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wbswag · 5 days

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Pretty sure this is one of my most Hardcore Delusional takes yet, but it’s something that’s been in the back of my mind ever since chapter 312 where it was shown that All For One was in direct proximity to a defenseless Chisaki… and didn’t steal his quirk. I remember when the chapter was more recent, there was a bunch of people theorizing that AFO stole the Overhaul quirk, but over the last 100+ chapters, it’s become apparent that he probably didn’t.

And I thought to myself, “Why not steal that quirk? It would help you and your whole plan greatly. Why on earth would you pass up that opportunity?” And these feelings were thrown back in my face by chapter 419, where it got confirmed Chisaki was in one of AFO’s facilities as a kid (He had a previous, even better opportunity to steal the quirk, which challenged my original idea that AFO let Chisaki keep the quirk to maintain his manipulation of Shigaraki).

So the question is: Why, for the sake of everything holy and unholy, did AFO not steal Chisaki’s quirk despite having every chance, reason, and more to?

But I was reading quirkwizard’s post about their opinion on the 419 Overhaul-Decay reveal, and it came to me, kinda baselessly but still—what if he literally can’t? What if there’s something about the quirk or Chisaki that makes it so that AFO literally can’t take the quirk somehow?

Because like quirkwizard said, it makes no sense for AFO to have just not stolen the quirk? Like, I can semi-see what he was going for with stripping the reconstruction part when he gave it to Shigaraki to promote pure destruction or whatever, but why not make the copy and then take the original for himself or Garaki? Especially back then, before anyone but AFO knew about Chisaki?? And also, yeah, how DID Chisaki get out of the orphanage? Did he just breakout and run away like Touya did? Or was it something deeper? I’ll probably brainstorm it and make another post, BUT if anyone has any personal theories about it, PLEASE tell me, I love reading Chisaki theories!!

But anyway, yeah. Is it that maybe he actually can’t? Is that why he had to resort to merely making a, in his own words, subpar copy? Because why was stealing Chisaki’s quirk never even on the table, for anyone, in either of the blatant two different situations it could’ve easily been stolen??

I feel like the Overhaul being the origins of the Decay quirk thing is to deepen the parallels between Chisaki and Shigaraki (obviously), but the real question is why. Why deepen the parallels between them to that extent, in that context? Unless there’s still more to be revealed about Chisaki and his past (like @ikamigami ‘s theory that Chisaki is AFO’s kid, which is a theory I cannot stop thinking about btw) that’ll further connect him and Shigaraki.

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villainsandvictimsalliance · 6 days

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Horikoshi giving hero tropes to the villains is probably my favorite part of bnha.

He presented us with a nervous wreck of a boy at the beginning of the manga. Look, he seemed to say, isn't he creepy? isn't he evil? He met Tomura in his most lanky form. Malnourished, neglected, real dead hands all over his body and blunt nails digging mercilessly in his skin.

Sure, the story paints him as a real villain. He is there to kill kids, after all. He wants to kill the light of the hero society, to spread violence and hatred all around. He's also very very suspicious. You get that feeling that there's more to the story. It's in the way he acts, his desperation. He looks sick. What is he making him so? What is his story?

Tomura is a loser. A failure since the beginning, if you follow the narrative. Characters like Stain, Overhaul and Redestro point it out: Tomura isn't the best strategist per se, they can't understand his reasons to do what he does, there's something wrong with him in villain terms.

That's when the brain starts to pick up the signals and plants the doubt. Many people don't notice it, but something in the story gives away that he is a very special type of villain.

We see him alone in his dark messy room, staring at a screen. We see him drinking alone in a bar as he sits on his misery. Over and over, we see that evil boy and his burdened stance. Only Kurogiri is there. His master only talks to him through some radio. He doesn't mention anyone else. No one else seems to live in that bar but Kurogiri and him.

Back then, when Tomura was all about AFO and All Might and no one else, he felt hollow. Rotten.

We first saw him approach someone for help and some company after the first LOV members were introduced. We meet Toga and Dabi, then Tomura goes to find Deku. Is he still creepy? Yes. Is he still evil? Also. We have Giran talking about Tomura with the fondness you reserve for a spoiled child. The way Kurogiri and Giran talk about it, it's more like Tomura needs to make some friends. He's not used to it, so he's being rude to them.

He's a chosen one reluctant to make friends, since he's used to doing things on his own— or at least with people he didn't care about. Next time we see him, his telling Kurogiri that he doesn't want them to die, he wouldn't sacrifice them for a goal and he actually wants them to succeed. He talks like a leader, he considers them important.

When they show us the LOV around Tomura as he talks to a kidnapped Bakugo, there's something in there already. How they worry when Bakugo hits Tomura and knocks the hand out of his face. They humanize Tomura, which is a lot to say when AFO did everything he could to dehumanize him. They make Tomura be more mature, more responsible and more capable. While AFO paints Tomura as a foolish child that cannot get things right until he's guided there, the LOV trusts Tomura to take care of himself and guide them.

That's when the hero tropes with villains started.

A quick list from the top of my head:

Twice overcame his trauma mid-battle in order to save Toga and then the LOV.

Tomura was tempted by Overhaul to betray the LOV in exchange for power. He pretended to agree, only to backstab Overhaul because Tomura would never forgive those who hurt his friends and would never betray the LOV.

Magne went to attack Overhaul for offending her and her friends, defending their ideals and their right to exist 'til death.

Mr. Compress took the leading role in many dangerous situations to assure that the LOV would get their win, but also to assure they'd make it out alive.

Tomura would forgive people not on his behalf, but for the benefit of the LOV.

Giran refused to sell any info about the LOV and laughed in his captors face because he was not so important to them. Turns out he was bluffing about it being all business, since we know from Twice's flashback that he did it also for the fondness he felt towards the LOV and the LOV went there to rescue him.

The LOV rushing through a battlefield the size of a city while desperately trying to find a way to save Tomura.

Twice and Mr. Compress refusing to leave Tomura fighting Gigantomachia alone and taking the burden of his training with him.

Dabi doing all he could to save Twice and snapping when he realized Twice was dead.

Mr. Compress worried about Toga and her solo mission.

Spinner telling Toga that she needs to come back safe and sound to them.

Tomura refusing to die or give up while the LOV still needs him (to be a hero).

Twice already dead and still moving because he needed to save Toga.

The entire LOV refusing to even consider defeat because they blindly believe that there is no way Tomura can lose.

And there's so much more...

The LOV made Tomura act heroic. They gave him a reason to want to save and protect, instead of just wanting to destroy.

The power of friendship but for evil.

Isn't it the best thing ever?

#bnha #mha #my hero academia #boku no hero academia #league of villains #lov #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #shigaraki tomura #tenko shimura

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greenhappyseed · 23 days

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MHA 418 leak reactions

Izuku blips over middle school and becomes a child in Tomura’s mind scape as Tenko decays Mon.

Baby Izuku holds baby Tenko’s hands in order to stop him from decaying Hana. Izuku starts decaying (!!!) but tells himself this is an imaginary place??? Dude, 2 chapters ago you were saying that you COULD get hurt in this mind scape. Which one is it?!?!??! WHICH ONE IS IT IZUKU?!?!!?!

Tenko cries and says no, he WANTS to destroy his house and family, because if he doesn’t want to destroy, then why was he born bad? (Ugh, poor kiddo!)

Tenko tells Izuku to go away, and it’s still not clear if it’s out of self-hatred or to keep Izuku safe. I lost count of how many times this happened in the last 3 chapters….

But Izuku says no. AGAIN. And finally, Izuku says something honest about why he wants to be a hero and save Tenko: Izuku feels relief when he holds the hand of someone who is hurting.

