light as someone who was helpful and wants to be like him, but when faced with a Twice who returned from the dead just wants to murder him again. Nagant says, the public gets to stargaze at the bright and shiny side, while the dark truth gnaws away from someone else.

And this, I think is key to understanding why Hawks mental spiral is so harmful because it doesn’t just harm himself, other people are always going to get hurt too so Hawks can maintain his fragile ego and sense of self. Hawks may be a brave hero able to courageously risk his life but at the same time he is an emotional coward, he cannot face himself or his own emotions or even when he does something wrong simply because he is too scared to.

And, yes the villains do this too but they at least at the bare minimum do not think they are good people. 

#mha meta #my hero academia meta #my hero academia theory #enji todoroki #endeavor #takami keigo #hawks #jin bubaigawara #twice #toya todoroki #dabi #bnha 374 #bnha 374 spoilers