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thekingofwinterblog · 5 years

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My hero academia 213 How to Destroy Potential

My hero academia Chapter 213 has to put it bluntely, been controversial to say the least. the only reason its not the most controversial part of this series, is due to the handling of endeavor.

some are okay with it, and thinks it’s got a lot of potential. others just see it as a blatant rethreading of the road that in the end destroyed Both Bleach and Naruto, two series that at their height was the cream of the crop of not only shonen, but the entire manga medium(at least if one goes by sales numbers), but as the story went on, completely fell in over themselves, and abandoned the things fans loved about the series. In the End fans of bleach got so fed up with the series, that it got canceled in the middle of its final fight. one does not get a more humiliating fall than that.

and now, MHA is seemingly going down the same road. that road of course, being powerscaling.

Powerscaling is a very tricky buisiness, as for any series with superpowers, you will at some point have to establish a hierarcy, of who is at the bottom, the middle, and easily the most important one, at the top.

How strong characters can be in a setting, is immensely important, because that one simple question, determines how strong/usefull any character not at the very top can be in the grand scheme of things.

it is also very important to put a ceiling on how strong a character can become, lest the need for characters to always get stronger and stronger, means that they will reach a point where the only thing that matters anymore is brute strength.

naruto at the end of its series, had essentially destroyed itself due to the fact that its main characters were now so powerfull, that literarly everyone else was worthless in comparison.

bleach went the opposite route, with a villain that was so broken and powerfull, that there was no way his defeat was EVER going to be satisfying, and in the end people didnt care anymore, once the end was reached, and it was killed before its time.

In MHA’s case, the road so many people think its going down, is the road, of Naruto, with its protagonist Izuku Midoriya, gaining 6 entierly new powers, which for Many, Many reasons, threatens to break this story across its knee.

Now i will not go into wheter these powers were well foreshadowed. ive seen both arguments, with many being frustrated they come out of nowhere, while some saying its been foreshadowed since chapter 2.

What i want to focus on, are the powers themselves, and the implications they have on Izuku, and the entire rest of the cast.

Izuku midoriya, at the start of the series, obtained the quirk One for All, a quirk passed on through the generations, which seemingly only granted immense superhuman strength, and all that comes with that(speed, power, and to some extent durability).

for the past 200 chapters, we have explored the drawbacks and powers of this quirk. its unmatched sheer power, but also that its a quirk that one needs to master over time, and if the new user isnt given time to adapt to it, it will destroy the users limbs.

and this was not a for show flaw either. over the course of this series, izuku, again and again used the quirk freely in order to overcome his obstacles, and in the end, he damaged his arms with permanent nerve damage, with the promise that if it happened once or twice more, he would suffer full use of his arms.

in order to compensate for this, he did something you almost never see in any series. he completely ditched his original style of fighting in favor of one that had nothing to do with his old one, but allowed him to use his legs instead of his now damaged arms in order to minimize risk of further damage.

izukus entire journey was about achieving control, over a power he already had achieved, and in the end he was forced to completely rework his powers to achieve success.

then, after we got a full sense of what izuku could do at 100% power, izuku would go on to try and fix one of his main weaknesses, his lack of a ranged attack.

and using his own newfound grasp over his powers, and a bit of tech help, izuku did so, developing a quite usefull ranged attack.

Izuku at this point had reached around 20%/30% of his full power potential, and was really starting to come into his own.

then a completely new power emerged, and izuku was told by one of the previous users of one for all, that in no uncertain terms he would develop 6 entierly new quirks, and that this was the real true potenital of One for All.

This reveal completely redefined the entire series, izukus journey, the potential of EVERYONE ELSE, and how things would be going foreward.

Uncertainty---

Now the first defence against those who like the reveal, and doesnt think this makes izuku overpowered, is that we dont know what any of the new quirks are, other than Izuku’s new Black Whip.

and they are right. we dont know what they are. and thats a big problem.

Now whenever Izuku is in a bad spot, there will always be a chance that the stress will kick in and activate a new quirk, and turn the tide of battle.

it doesnt matter if this never, ever happens. the problem is that its something that we now know COULD happen, and thus it decreases any tension out of any fight izuku will ever have between now and when the final quirk is revealed. Thusly, izuku having these quirks have now dealt a mortal blow against any tension his fight may have had.

Now, to be fair, i want to show a case of this kinda trope done right to compare it to. Naruto and ichigos, kyuubi and hollow transformations before either of them mastered their transformations.

the reason why both of these worked, is that while there was always the possibility that they would just go loose and fix whatever was happening(which is exactly what happened in several cases) we the audience had an advantage we do not have with Izuku’s quirks. we knew what both the hollow powers and the kyuubi could do. while there was the obvious question of just how strong either of these could become before the MC just lost all control, we knew and understood what both these forms could do, and what would lead them to emerge.

we do not have this with izuku’s quirks. we dont know what any of them except Black Whip can do. as my buddy Quirkquartz put it, izuku might have a healing quirk thats powerfull enough to fix his arms and all injury ever. thats probably not gonna be the case, but then again, it could be. We DONT know.

how strong izukus quirks end up being is immaterial. as long as we dont know what any of these quirks are, there is always the chance that they will turn out to be something that will completely fix whatever the issue is at the moment.

and all the way from now and until we learn what the final revealed quirk is, that will be a massive problem.