And with that, Izuku tells Tenko, “I am here.” Brilliant.

We see Tenko smile as he’s on a playground with his friends, and Tomo-chan tells him that he can play as All Might. Join the club, Tenko!!!!

Oh but of course it’s not that easy. If Izuku finally says why HE wants to be a hero, then it’s Tenko’s turn to explain why he has to be a villain: Because he hates and destroys things, and even if he didn’t, there are others who need him and look to him to destroy.

Back in the “real world,” there are some citizens cheering for Shigaraki. They’re sad (??) when the finger armor begins to disappear when ….

AFO’s MEMORIES APPEAR!!!! OH LAWD HE COMIN!!!!!

KOTARO WAS DRINKING WINE AND TALKING ABOUT TENKO’s QUIRK WITH MYSTERY HAT MAN???

Okay the chapter ends with vestige AFO returning (and maybe able to control Tomura again?) BUT it sounds like Kotaro bought his son a quirk from AFO? Or was Kotaro himself somehow taken under AFO’s wing after Nana gave him up for adoption??? Like they know each other and have dinner together????

You guys, this is so much worse than just “oh AFO gave Tenko decay……” Well done Horikoshi for one more good twist.

#oh lawd he comin #bnha 418 #mha 418 #Izuku midoriya #Deku #Tenko Shimura #tomura shigaraki #kotaro shimura #AFO #all for one #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers

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makeste · 5 months

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Do you actually believe the DFO theory? What do you think supports it? (Genuine question)

I do think Deku and AFO have a yet-to-be-revealed connection, and back in my early BnHA fandom days I did think Dad For One was a possibility. nowadays though, I'm convinced there's a different explanation for the link between them -- namely, that OFA and AFO are actually the same quirk, and Deku is effectively a horcrux of AFO. I have a post here which explains this theory more in-depth, but basically the gist of it is that OFA was never a separate quirk at all. Yoichi really was quirkless, and when AFO attempted to force a quirk on his brother, he accidentally gave him a piece of his own quirk in the process. just broke off a lil section of it, like a Kit-Kat bar.

I will say that regardless of which theory turns out to be true, there's definitely something going on between AFO and Deku. chapter 217 in particular is practically overflowing with hints that the two are linked. Katsuki sees it right from the start, and even theorizes that AFO might have something to do with the SIXQUIRKS activating. and rather than disagree, All Might simply says "I didn't want to raise that point," meaning he made the connection as well. and then they just freaking drop the entire subject never to mention it again. and Horikoshi lays this panel on us as a parting gift.

which to me is confirmation that we'll be revisiting this at some point. simply because you do not lay the symbolism on that thick without some kind of game plan for the future. this isn't merely setting up OFA and AFO as foils; this is deliberately (and ominously) drawing attention to the numerous "coincidental" similarities between their two quirks. such as the fact that OFA is the only other quirk capable of holding multiple quirks within itself. and the only other quirk capable of being passed down to another user.

not to mention there's also the as-yet-unexplained link between Deku and AFO. the fact that Yoichi can "hear" his brother, and vice-versa. back in Jakku, the pre-Danger Sense Deku somehow knew that Tomura was awake before anything had actually happened. and when Deku first activated SIXQUIRKS, AFO was somehow aware, even miles away locked up in Tartarus. and we're just supposed to pretend this is all perfectly normal and makes total sense, lol.

so yeah there is definitely some sort of reveal coming up before this all ends. but I think DFO is more likely to be a red herring at this point. Horikoshi definitely knows about the theories, and that's probably why he still hasn't revealed anything about Dekupapa. he's the Hagakure in this scenario. distract me us with speculation about her, when in reality Aoyama was the culprit all along. it's the same tactic here. convince all the fans that AFO is Deku's father, when in reality the truth is even more insidious. he's not Deku's dad -- he's Deku's quirk. and the final final boss, secretly lurking not within Tomura, but within Deku himself.

tell me that's not the perfect final showdown setup. you know it's true. you know it's coming. or at least I hope it is lol.

incidentally, during the process of typing this all up, it occurred to me that if AFO is capable of creating horcrux!quirks (which we know for a fact he is regardless of how this theory pans out, since that's essentially how TomurAFO was created)... then why not Deku as well? which immediately led me down a whole new different theory rabbit hole. that's going to have to be its own separate post, though. my mind is now going a mile a minute, holy shit. this is going to be a busy weekend.

#bnha #boku no hero academia #all for one #midoriya izuku #one for all #bnha meta #bnha theory #horcrux!deku #all for one for all #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha manga spoilers #makeste reads bnha

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super-paper · 8 months

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Rereading the early chapters of MHA, and tbh I think we can pin this scene as the exact moment Tomura develops his fixation on Izuku.

Everyone in this scene assumes that All Might doesn’t need any help and starts wandering off, leaving All Might to face Kurogiri and Tomura alone. Izuku is the only one to intervene, "offering help that no one asked for." Of course, Izuku is the only one with actual insight into All Might’s condition and realizes that he's in danger— but from Tomura’s perspective, Izuku is some rando kid that's throwing himself into danger to help someone who doesn’t appear to need any help. And the emphasis on everyone else being willing to just sit back and do nothing while All Might handles everything is something we know ties directly to one of Tomura’s biggest traumas:

Tomura: "Don't just watch. Help Me. Someone please look at me. Don't just tell me not to cry. Don't just smile and pretend that everything is alright. Don't pretend you don't see me." MHAReddit: Ah, I understand-- obviously, the series is saying that Tenko is dead and we can beat this guy by punching him harder! :)

I gotta stress that Shouto and Co. are kids and I'm not faulting them for deciding to let an adult handle the situation (and I don't doubt in the slightest that they would have also chosen to intervene if they were privvy to the same information abt Toshinori's health as Izuku)-- but from Tomura's perspective where he holds pretty much everyone equally responsible for society's failings, this act was enough for him to start subconsciously singling Izuku out.

Meanwhile, the sports festival just reinforces Tomura's budding interest bc it reinforces that Izuku is actually batshit crazy and Tomura's response to this is to ask ".... how crazy we talkin'? 👀"

Oh, Izuku, you were definitely gonna get kidnapped at some point 😭

Anyway, stuff like this is also why I feel that Horikoshi likely planned on having Izuku save Tomura from the very beginning (And I've seen ppl argue that Hori had planned to have Tomura be the final boss and get defeated/killed because of Nine's existence, but let's be real-- Nine was an AFO expy parading around in a Yoichi expy's body and ya'll know it). There's a lot of set up for why Izuku is ultimately the best person to save Tomura scattered throughout the early stages of the manga, like, literally starting from the very first page:

Izuku: *crying the biggest and ugliest tears mankind has ever seen, snot pouring out of his nose, sweating a frankly concerning amount, and fighting back his own tears because he just can't ignore the tears of others* I GOTTA SAVE THAT CRYING BOY....!!! Shigaraki Tomura, famously a freak, inching himself closer to Midoriya Izuku's splash zone with every chapter: ....... :) :) :)

Izuku saves others despite being a sobbing, snotty, sweaty mess--often times while he's being a sobbing, snotty, sweaty mess. It's antithetical to All Might and Nana's beliefs about saving others with a smile and about cultivating an "image"/"mask" meant to reassure others-- but that's not a bad thing, and the whole series is built around showing us why it isn't a bad thing.

Izuku cannot separate his own inherent humanity and desires from his heroism and is driven by impulse/ego/pain the same way Tomura is. He remains a crybaby who wears his emotions on his sleeve throughout the entirety of the manga-- and the lesson he ultimately learns isn't that he should "just stop crying and hide all his fear behind a smile," it's that he shouldn't run from that aspect of himself because it's the part of himself that allows him to empathize with others. Izuku saves a piece of himself every time he gives his all to save those who are in tears, and he's become the exact type of hero who would've given it his all to save his child self.

