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linkspooky · 1 year

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My Hero Academia, Chapter 374 Thoughts.

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

1. Endeavor and Hawks.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To quote Thy on this:

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

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

Being a tool instrumental to other people’s success.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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selenestarmoon · 10 months

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Do you remember the panel in which Himiko bites her wrist while she sleeps?

It turns out that this panel occurs right after, here Himiko's parents saw how their daughter woke up after biting her wrist in her sleep but instead of showing concern for their daughter's well-being, they took her to a doctor to treat her bite wound or try to heal it themselves, or even ask "are you okay?", "what happened to you?" or "how and/or why did you do that to yourself?", they simply say that she's rotten to the core, leaving Himiko's physical or emotional well-being aside. And the fact that Himiko biting her wrist in her sleep is an analogy to self-harm makes this situation and the behavior of Himiko's parents and the upbringing they gave her that much worse.

This shows once again that Himiko's parents never cared for her daughter to the point that they saw her as a monster as an excuse for their psychological abuse and neglect of her emotional and physical well-being and that all they care about are appearances.

#himiko toga #toga himiko #bnha 392 #mha 392 #bnha meta #mha meta #bnha #mha #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #boku no hero academia #my hero academia #my hero academia spoilers #my hero academia meta #boku no hero academia spoilers #boku no hero academia meta #tw neglect #tw abuse #tw self harm

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imaginarylungfish · 9 months

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I've read a lot of meta to understand Izuku and Katsuki's relationship. I never really understood Katsuki's side. But I think I've got it now. I am slow to understand character interactions sometimes (I'm neurodivergent), so please bear with me! I am also open to any corrections! Ok, this is what I understand as canon:

Katsuki thought Izuku was always a better hero (personality wise) than him when they were kids/growing up (ie. Izuku always wanted to help others, even Katsuki). Katsuki was so insecure about this because he wanted to be the best hero. So, he constantly put Izuku down in typical bully fashion.

He was so annoyed, mad, and hurt when he found out Izuku had a quirk when Izuku passed the entrance exam. He felt lied to and betrayed since Izuku always said he was quirkless. This (Izuku getting into UA) was another conformation for Katsuki that Izuku was better than him. Katsuki used to think he was automatically better than Izuku because he had a quirk. Katsuki thought that even though Izuku had a hero's personality and will, he would never surpass Katsuki because he was quirkless. But reality changed once Katsuki found out Izuku did actually have a quirk.

Then, when Katsuki found about All Might, both their childhood hero, passing down OFA to Izuku, Katsuki was heartbroken in another way. His hero (AM) recognized what Katsuki saw all along: Izuku is a hero (and maybe even a better one than Katsuki).

But this whole time, Izuku just admired Katsuki for his persistence and quirk. He thought he was amazing and wanted to be like Katsuki. So he fought tooth and nail to be on Katsuki's level. This was seen as threatening to Katsuki for the reasons above.

So essentially, both think they are inferior to the other and are trying to "catch up." But maybe they've realized neither is better and they're just different? Idk that's all I've got for now.

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dekusbrokenarms · 10 months

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I think there's something really beautiful about how powerful fire quirks are in MHA. Hundreds of years of mutations, billions of different quirks in the world, and yet fire remains a dangerous powerhouse that can overpower almost anything.

Isn't that just the human condition? Fire is warmth and life and growth, but it's also destruction and death and devastation. And the two aren't mutually exclusive. In fact, one use is necessary for the other. You can't have a fire's warmth without destruction of fuel. You can't have life without death.

In that vein, it's poetic that Dabi was born in a wildfire.

Wildfires are devastating for the humans and animals caught in them, but they're also necessary for nature to heal itself, to recirculate nutrients into the soil. A forest comes back stronger and more vibrant after a wildfire. Destruction is a result of the wildfire, but renewal is the ultimate goal. However, a fire that burns too long risks hurting the ecosystem more than it helps it.

There's a delicate balance to a wildfire's rage, but we can't forget it's necessity in our efforts towards self-preservation.

#dabi #my hero academia meta #bnha

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himichako · 1 year

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kurogiri/shirakumo will try to save shigaraki and here is why

now hear me out: if i remember right, shirakumo is a year older than aizawa, right? at the moment, aizawa is 31 which means shirakumo must be around his 32. considering the fact that he died at the age of 17, that leaves us with approximately 15 years that he spent as shigaraki's caretaker. FIFTEEN WHOLE YEARS.

we can assume shirakumo has his memories as kurogiri, since he was able to tell aizawa about the hospital. not only that, but we know that more advanced nomus can retain aspects of their personality, and if there's one thing shirakumo is known for it's his kindness. he's shown it as kurogiri multiple times, expressing his concern for tomura's wellbeing.