Replacing other now obsolete characters---

One of the most obvious and blatant problems with giving izuku more quirks, is that it makes other characters irrelevant. ill go over the full problems with powerscaling later, but lets focus on the most obvious and blatant problem, as its actually a problem already.

the fact that izukus quirks will probably end up flat out just be other characters powers, just better.

and unlike other concerns about this reveal, this one has actually happened already.

Izuku’s black whip, is essentially the quirk of his fellow classmate Sero, just better in every way. and what that means is that any chance sero ever had of being relevant and unique just died.

One of the biggest problems of powercreep is when the only thing that matters is brute power, and the only thing that matters is who is the most powerfull guy on the team.

that is a legitimate concern of where this might all head, but there is another problem with powercreep when it comes to developing new powers.

flat out making characters obsolete.

what is the point of sero, now that izuku can do what he can do, just better? the answer is that there isnt any. Sero might as well have died, given that any potential he had to be somewhat unique just got destroyed by izuku getting a power which is his, just better.

to illustrate the importance of uniqueness, ill give an example of a character who is the weakest of his entire group, yet has one nitche that only he can do.

Usopp from one piece, is the weakest fighter of the entire strawhat pirates, bar none. yet he is also the sniper of the crew, and when it comes to long range situations, there simply arent anyone in the crew who comes even close to doing what he can do at that range.

this has lead to him being instrumental several times in the manga, saving the day, when no one else could, because even though there are plenty of enemies he just cannot beat, he is still a worthwhile character who can do stuff no one else can do.

Now, with the introduction of Black Whip, we will never see a similar situation for Sero. he’s irrelevant, and to put it bluntly, obsolete.

and there is a genuine fear that this will happen again when other quirks are introduced. whats there to say the next one wont be an explosion power, which is probably more powerfull than bakugous?

Making previous development meaningless---

like the previous point, this one is also a problem thats already happened. namely that the introduction of Black Whip, just made izukus previous development of a ranged attack pointless. maybe once izuku really gets a massive grip of OFA, and his ranged air attack become ridiculously powerfull, it will be relevant again, but at that point, he could just punch like all might and get the same effect.

which brings up the question. if the next devlopment is to master black whip, then what the hell was the point of izuku devloping a ranged attack?

again, there isnt any. ranged wind attack is now flat out overshadowed for its intended purpose, and will now be a niche ability.

Unnecesary Powers and lack of creativity---

And now we get to delve into the subject of the concept of the OP character, and wheter izuku qualifies or not.

one argument ive seen leveled over and over, is that izuku was always going to be overpowered, so giving him extra quirks isnt a problem in the grand scheme of thing. after all, he’s gonna be overpowered either way right?

which raises a question. wheter izuku actually is going to become overpowered or not(a question ill dive into in the next section), did he need more powers? what was wrong with his established set? was simple superhuman strength a power which simply didnt work in the long run?

There is some legitimate critisism on the subject, in that izukus fights for a long time, tended to end the same, unless it was a curbstomp. izuku would simply get angry and hit them really really hard, and often break his body in the process.

and there is some genuine problems there. many pf izukus fights were indeed like that. i would argue however, that this was a problem on Koheis part, rather than an inherited problems with OFA itself.

After all, there are plenty of moments where izuku uses his strength in order to win in other ways than just hitting people directly. izukus first fight with bakugou was won like that, and him saving himself, tsuyu and mineta on the boat was a great combination attack.

The big problem is that kohei has relied on enemies with direct power against izuku far too often.

Overhaul was building up to be a direct counter to that. a physically normal man, with ridiculous powers, that was more than a match for izuku. then he became a punching bag in order to demonstrate how strong izuku is at 100%

Gentle was similar, then at the very end, La Brava revealed her quirk to be one which powered gentle up drasticly, turning their fight into yet another power struggle(though addmitingly one which izuku won withouth destroying himself).

The big problem is that when it comes to izukus fights, kohei has lately relied far too mutch on hard hitters to fight izuku, rather than letting fights like izukus vs gentle or overhaul to reach a logical conclusion. instead coming back to the age old power struggle.

Yet he has proven over the series that he can write better than that, and in my opinion, the big problem is that he simply hasnt when its come to izukus fights.

and, now, lets go over the big subject, the one that defines this debate.