This might not be the sort of hero Izuku fantasized about being-- but it's exactly the sort of hero Tomura needs after a lifetime of having his own tears downplayed and ignored by everyone.

on that note, the anime having Tenko and Izuku's "masks" basically evaporating to reveal their soft, sparkly, shoujo-y centers in that one season 6 OP remains one of the most on-point visuals the anime has ever given us lmfao. can't wait to see what they do for s7.....!

#sophie.txt #midoriya izuku #shigaraki tomura #just rambling a bit so this post doesn't have much in the way of direction/cohesion. no matter...........!!!#mha.txt

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aashi-heartfilia · 8 months

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Shigaraki is Deku's villain and AFO is Bakugo's

Isn't it kind of obvious? This is the same Horikoshi who planned heroes rising as an ending for MHA and that was Bakugo and Deku sharing OFA to defeat the main villain. Why would he do the same thing again when he himself stated that the real story has moved beyond this?!

I will not go over the relationship of Deku and Shigaraki and how they are nemesis, yada yada but I would go over a possible ending for Bakugo's character arc.

So, BakuDeku has always been about Winning and Saving where Bakugo has been the face for Winning and vice versa but that's also their main weakness. Deku is always too focused on saving while Bakugo's ultimate focus is winning. That's not right.

The story explicitly tells us that an abundance of either of them is wrong. Deku's self sacrificial nature is wrong (vigilante Deku arc) and only running after victory like Bakugo is also wrong.

And the perfect victory that Bakugo wants will require both winning and saving. For Bakugo to reach the peak of his character arc, he'll have to learn to save people (and that has already started with Bakugo rising) and the same for Deku who'll have to focus more on the winning part.

Deku has to defeat Shigaraki, there is no if-else or but in that but he'll also have to save the innocent child crying inside of him. As for Bakugo, he has to achieve the perfect victory but that cannot be accomplished without him saving someone.

And who could be a better person than All Might?

The main point of Bakugo's arc was his guilt about his actions. His actions led to the downfall of All Might, as a hero, him bullying Midoriya because of his own weaknesses etc.

Currently All Might is taking on AFO all alone because everyone else is literally down for the count but it's also high time, that people start to rise and help All Might.

Shigaraki's problem with the hero system is that it relies too much on heroes to do all the saving work while the common folks, the civilians do nothing but pass by a little boy who looked battered and bruised.

Now AM doesn't have any powers and yet he chose to fight! That should inspire everyone who was saved by him at one point or another and that inspiration and team work should come from Bakugo.

I don't know how but I feel like something big will happen, like Bakugo waking up and realising AM is fighting alone and he inspires everyone to go save AM. Teamwork and arrogance were his biggest weaknesses, and he will conquer them.

There are two demon lords after all, Tomura Shigaraki and AFO, so it would be rather poetic if Bakugo teams up with everyone (civilians) to defeat AFO while Deku defeats Shigaraki at the same time and that marks the end of MHA in the most epic way possible.

MHA is a story about love and connection.

About how anyone could be a "Hero"

And that includes civilians and common folks.

All Might has been saving people his entire life...

and now it's high time, that those people stand up to save him.

Just how long do they plan to be AUDIENCE?

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pikahlua · 1 year

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So what direction do you think this togachako fight is going?

Ohhh I love where it seems to be going right now. This might be the most interested I've been in Toga's and Ochako's story ever.

First of all, we've finally got a clear picture of Toga as someone in need of saving. Her anxiety is so relatable it hurts. There are all sorts of things she could be thinking about, like how maybe she's not adequate to her friends because she can't be as helpful as Jin, or maybe her "love" isn't enough to save her friends, all that self-defeating jazz.

Which leads into what seems to be the crux of the matter: Toga's "love." I've noted in passing before that having her use the word "suki" to describe this love is very curious. It's just an adjective that means something is the object of your affection. It's not a specific word for love like the nouns "ai (love, but broadly)" or "koi (romantic love)" are. "Suki" is just as often translated as "like" as it is "love." So what does it mean that Toga can only use the quirks of those she feels "suki" for? Was it perhaps on purpose that Horikoshi used such a vague word for this feeling?

It seems like Toga has a problem identifying her feelings. By her own account, she "loves" Tomura and Dabi just as much, but she can't use their quirks for some reason. That means her "love" for them is different from her "love" for Ochako and Jin. And perhaps Ochako's character can provide the answer here.

Because Ochako has trouble putting words to her feelings for Izuku all the time. Other characters like Mina tell her it's love, but she doesn't seem comfortable accepting that. She also isn't comfortable with the feeling itself, so she pushes it out of the way when she doesn't want to deal with it.

As of now, I think the feeling--for both of them--is admiration.

For Ochako, it comes down to the events of the sports festival. She talks about how embarrassed she is for just following in Izuku's shadow and comments on how amazing Izuku is, how this tournament has really highlighted that for her. And she becomes inspired to grow on her own and meet him as a rival. In her match against Katsuki, her thoughts are focused on being like Izuku. "If Deku were here..." "Deku wouldn't give up..." "I'll win and be just like Deku!" Katsuki even mistook her battle strategy for one Izuku could have come up with. She wants to be like Izuku.

Sound familiar?

Toga wants to be like those she loves. Perhaps this isn't true with Tomura and Dabi. She doesn't want to destroy everything like Tomura; she wants to live with the ones she loves. She doesn't want to have vengeance against her family like Dabi; she wants the world to be easier for her to live in. She doesn't want what they have.

But she wants what Ochako and Izuku have: friends. She wants what Jin has: love. Jin loved his friends and devoted his life to helping them. She wants to be like that. We even see it with her first crush in middle school, a guy who looks like Izuku and is highlighted in her memory as fighting someone. Perhaps he was standing up for her, or standing up for anyone, and that's why she admired him. She wants to be a hero? She wants to be free to be herself...and maybe she wants that for the ones she loves too.

It's a sort of envy. Both of them have it. They want to be like the ones they admire. They're not comfortable with who they are. It's only when Ochako embraces the pieces of herself that she likes, the love of seeing others' happy faces, that she can push through her discomfort, cope with her jealousy, and accept herself for who she already is. Ochako learns more about Izuku than just the heroic image she starts out admiring; she professes atop the UA roof to everyone how Izuku isn't a special person, he was just given a special power. He's just like everyone else. He needs love and support as much as any other person. That's what prompts her to remember Toga's tears, and now we know that in that moment she wanted Toga to be smiling along with them too. It's when Ochako lets go of her envy and her idealized image of the heroic Izuku she blindly admired, when she accepts him as a person not above her but equal to her, that Ochako accepts herself and realizes she wants to save Toga. She's going to have to help Toga come to realize this about her own feelings--she has to help Toga learn to love herself for who she is.

And does any of that sound familiar? Blind admiration of a hero? Izuku's admiration of All Might perhaps? Izuku's blind admiration of Katsuki that contributed to the rift between them? How when Izuku accepted All Might and Katsuki for their flaws and saw them as people he managed to form better relationships with them? 👀

#anon ask #ask pika #my hero academia manga spoilers #final showdown spoilers #himiko toga #ochako uraraka #izuku midoriya #katsuki bakugou #all might #jin bubaigawara #linguistics fun #meta

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class1akids · 1 month

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What do you think of Nana as a character?

She was really intriguing for me when she was introduced in the Kamino fight. I thought that reveal was a great twist and couldn't wait to find more out about her.