shigaraki is around 21 right now, which means he must have met kurogiri when he was six or seven years old (depending on how long it took to turn shirakumo into a nomu). back then, tomura was nothing more than a child who'd killed his entire family and been abandoned by society the previous year.

kurogiri was there for it all. he never once left his side for more than a decade.

sure, we can argue that kurogiri's concern isn't real as he was programmed that way, but i believe that shirakumo's caring nature will make it impossible for him to abandon tomura if he does come to his senses in the chapters to come. just like he couldn't abandon that kitten on the streets, or those children who would've died had he not sacrificed himself for them.

kurogiri was shigaraki's first and for a long time only friend. their relationship is more important than it might seem at first and i fully believe it will be the key to saving shigaraki.

#league of villains #oboro shirakumo #shirakumo oboro #bnha meta #mha meta #my hero academia meta #kurogiri #shigaraki tomura #tomura shigaraki #my hero academia

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die-mitri · 1 year

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Some Pre-DvK2 Bakugou Analysis!

Word count: ~4,100 (sorry lol, TL;DR at bottom)

Reading time: ~15 minutes

Note: I made lots of words bold, italicized, or colored and with a lot of paragraph breaks to make this more readable for the bitches with ADHD out there. I see y'all and I can't read either. Sorry if this makes it harder to read for others 🤷🏽

I'm in the process of trying to start a bkdk fanfic and make it as in-character as possible by trying to relate to the characters and get in their heads. While I relate heavily to Bakugou, he's also a character that's very hard to understand.

What I mean is that I relate to a lot of Bakugou's base instincts and thought patterns, but the things he gets upset about in-canon make little sense to me. To try to get into his head I've had to do a deep dive on myself and all the things I've been upset about in a similar way he has been, as well as to understand why I've felt justified acting so similar to him. Considering most people act in ways they feel justified in, I need to analyze what about Izuku would make me so bothered by him, that I would treat him the way Bakugou does. If I can tap into that feeling and try to distort my thinking and apply it to his specific situation, then I’ll have an easier time writing this mostly canon-compliant fic.

I'm gonna use myself as a reference for his behavior and will be talking about a time when I was much a worse person. I've since grown a lot and realized how wrong I was, so please keep that in mind and try not to judge 12-15 year old me too harshly. The stories I use will have fake names for the people involved to help you keep track of them.

None of this is meant to justify the way Bakugou treated Izuku, and is only meant to try to understand why he did it in a more relatable/realistic, less anime-dramatic nonsense way. Mostly, so I can replicate his thought process for accurate fic writing.

I'm gonna address this analysis in 5 different bits: fear, anger, pride/shame, building a persona, and the conclusion.

Let's go!

FEAR!

Bakugou struggles with being seen as weak/incapable. It's DIFFERENT from his superiority complex... Although connected.

It's my belief (backed up by canon) that Bakugou's relationship with his mom has affected his perception of strength and worth; and that because of her, he's attached his identity to his strength, which he felt made him more secure and better than other people. To be weak, is to be pathetic, is to be humiliated. To be clear, I don't think he did this consciously. It was just that kind of thing that seeped into the way he thought and because of it, he tried to fortify himself against any and all vulnerability. Which leads to the bullying/ “Better to hunt than be hunted” mentality. As well as his black and white thinking. If his way is right, everyone else’s must be wrong and anything that challenges his limited world view is a threat to his very being. If his strength doesn’t matter, or isn’t the best, then who is he? That’s a scary thought to me too.

It's a similar story with me, just switch the parent. My dad is a man of principle and one of his principles is that you should not be a pussy and always be the smartest person in the room. I attached my identity to being right all the time and always standing my ground. I’m sure you can guess how fun I was at parties.

So I refused to let others see when I'd actually been hurt and hated the idea of being seen as pathetic or weak. I also couldn't accept that I needed help sometimes. I wanted to be unshakable and plow through everything.

A ridiculous outcome of that, is that I used to hate apologies in any direction. "Don't apologize to me, I don't need your help getting over this. I won't apologize to you bc that means I was thinking about feeling bad about what I did and you can't know that."

In truth, I didn't mind being wrong, just looking like I cared.

That’s the heart of it. I cared a lot less about the values I had, and a lot more about how scared I was to be seen not fulfilling them. It’s embarrassing.

Another, much stupider example of this in my life is that I hate being babied. Even by people who look up to me or respect me as equals.

Once at summer camp I had some friends fuss over me about something. I can't even remember what it was anymore, probably wearing sunscreen. I just got so upset. I was like "I'm not a fucking kid, I can take care of myself. Don't try to help me bc there's no reason I'd ever need help." In retrospect it was seriously not a big deal, and they're both friends that I love dearly, but my own issues with having people take care of me got in the way of me perceiving their affection like a normal human being.