Powerscaling in all its messy glory----

The big, big question that is asked again and again with this devlopment, is, doesnt this make izuku OP as fuck? and often those who like the idea to redirect the question with replies like, and so what? he was always going to be OP, this changes nothing. or the tried and true, lets wait and see how Kohei writes it.

lets begin with the biggest question, was Izuku always going to be OP?

the answer is both Yes and no. he was always going to be OP in that his brute force was never going to be matched, thats true enough, and the entire series has been built upon that premise. however, that doesnt mean that izuku would be able to solve every single problem he would face on his own, nor that he could beat every single enemy he ever faced.

if you actually look at 1-a’s powerset, there is an obvious collection of flat out combat quirks(which makes sense given the entrance exam) but there is also a large variety of powers.

Acid, explosions, fire/ice, lasers, electricity, shadow, sound. these are all direct combat quirks, yet none of them are usefull for direct physical combat.

of the direct physical combat(and nothing else) fighters there are 6; tsuyu, kirishima, ojirou, tenya, shoji and sato.

now, lets look at these in full and see how they compare in potential for one for all.

Tsuyu, has superhuman strenght and agilty and a incredibly long and strong toungue. also has camouflage powers, which OFA does not have anything resembling, and can also climb on walls.

Kirishima, is superhumanly durable to an insane degree. how this compares to OFA durability at both of their heights is unknown, but it could consievably be more durable than a OFA user after kirishima has hammered it as far as it could go.

ojirou, has a tail. OFA is and always will be better.

Tenya, has ridiculously high speed, and at this current stage is FAR faster than izuku, and could possibly grow even faster. how a possible max speed would compare to AFO is unknown, but its completely possible that tenya would be the flash to izukus superman.

Shoji, has transformation powers, which is often used for direct combat but can also be used for other things like scouting by sound, leave behind dropped off body parts for distractions or decoys and probably other usefull things.

and finally sato, who grows superhumanly strong when he consumes sugar. his max strenght seems to be far inferior to izuku already at this stage.

so, out of the entire class, only two members had nothing to bring to the table which OFA could not do better in every way, no question.

does this mean that all of the quirks had the potential to reach OFA’s level? of course not, but that didnt mean they had to be useless.

after all, characters like sero could fill their own niche. oh wait.

the big problem with giving izuku even one more quirk(much less 6) is that suddenly he can do stuff that other characters can do, just much better. and this isnt something we speculate on. its already happened. Black whip is better than seros quirk in every way. the moment izuku gets any grip on black whip, sero serves no point.

which leads to the next point.

one argument against this being a terrible idea for the story as a whole, is that its not likely that izuku will have mastered these quirks right out of the gate. and that is true. it will probably take izuku as long a time to truely master black whip as it took to master his original powers. but that doesnt really matter, in the grand scheme of things. because wheter it takes a week, a month or a year, the end result remains the same. Black Whip will have made sero a completely obsolete character. there simply isnt any way around that.

izuku will make more and more characters obsolete everytime he unlocks another quirk. wheter the next is mineta, jirou, kirishima or even todoroki and bakugou, each time it happens someone will become the new yamcha.

which leads me to the next point. there is no point of any other characters training to be the next number one hero, as this devlopment will have killed any shot todoroki or bakugou ever had of matching up to izuku in any way.

the bakugou/izuku rivalry is effectively over, as there isnt any way bakugou could even hope to measure up to izuku now.

it was a tall order with izuku only having one for all, but idd argue that its impossible now, that he’s got more than OFA.

Hell, even with just black whip, izukus potential is now so wast that it dwarfs any other. BW pretty mcuh removes all the few drawbacks of a fully mastered OFA, namely its lack of range beyond moving wind currents and bursts. izuku could potentially have been left helpless in the air open to counterattacks, even after fully having mastered OFA. with BW, that “pesky”weakness has now been removed.

the simple fact of the matter is that One for ALL was such a powerfull quirk that giving it ANY boost beyond its already established powers, had the severe risk of completely undermining every single other characters. 6 entierly new and probably all very powerfull quirks on top of it?

i simply cannot see any way that will be done well and these powers will benefit the story, even by an author who has done no wrong. and kohei is not one such.

this development is not a sudden sign that kohei is becoming a terrible writer. he’s been fucking up for a while now.

He wasted all the potential of the overhaul arc, which had so much potential, that was flushed down the toilet, and he completely failed to make me(and many, MANY others) feel anything in regards to Endeavors “redemption” arc.

Kohei is capable of writing great stuff still, the festival arc was great, this recent arc has been wonderfull up until pretty recently, and ive loved so much of what has happened over the last year.

But he isnt a writer who makes no mistakes. and quite frankly, im tired of the argument that we should wait and see. i waited and saw during the overhaul arc. it did not have a finale that i particularly loved. i waited and saw during the endeavor arc. and again, i didnt get anything i wanted out of that conclusion, neither endeavor losing an eye, a real confrontation between endeavor and dabi, nor endeavors potential death, which is what i expected and wanted out of that arc.

im tired of waiting and seeing. this is a terrible and quite possibly a point of no return for MHA quality and potential, and im gonna call it out as such.

#boku no hero academia #my hero academia #chapter 213 #izuku #one for all #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #213 #bnha 213

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