But in the end, I have to say, her character just didn't add up very well for me. She's another one of the "buff, pretty women" who people really love for their design (Nagant, Star, Nana, Mirko), but their characterization relies on a lot of tropes and "cool factor" and remains pretty shallow.

The bits and pieces we get from Nana just feel like a lot of wasted potential instead of really digging into an important theme of the story - the pain caused by self-sacrifice for the people left behind.

She is kind of a contradictory person: she tries to hide her son to protect him and cut him off from the hero world but at the same time she burdens another child - All Might - with OFA and the fight against AFO, but leaves him with at least some support. Gran Torino supporting Toshinori helps him rise and her forbidding GT to look after Kotaro is a factor in his spiral.

Hero Nana feels like all the tropes of "badass woman hero": she grins at AFO in her death, talking about how All Might will take him down, also telling a young Toshinori to keep smiling because that's what makes him "strong". And ironically, that smile to Tomura becomes the symbol of everything he hates about hero society, pretending not to see the suffering they cause or simply ignore.

Hero Nana seems like someone who successfully compartmentalized Mother Nana and shut her inside a box when she gave up her son for adoption and seems to have severed that part of herself until the end. The feelings of guilt only come after she sees what Tomura has become.

Vestige Nana with her "testing of Izuku" and "can you kill Tomura - oh I was just kidding" is also tropey as hell. I would have preferred some real introspection, or at least some good interaction with Izuku about the moral dilemma of what to do about Tomura, but Horikoshi is not great with that when it comes to female characters.

So in the end, she is just kind of a crying mess of a vestige, flip-flopping on Tomura's fate. I'd like to say that her finally taking responsibility moved me, but it being between two dead people in vestige land, just doesn't carry the same weight to me (like as opposed to Rei running into the fire).

I always say that Horikoshi is mostly a visual storyteller, and he knows exactly the stuff 99% of his audience wants. I'm in the minority and I actively dislike when I feel like he's trying to manipulate me with sentimental visuals instead of solid storytelling (like last week's episode of Anya x Damien in MHA).

But at least the way he used Nana wasn't too bad - even if it had to be really spelled out for her that leaving her son behind like that was kind of bad for him - hugging and stopping Dreamland Kotaro is stepping up both as mother and hero - reuniting her two halves. She couldn't get through the barrier until she reintegrates the mother into the hero and becomes the hero to save her family. And she is the final piece to help Izuku get through. Thank you. I get the theme. It's about as subtle as a sledgehammer.

I guess it's a decent cap for a character who embodies a key theme. But I think she could have been fleshed out (not just drawing her in a lot of detail), but in actual character nuance and storytelling (things like how she met En, why did she take OFA, her state of mind after losing her husband, etc.)

On another note, it would be nice if this was finally the end of the vestige peanut gallery (I absolutely came to hate their parts in the final fight), but considering Yoichi and Vestige Might just seemed to have gone poof, unfortunately, I wouldn't be surprised to see again all of them.

#c1a asks #bnha critical #shimura nana #in the end i never really vibed with nana

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mamashenanigans · 5 months

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408 Leaks Thoughts

Well, holy shit those leaks, amiright?

So, I’ve finally processed some of this. I will say that this is definitely a chapter that needs a strong translation done due to all the dialogue and exposition happening. Therefore, some of this may change once we start to get the fan translation on Friday then the official English one Sunday night.

Here we go…

+I’m going to say this right now: how Horikoshi has handled AFO’s backstory flashbacks is very strange and disjointed. We are presented with a flashback of him crying while getting ready to kill Kudo then one prior to the full backstory where he seems pretty upset(almost like he didn’t know) when Kudo tells him he killed Yoichi. Once we finally get to these leaks, there doesn’t seem to be a clear connection between those flashbacks and when Yoichi died.

It feels like Hori is expecting the readers to be incredibly good at understanding context clues, including imagery, and putting plot strings together without the extra exposition. That’s interesting considering the target audience’s age range.

+So, he did kill Yoichi and all that was left was his hand. This is where the “being able to read/see context clues in a comic” comes into play. AFO didn’t mean to outright kill Yoichi. The look on his face after the fact makes that pretty clear. Also, talking about how he named his brother Yoichi for first gift while this is happening drives that home. Kudo is crying while AFO seems completely numb like his brain shorted out.

+Then BAM, we’re taken to AFO’s office and WE DID IT FAM he kept the hand. All of the thoughts and dialogue for the next few pages needs a good translation because this is prior to him killing Kudo. AFO is confused as to why he can’t feel the Quirk he gave Yoichi and ponders how that can be possible. We then get Kudo and third, who is named Bruce for some reason, discussing how Kudo now has another Quirk within him. Both AFO and Kudo are figuring out at the same time that Yoichi must have passed on his Quirk, but AFO seems to take it as “he still exists”(rough translation). Interesting.

+There’s a page where Yoichi is cut in half by the paneling and it’s assumed that the one on the left is from AFO’s memory and he is talking straight to his brother, while the one on the right is Yoichi talking to Kudo and Bruce. It kinda presents a duality in Yoichi’s thoughts concerning his brother. There’s the rational, “hero” thoughts about how “He only sees people as toys” and the emotional, little brother thoughts of “You’re the only reason I’m alive.”

+Instead of getting a direct connection explaining why AFO had so much emotion being told he killed Yoichi after we saw that he killed him in front of his own eyes, there’s a double spread of AFO’s decades and decades of trying to get his brother back since he knows he still “exists” within OFA. A panel prior to all of this has Yoichi saying how his power could have done a lot of good. This double spread has a lot of small thoughts from AFO throughout. Rough translations talk about how he cried and another is about how he “only/just/simply wants Yoichi”. This is definitely something that needs a good translation.

+From what I can understand through all of this, AFO was either in super denial over accidentally killing Yoichi or he had compartmentalized his feelings over it so thoroughly that his emotions over the matter didn’t come out until Kudo plainly told him that he killed his brother. I think the fact that AFO blames Kudo for “everything” drives home that he can’t accept that he would have killed Yoichi.

+We find out that AFO’s body was in a morgue and Garaki stole it. So, like, what? AFO was brought back from death by Garaki? Is he, like, a Nomu? This is weird.

+AFO goes full Lovecraft on a double spread as his brother senses him using it. It’s his last ditch effort to ram through Bakugo and get to Tomura and Deku. All Might says how he’ll turn into a baby after using it. Bakugo is, unsurprisingly, overconfident.

I will say this: I still don’t think AFO was born evil in the purest sense of it. He was born with his Quirk activated and the intrinsic affect on his very nature and inclinations were already happening. Also, this isn’t entirely AFO narrating. This seems to be a combo between him thinking about his past and Horikoshi being an omniscient narrator.

Also, I really do think AFO and Yoichi are identical twins, especially with how much goes into stealing nutrients and that they can sense each other(classic literary thingy). From how AFO talks about it here(again rough translations), he assumed he had stolen any Quirk his brother may have had in the womb, so Yoichi’s can-hardly-work “giving” Quirk is what is leftover. With Yoichi stating that the power could have done a lot of good, it makes me wonder what could have been if they never split and were one person. The AFO Quirk would make a lot more sense since it seems Yoichi is like the part of the soul that was about “giving”/“good”. Two halves that would have worked incredibly well with such an awesome power if they were one person. However, I believe AFO has a need for them to be together in this way. Because, if he acquires OFA, he’ll have his brother literally a part of himself/inside him. Then Yoichi can really never leave him.

Would have liked a little explanation of why Yoichi was put in “the vault”. I’m assuming it’s because he wouldn’t bend to AFO’s will, but it seems like that was already a thing, sooo? Did he already try to run away? I dunno. I would have liked something more with that just like how I would have liked a more direct connection between AFO killing Yoichi and killing Kudo.

Horikoshi is definitely rushing to finish this manga and move on and how he’s handled these last two chapters is pretty indicative of that. Which is such a shame since it ended up producing a weak way to tell AFO’s story.

Anyway, no break next week, so either we switch back to Tomura and Deku or AFO is somehow stopped by Bakugo because I guess Bakugo is Goku now? I’d love to have more vestige Yoichi interacting or reacting to AFO. Disappointed we haven’t gotten more than the two panels of him sensing his brother’s Spirit Bomb.

#all for one #afo #yoichi shigaraki #my hero academia #boku no hero academia #bnha afo #bnha yoichi #bnha spoilers #mha408 #bnha 408 #mha 408 #chapter 408 #spoilers

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vimara00 · 1 year

Note

just passing by, what if our dearest darling reader finally got to escape from the hold of the "bad" yandere men but you know, felt life is a little lacking without her yandere shigaraki and finally understood why she should had just stayed with him instead of trying to refuse plus she knows that shigaraki loves her and he is alone so she worries for him so... now reader will have to crawl back from where she came from explain it to him and tell him how much she love him.

I didn't know you were from Argentina that's amazing

- Anon 04-04

Yandere Shigaraki x Reader

Hi everyone, it's Vi! ✨ I received this request from an anon and thought it was a great idea to write about it! Thanks anon for requesting 💕 Hope you enjoy! ❤️ (Again, sorry if there are any grammatical mistakes, english is not my first language 🙏🏻)

All characters reservations to Horikoshi

Warnings: Yandere content and fluff?

It's been three months since I ran away from Shigaraki's hold. I had been with him for seven months till I saw the chance to scape when the league had a meeting with other villains. At first I thought that I could go back to my old life but the chances of Shigaraki finding me again were too high so I moved to another city and kept a low profile. I didn't asked for the heroes' help as I knew the villain would killed them if I did.

The fist week I enjoyed my freedom to the fullest; I went to the park for walks, went to the cinema or to eat alone at restaurants. However, there were times where I found myself thinking "He would've enjoyed this movie" or "He would've loved this certain place" and, as the days passed, it felt strange not to have him around. On Fridays, we would order take out and watch romantic animes he didn't like but watched just because I liked it and I would end up falling asleep on his arms. Since escaping, I couldn't fall asleep without him so, in order to sleep, all I could do was grabbing a pillow and pretending it was him who I was spooning. Also, every morning I would prepared breakfast for two without realising and a sense of sadness would invaded me each time. I didn't know what to do anymore as I find everything boring; Was life before him this dull? Could it be that he made my days more interesting? It made me really angry that I missed him more every day after hoping to scape from his place for seven months and thinking about going back to his arms made me feel some kind of relieved. However, I stopped those thoughts before I grabbed my keys and leave because It probably was the stockholm syndrome talking and definitely not her being in love with him.

On particular day, I went to the store to buy something to eat and the cashier asked me out. I felt so lonely without Shigaraki that I thought it was a good idea to try to move on and find a reason to stay. So the next day, he took me to an arcade where he tried to win all the stuff animals but couldn't get any and we had ice cream sat on a bench while looking at the stars. It was supposed to be a romantic and intimate moment but, with all honesty, all I could think was how my Shiggy would've won all the prizes just for me and how I really wished it was him next to me watching the sky and not this poor guy who has been talking for fifteen minutes but I wasn't listening. He even took my hand on the way home but it wasn't the same; It wasn't Tomura's rough hand grabbing mine delicately with his pinky finger lift to not decay me. It weren't his lips whose kissed my cheek because if it were his, my cheeks would be blushing like they always do when he kisses me. I entered my house (it didn't felt right to call it home without him in it), alone, and went to find an old Tomura's t shirt (the one I scaped with on) and cry with it in my bedroom floor. I was hard to admit that I missed him but even harder not to be with him. That night, I cryed myself to sleep

My final straw was when, the next morning, I saw on the news that the league's hideout had been attacked by the heroes and apparently, Shigaraki had fought with them but his whereas remain unknown. Tears where rolling down my face without realising. I was so worried yet so scared that something bad had happened to him and I wasn't by his side. What if he died believing I didn't loved him and that I left him for it? I won't be able to live with that thought. I had to find him and make sure he was alright. I needed to tell him what I felt before it was too late.

It was hard to find their location but thanks to Toga answering my phone call, I did. I stood at the door unable to move as my thoughts were running wild and field me with insecurity. What if it was too late and he doesn't love me anymore? What if he is mad at me and wants revenge? Would he want to take me back after all this time? But all of it was interrupted as I was already opening the door. Some of the league members that had survive were hiding here and once I entered, everything got quiet. Horrified looks from everyone in the room but I'm only looking at him (Sorry, I had to put this phrase from Taylor's song hehe), he looked like he haven't been sleeping or eating at all and had many new scars. His eyes were locked in mines and he told everyone to get lost as he needed privacy. The room was silent again and before he could say anything, I said " I know you are probably mad at me and don't want to see me anymore but hear me out first. I need to tell you the truth! All this months I thought I wanted my old life back and that I missed it but once I got it, it was not what I was expecting because I felt that something was missing and that something was you. At first, I didn't want to admit that I cared about you but I realized that life without you had not meaning and if to have freedom I need to be away from you, then I don't want it. I want to be with you but not obliged this time, I want to do it because I love you" At this point my face was on fire and my eyes field with tears but so were Tomura's. He hugged me tight as if he was scared that I would disappear again, kissed my temple and whispered "I was so scared, thought you wouldn't come back to me. I know I'm not the best with words and defenitly not with emotions, but I want to say that I love you and I promise to never let go of you. I promise I'll protect you and to make you happy, just please stay with me" his voice break at the end as he cupped my cheeks tenderly and kissed me with so much love and affection. We stayed hugging each other for a while as I said "I would never leave you ever again"

While you thought you were so capable of scaping and "hiding" from him, he had already known your new location and even had cameras inside your new apartment. He had people following you, telling him what you were doing and remember the guy you went on a date with? Well, he has vanished from earth, Shigaraki made sure of it. He have you time to realised how much you need him and if you happened to enjoy your life without, he would've made sure you never see the sunlight as he'll keep you locked in his room. But you'll never know any of that.

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darkcircles4lyfe · 3 months

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hi hello ive just come from your enneagram 9 izuku post and i am just OVERWHELMED with joy & excitement after reading it, everything you said just feels so RIGHT!!

(i am a nine myself & have always felt weirdly attached to izuku in that he felt soso similar to me in such a weirdly specific way but i couldn't really explain why i just Got Him until now, so thanks for that little boost of validation lol)

with your post in mind, i couldn't stop thinking about this line from 412 and it got me curious if you had any additional thoughts on it/read it the same way i did:

the moment i read this line i immediately took a screenshot & filed it away in my Important Izuku Moments file, like idk! the wording of it, the way he's talking about shigaraki but could SO easily be talking about himself, that honestly devastating panel of the tears in his eyes...

we've gotten plenty of hints about izuku's emotional suppression (that 'heroes dont cry' scene with iida & todoroki, his flashback of all might telling him to 'stop being such a cry baby' during the afo fight, the whole 'control your heart' plotline...) but THIS line in particular feels so significant for some reason. maybe cause this could easily be izuku recognizing himself in/through shigaraki? maybe bc it is so close to izuku acknowledging the lid hes put on his own sad & lonely past? maybe bc this is the closest we've ever gotten to izuku saying i'm not okay, even if he isn't actually talking about himself yet?

im trying really hard not to ramble too much in your inbox lol, but everything you said in your post about tomura & izuku really hit home for me, i think you're so right about them. and this line in particular is what makes me think we really are going to see some version of tomura being the one to finally break through (Decay) izuku's emotional blocks & barriers (something something locked door imagery), and that just makes me really excited. for both of them :')

YAY!! I’m so glad to hear you resonated with it. It’s otherwise a bit of a “if you know you know” sort of situation, and it felt good to actually explain it.

I had a “!” moment with that panel too, and also when he says he’s determined to break through Tomura’s barrier, expose and acknowledge his pain.

My immediate thought was, “Oh hey, I’m definitely not making this shit up after all, because Horikoshi is obviously intending to confront the concept of bottling up your emotions/your past. He literally just stated it. We're on the same page.” While it didn’t directly confirm anything about Izuku, it's at least something he is aware of, which is an important first step. There's a line in Sleeping At Last's 'Nine' that I was thinking about a lot as I was writing the latter part of that post: "I'm just trying to find myself through someone else's eyes," which speaks to a need for Tomura to be Izuku's mirror, so that he can see himself.

Also, the revelation that Izuku is clinging to the idea that everyone has a "human heart" deep down is pretty clearly applicable to himself too, implying that he's dealing with a lack of self worth (a lot of Japanese fans were talking about this, and I think it doesn't come across as easily in English). I really love how Kudou clarified that Izuku is not naive for this. It's not the same as being blissfully ignorant to how cruel people can be. It's more like, "I need to believe in the worth of others or else I can't believe in myself." That's... so painful and beautiful.

I'm also excited for what comes next! Very soon!

#asks #lin answers #bnha manga #boku no hero acedamia #my hero academia #mha #midoriya izuku #shigaraki tomura #bnha 412

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sapphic-agent · 5 months

Note

Can we talk about Shigaraki for a minute?

In my opinion, I think Shigaraki is a fantastic villain. (Minus when Potato man took over and him being side lined rn.) Shigaraki goes from someone who was stunted in childhood to him being the most fear man in Japan, respects his league, cares for them, ACTUALLY listens to them, and is an actual threat, while making a valid point about Hero Society. Tell me why people read him so... fucking weirdly? People think Shigaraki still suffers from angry outbursts, doesn't give two shits about his league, and games all day. He isn't like that anymore. Dude was literally fucking calm when Toga had a knife at his throat. He lets his team speaks their minds, and gets others' outputs. Like, he DOES change. The reason why Shigaraki acted like a "man child" was because AFO literally stunted his growth on purpose. He had childish behavior because that's a result from trauma. He grows from it, and overcomes it.

Or people making him into an incel is just... gross. Or people just being grossly ablest, too. People being like "lololol Shigaraki is crusty he doesn't take care of himself he smells he's musty" which is... 1.) grossly ablest to people who have eczema/skin disorders. He looks "crusty" because has eczema scars. No amount of shitty, scented lotion will get rid of his scars, 2.) It's clear Shigaraki struggles with depression. Having depression rips you of the energy to do anything. Getting out of bed or showering is hard for some people. Minus this tagent, It really sucks AFO just kind of took over the role of the big bad when Shigaraki kept fucking say it's HIS dream, HIS path. Not AFO's. Even saying he HATED him. Tomura, you deserve better. Both within fandom and canon. 8-9 years of development, and this is what we're getting for the big show down?

I completely agree.

I've touched on this briefly before, but Shigaraki's character progression in Deika City was spectacular. It was great to see him reclaim the power that he was shunned for (and accidentally destroyed his family with) and evolve into a true leader. He was really coming into himself and working towards his own goal. Deika not only carried season 5 (season 5 was soooo bad), but it solidified Shigaraki as one of my favorite anime villains.

And then Horikoshi took away his agency by having AFO snatch his body😐 Him wanting AFO in the first place literally undid all the progress he had just made.

This is what I can't stand about Hori's writing. He'll introduce a character or concept or character concept and then completely disregard it moving forward (quirkless discrimination, corrupt society, quirk marriages, Momo's entire character, etc.). Someone said it in one of my reblogs; the manga introduces a bunch of interesting concepts, Hori just has nothing interesting to say about them.

Tomura definitely cares for the League. He says that what he wants is for his friends to be able to be free to do as they please. He was also infuriated over Magne's death. I think that they make him feel like he belongs and he has people to relate to and look after. He definitely thinks of them as friends

#tomura shiragaki #mha critical #bnha critical #shigaraki deserves better

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villainsandvictimsalliance · 1 month

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>They are really following the “saving child shigaraki” path 💀

No? Well, yes, but Deku seeing what happened to Tenko and talking to Tenko was always going to happen, it doesn't mean that only child Tenko gets saved lol. Tenko is Shigaraki's origin, his core, his genuine ideas, his honne (true feelings and desires). Of course Deku has to understand and save Tenko to save adult!Tenko, lol. Nobody seemed to complain when child!Ochako was talking to child!Himiko and etc., so what's up with some people's attitude now? 😭

I think the fandom is a bit paranoid because they really fear some theories.

I sometimes entertain those theories just to fuck around and create what ifs. It's a mere childplay. "Oh what if the school burned today and we all graduated earlier" type of mindset. The odds of it happening are non-existent, but c'mon. Unless you plan to burn the school yourself or you know someone will try, the odds are almost zero.

"but somewhere in the world a school burned—"

Sure, some mangas decide to end things the worst way possible only to cause shock, to fuck with fans, for money, sometimes simply because they don't understand their own stories. Even the big mangas is subjected to that. The author can go bananas for whatever reason and give you a terrible ending.

From my perspective, Horikoshi has rarely lost sight of the story he wants to tell. If he opens a plotline, he takes care to close it later. We got our traitor, we got the resolution with the Todorokis, we got AFO, class 1B, the villain comebacks...

Even when there were moments I knew Horikoshi went a little on the tangent (like Stars and Stripes) he was quick to return to the main issue. In bnha, to get an answer for your question you only have to wait for the manga to explain it— or in some cases, check the spin-off. If the answer is not in bnha itself, it normally is in the Vigilantes manga.

When someone asks me "Hey Shan, do you think that is possible?" the correct answer is always yes, because as long as the story is not over anything can happen. Objectively speaking, yes, it is as possible as anything else. As long as you're alive a lightning strike can hit you. A shark can bite you. An alien can come for you. The odds are there.

Now, is it probable?

No, not much.

Turning Tomura into a child to erase his crimes and resolve Deku's role within the plot is not only the lazy route, but also a disservice to the story. People don't resurrect out of nowhere in bnha. Limbs don't grow again. This is a story where the consequences are permanent. Even saving Mirio had a cost. There are only a few characters that can magically heal and their participation is soo little, it's almost as if they weren't there.

Each story has rules. You don't care about the real life rules or your own law code or whatever; you care about the inner rules of that story.

So far, Horikoshi has taken care of not breaking the inner rules of bnha. Why would he do so now?

Another bnha trait is that it doesn't stay stagnant on a plotline that is interesting yet irrelevant to the main story. It also doesn't hurry the story if it needs to go down a certain path. It will happen on its own time, after the events that need to happen had happened too. Example: saving Tomura has been a whole process. If Horikoshi were to turn Tomura into a child, why would he show all that he has shown us?

That's 'cause Horikoshi is explaining Deku's choice of saving Tomura. I know the trend of separating Tomura from Tenko, but it's absurd. They are one and the same. The kid is the adult and vice versa. You save the kid version, you save the adult one too. In order to save the adult one, you need to save the kid first. And if you went all the way to save that person, why would you want to erase all of it and turn them into a child again?

Isn't the story about how Deku giving little Tenko a chance? Isn't the story about Deku telling others they can do the impossible? Didn't Nighteye say that Deku could change the future and now we see him also changing the past, if only to allow the present to be a little more bearable? Livable?

I'll say this here: the theory that dictates that the heroes will turn the villains into kids to save them and the villains will stay like that has absolutely no foundation within the story.

If it happens, it's bad writing.

Horikoshi uses the kid images as symbolism. It is meant to represent the core of a person. It's the part of them that would never change, the part of them that dictates their dreams and goals, what they hate and love, who they are. It's the most basic of their forms, their essence, their soul if you want to speak on those terms.

Heroes are meant to connect with those parts of a human in order to save them, because the job of a hero is not only saving the body, but the human as a whole. To preserve hope, to heal past wounds and give people a reason to smile. To help people laugh as a kid again, to bring back their wonder and their innocence, to fight the apathy and the cynical part of themselves.

Bnha is fantasy. People have powers. The dead can communicate with the living. Of course that the heroes can talk with the childhood versions of the people to heal their past traumas.

Easy as that.

I can't say for sure if the villains will live or die. I only have my opinion (they'll live), but I am not the author. Horikoshi can have an epiphany tomorrow and kill everyone in the story with a meteor. Idk.

I can only say that Horikoshi has presented a cohesive and coherent writing, one that follows the lines it dictates to their natural conclusion. If things stay like that, there's no need to fear none of the crazy theories circulating the fandom. At the end of the day that's all they are, theories.

#shan's asks #bnha #mha #my hero academia #boku no hero academia #bnha 417 #mha 417 #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha leaks #mha leaks #shan's bnha opinions #shan's mha opinions

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greenhappyseed · 5 months

Text

MHA #406 review lite

Yeah, normally I do a “leak reactions” post but the timing for that didn’t work out, so instead I’m looking at the full chapter! (Reminder for newcomers: I don’t look at leaked images or fanscans until after the official chapter is out.)

Aoyama and Hagakure are adorable — love how he puts his jacket around her and is using his bare hands to direct his navel laser. Now update me on how Fatgum is doing!!!

We finally get our first view of Gashly and, I believe, our first Ryukyu sighting during this battle!

Tsukauchi is falling apart more and more each chapter. Horikoshi is delighting in torturing this man.

Nagant’s lying down on a rooftop. All Might and Edgeshot are lying down on rooftops. Is the Rooftop Trio on a rooftop?? Only time will tell.

Speaking of not looking so good, Izuku is huffing and has some really dark rings around his eyes. He dramatically says “it ends here, go beyond” and…we cut to Bakugo and AFO just as Izuku looks like his middle finger is about to Gearshift + Air Force flick Tomura into next year.

Love how Bakugo calls AFO a filler character as AFO calls him a pointless pebble. I especially like how the English translation uses the “pebble in my path” phrase that Bakugo previously used to describe Izuku. (I haven’t checked yet to see if the Spanish versions use the same lines.)

I know there’s a lot of discourse surrounding Bakugo’s power up, but it reads to me like it’s not a new “power” so to speak. Rather he’s using his honed instinct and insight into his own body (remember how he’s always coming up with new ultimate moves on his own?). But, instead of focusing on the outcome (e.g., victory, or being the strongest) he’s focusing on the process. Much like All Might recapturing his own smile from the joy of helping others, Katsuki is finding joy in the simple act of pushing himself and his quirk. That’s something AFO doesn’t understand. As much as he wants to live forever and mess around with quirks forever, he really only enjoys simple quirks that combine well with others. AFO doesn’t like the process of exploring his quirks or honing his skills with them.

Seeing Mitsuki and Masaru cry is giving me FEELINGS. Horikoshi didn’t have to include them but he did and oof.

AFO talks about “the hatred I harbor” for Second, whose name is revealed as Kudo. Kudo is, apparently, the one that AFO loathes “above all others” — even All Might, apparently?? — because it Kudo hadn’t reached out his hand to Yoichi, then OFA wouldn’t have been created. This is AFO’s side of the story we heard from Yoichi way back in Chapter 310: “The moment you [Kudo] reached out your hand to me was when One for All was truly born.” After Chapter 369 came out last year, I wrote some meta about why AFO might be crying while he force chokes Kudo, and ventured a guess that AFO harbored a deep hatred for Kudo, either because he created OFA or possibly because they knew each other. I don’t think there’s anything in 406 that changes those posts significantly, though it does seem that AFO’s hatred for Kudo lies primarily in the fact that he reached out his hand to Yoichi….though AFO still knew an awful lot about Gearshift and how it was “supposed” to work…

Ugh, I really, really want the OFA/AFO backstory now. Like if it’s 3-8 chapters of backstory I’m ok with that as a breather/precursor for Izuku vs Tomura (see bullet #5 above re Izuku about to exhaust his body from overuse of Gearshift).

Finally…I LOVE KATSUKI CALLING HIMSELF “KACCHAN”!!!! Izuku reclaimed “Deku” a long time ago with help from Ochako, and now Katsuki is embracing “Kacchan” with help from Izuku. Yes, Bakugo’s hero name is still Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight, and that name was fully approved by All Might last chapter. In 406, however, Katsuki is referring to himself as a civilian and using the name “Kacchan” with no fear whatsoever of sounding diminutive in front of AFO (or the cameras) …and it’s absolutely beautiful and I love it. He’s not posturing one bit, he’s free to be fully himself, and even his parents can tell. He gleefully taunts AFO about being senile despite AFO looking like a child, which is just the perfect amount of teen boy prickishness that this fight needs.

#bnha 406 #mha 406 #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #Katsuki bakugo #kacchan #kacchan bakugou #gemg dynamight #AFO #all for one

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haleigh-sloth · 9 months

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Toga is a liar

Let's talk about Toga this chapter, and also Toga during MVA. Because once again her words do not align with the pictures on the page. Horikoshi has not stopped making Toga unreliable--yet.

Cannot use the official page for this one point because of Caleb's trash translation, but the point to be made here is that Toga outright admits that she has been lying to herself this whole time:

She tried to pretend everything was fine. In MVA you see what is clearly unreliable narrating. "I'm not miserable! Not me!" on top of pictures of her clearly being haunted by her past.

Curious forced her to face her demons.

However, martyrdom is not how you relay a message, so Curious ultimately lost the physical battle. But she clearly understood Toga's pain and hit the nail on the head.

Now we get to the current chapter where once again, literally nothing Toga says aligns with what is on the page.

Toga says that the LOV will create a world that is easy for her to live in, and yet, despite that being all she's wanted, she's supposedly ready to leave the world behind in order to save Ochacko. So what does this mean?

It means Toga knows the truth. She knows the world that's coming is not the world she wants. Sure, maybe it'll be a world where she can do what she wants, but it's not the world she wants. What makes this particularly obvious is how disconnected her recent memory of the League is from reality. Twice is dead. She believes Touya is dead. Tomura is out of commission as far as she's concerned (also his hand being over his face is an interesting detail I need to think more on). Toga says "that's a world I can live in", and then says "I'm going to leave this world behind, despite what I've been wanting coming soon."

Toga doesn't believe what she wants can actually happen. It's not coming, she knows it. The acceptance she had from the LOV sustained her and made it easier for her to live for the time being, but ultimately it isn't the world she wanted. Because the world Toga wants doesn't involve everyone she loves and cares about dying. It doesn't involve all of the people who accept her dying. And so far, that's all she's gotten.

Toga being ready to die shows just how little faith she has in the possibility of her living how she wants in a world she WANTS. A world where she's free, loving and living how she wants, and isn't losing people she loves.

Really, her words here indicate that now she got what she wanted, but it came too late. The presence of "IF" and “MAYBE” is a big tell of this mindset.

Even with this break through, the entire time Toga never really had faith she could live how she wanted. The LOV promised a world easy to live in--a world where she does what she wants, and watches her friends and people who accept her die. That's the world that was promised, and that's the world being delivered to her right now, which is not what she wants.

So she rejects that world and saves something important to her, and plans to die in the process because she doesn't see a world where she can really live. Hence "IF" in her words, IF she had found love sooner. The next step is the big picture showing Toga that it's ready to accept her. Which is more of an effort involving showing Gentle and La Brava, Lady Nagant, the Todorokis with Touya, Izuku with Tomura, Aizawa with Shiragiri, Shoji with Spinner (maybe lol still unclear where that’s going), etc. Just showing the effects of saving on others and that it’s possible to keep going.

#bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha 395 #bnha meta #ish #toga himiko #league of villains

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stillness-in-green · 3 months

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Project Update/Survey of Interest: The AFO Retcon Essay

Having cleared out the inbox, I thought I'd let everyone know where I am on one of the big projects I've been alluding to for a long while now, the big meta post/essay arguing that the possession plot (and therefore AFO as primary endgame villain) is, in so many words, a big stupid retcon. That essay is - for reasons I'll get into shortly - on the brink of a major change in focus, so I'd also like to gauge how much interest people have in its potential new form. Because it would be another huge one, make no mistake.

(Hit the jump.)

So, I recently started dabbling with a new word processor program and thought I'd try learning the ropes with the retcon essay; I then spent the better part of two weeks combing through chatlogs and my blog archive trying to compile all the evidence I'd want to consider to make that argument. Two nights ago, I looked at the list I had - almost fifty bullet points! - and had the horribly demoralizing realization that...

...You guys, I just don't think I believe it anymore.

Now, that's not to say I've come around on the possession plot, because I definitely haven't! Rather, my trust in Horikoshi as a writer has been so badly eroded by the state of the writing in the endgame that I no longer think even the earlier material is reliable evidence for where the story was going.

To pick the most prominent example, I always regarded AFO telling Best Jeanist at Kamino that his quirk "wouldn't suit Tomura" as one of my strongest pieces of evidence that the possession plot had not been in the cards at that time. After all, who in hell cares what quirks would or would not suit Tomura if AFO's plan, as stated in Chapter 380, was that he would wholly subsume Tomura's will?

Now, however - and Chapter 380 is a big part of this, too! - I look back on that moment and just think, wearily, "Was that ever true, or was Horikoshi just lying to us already, and the only difference between then and now is that back then the lies could hold for hundreds of chapters, whereas now they're revealed within a matter of pages?"

A chat friend letting me vent suggested that perhaps the line was just intended to foreshadow Shigaraki getting All For One (and therefore all the quirks held within it) and Horikoshi just didn't think through all the implications AFO's phrasing had on how that plot was going to go. That may be true, and it's a more generous read than I could muster at the time, but the end result is the same: If I can't trust that the writing was ever an accurate reflection of the characters and their intentions, I can't in good faith construct an argument relying on that writing.

What I think I can do, however, if people are interested, is broaden the overall thrust to something much bigger than just AFO.

I'm currently toying with the idea of a treatise-in-four-parts about the problems in the endgame. Each part would cover one major branch of related issues - they might need to be broken down into sub-parts themselves, if they run long enough! The whole thing would likely be much longer and more involved than my chapter posts; think something more like the PLF mass arrest essay. Following are my current ideas for how those four parts would fall out, as well as some example talking points for each:

Part 1: Shigaraki and the PLF. Would cover Shigaraki as a villain and what he and the forces he'd amassed circa the end of My Villain Academia stood to bring to the endgame, both ideologically and tactically. Would also cover where they actually wound up and some considerations as to why. Example Subpoints: Demanding accountability from Hero Society rather than just focusing blame on singular evils; Shigaraki as representative of all previous Villains; the MLA's shift in portrayal between MVA and the endgame; the ludicrous string of nerfs Toga was subjected to; whether the MLA was only ever intended to be a mass of numbers to whittle down the equally massive numbers of the Heroes or whether they were reduced to that after poor reader reception.

Part 2: All For One's Impact. Would focus on the sharp drop in moral complexity AFO both suffered himself compared to his pre-Tartarus characterization and inflicted on the endgame both himself and with the caliber of minions he brought to the story. Example Subpoints: AFO's inconsistent characterization; the moral reductiveness of the Demon Lord as endgame Villain; AFO and Yoichi's personal history; Vestige mechanics; the impact of AFO's inconsistency on Ujiko's portrayal; the Sekoto Peak Problem; the characterization and handling of the Tartarus escapees.

Part 3: Team Hero Is The Fucking Worst. Would focus on the multitudinous problems with the presentation and methodologies of the Heroes in the endgame. Might be two parts if it gets long enough that I decide to split it up into, like, one part on the adults/Pro Heroes and one on the kids or something. Example Subpoints: The story's bad faith attempts to portray agents of government authority as scrappy, determined underdogs; why it's impossible to believe that the current heroic cast will be able to enact a satisfying resolution to all the structural problems the story has raised; That Stupid Fucking Mech Fight; the constant refusal to let consequences stick to the Heroes; the way the story both undercuts and oversells Deku as a protagonist, and the impact that has on the broader narrative; One For All and more Vestige Mechanics; The Problem of Hawks; the hospital riot; the Todoroki family's inaction.

Part 4: Other Issues. A catch-all area for anything else I trip over that doesn't fit in any of the categories above, or problems of a more meta-narrative sort. Very Preliminary Example Subpoints: The lazy portrayal of civilian characters; meta-narrative examples of the unreliability of BNHA's late-stage writing, from simple errors overlooked in the highly demanding grind of Shonen Jump serialization to the much more damning abuse of the reader's expectations of the comic medium; idk probably lots of other stuff, I Have Many Problems.

That said, I now have to ask, how interested are you all in a project like that? A fair amount of it would be recycled from my chapter posts, but obviously it would cover stuff I never got to in those, and would be able to be written with more hindsight (especially if it's written mostly or entirely after the series ends!), as opposed to the constant problem of reacting to the story week-to-week.

I basically stopped writing the chapter posts for reasons of incessant negativity, and obviously, this would be more of that, but I mind the negativity a lot less when it's A) able to be more comprehensive and focused than meandering and piecemeal and B) in the form of a large project I can work on as I have the energy for it rather than a brand new project every single week. And, as I trust stuff like MVA In Memoriam and On Heteromorphobia make clear, I do like the idea of putting together a good, comprehensive, easy-to-reference tract on all those problems, as opposed to just letting my issues remain scattered across multiple years of chapter thoughts and bnha critical tags!

That said, it's a big project, and I do vent about these issues pretty constantly with chat and irl friends, so if there's not much interest from followers here, I would not find it hard to just let the whole thing go and turn my eyes to less intimidating fare instead.

(Current other projects include the usual roster of BNHA fic, another mid-length meta piece in the mode of the BNHA vs. Helck comparison from a while back, this time on Mamoru Hosoda's Belle, and a horrible temptation to try and write something thoughtful and even-handed about demons in Frieren: Beyond Journey's End to combat the reductive-ass takes on both sides of the argument I've been seeing all over the internet since its anime started. Also, every week I go without seeing a single damn MachtxGluck fanfic on AO3 is a week I get closer to trying to figure out a way into writing it myself.)

Do let me know! Also, feel free to chip in with anything you'd like to see me specifically talk about in an endgame analysis!

#bnha #my (prospective) writing #bnha critical in the same way the last verse of the cellblock tango is about artistic differences #i could be the bigger person here but #bnha indeed has it coming

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