Bakugou is the same about needing help and would rather die/lose than be seen as pathetic/vulnerable. Like he said during their dual exam that not even having the choice to destroy himself in order to have control win would be unbearable. If his strength isn’t enough on its own, then he is not enough.

I think this particular issue is made worse by his poor impulse control in regards to Izuku... (With everything else, he's very calculated, which I talk about more in the "creating a persona" section).

In general, I think Bakugou is just very scared/uneasy about his place in the world (that he’s not enough or that he’s been wrong the whole time [see: kacchan vs deku part 2]) and he covers it up with…:

ANGER!

Bakugou doesn't have a hard time not just being mean, but being cruel. There's little hesitation in going for the throat when it comes to insults and mind games. The same goes for me BUT only when I really dislike someone.

There was one time I was mean to some kid who was weird and pushy with me because he thought I was cool. He was not a bad guy, he just couldn't take a hint and wouldn't leave me alone. Let’s call him Liam. One day Liam made some joke and no one in class laughed. He said something like "tough crowd", and without hesitation I told him he just wasn't funny. It's not exactly bullying, but he probably felt bad about that for a bit.

It was mean tho, right? I did it cuz at the time I just wanted Liam to dislike me enough that he'd leave me alone. Sounds familiar, huh?

It was not the first or last time I acted like that. I want to highlight that I did these things feeling justified (even though I probably wasn't), which is the key component to understanding why Bakugou was so mean to Izuku in the beginning. It wasn't so much about power, as it was about getting Izuku to leave him alone for good. To get somewhere he didn't have to worry about being bothered by him ever again and follow his dream at the same time. You know, like UA? The last possible place you'd find someone without a quirk?

I think it needs to be made INCREDIBLY clear that Bakugou sees Izuku as a fundamentally different person than we, the fandom, do.

To him, Izuku was some weirdo who wouldn't leave him alone, made him feel nervous/stupid, was generally uncool and annoying, and acted like he was better than him. (let’s not forget that Izuku was quite the stalker for a while??) It doesn't matter how wrong Bakugou was, Izuku still made him feel that way and that's a good enough reason to try to get someone to leave you the fuck alone. I know I would. I mean I literally have.

There were multiple kids at my school who freaked me out/ made me uncomfortable and I wasted no time in getting them to fuck off as quickly as possible. I'm sure most of us have similar stories and definitely seemed like one of the bad guys from their point of view. (Especially given that a lot of these annoying kids were probably well-intentioned and just made you uncomfortable)

The following stories are unnecessary to understand my point, but I just wanted to tell them. Feel free to skip over it.

There was one kid in my grade who was around me a lot. Let’s call him Isaac. We walked home the same way and had a few classes together. There were two times I remember getting annoyed enough with him to actually snap at him.

One time was when Isaac tried to hide behind me in a gym class during dodgeball and he touched my shoulder or something. So I turned around and shoved him to the ground and told him not to touch me. He slid on his ass for a sec. I'm sure he was a bit embarrassed and looking back, it was mean. I could have just asked him not to do that politely.

The other time I remember, we were in science class and we were always sat at the same table because the teacher said I was best at handling the "annoying kids" (which is kinda a crazy thing to say to another student). Regardless, Isaac wouldn't stop talking and just overall bothering me. I might be misremembering this part, but I'm pretty sure he had come behind my chair and touched my shoulders again. So I got up and yelled at him. I told him to leave me the fuck alone and stop being weird. My teacher came to check up on me, not him. Asked if I was okay and if I needed help to beat someone up (jokingly ofc). But maybe I was the bad guy here. I could have asked a teacher to reseat me or told Isaac he was making me uncomfortable, but I didn't. I did what would make him leave me alone the fastest. And he did after that. For the most part at least. We still ran into each other on the walk home and would make conversation. Isaac annoyed me, but I didn't hate him, I wasn't close enough to him to. HOWEVER, had he been annoying me since I was FOUR?? I'd probably beat his goofy ass up just like Bakugou did.

AND If I found out later that he was like secretly the president's son and was only letting me push him around to hide his identity? Not only would I be mad, I'd feel so fucking stupid and embarrassed. AND IF HE FOLLOWED THAT UP WITH SOME BULLSHIT LIKE: “no, no, I was only recently adopted by the president bc I'm destined for a future greater than yours.” Are you kidding me??? I'd fuck some shit up. Punch some walls or somethin.

Like what makes you of all people think you’re better than me? You’re just some kid with ideas of grandeur. Get away from me or get hit bitch.

I'm not saying Bakugou's right, only that I get it. He uses anger to cover up all the feelings that make him feel unsafe/uncomfortable/embarrassed. As do I. Annndddd a lot of it is about… (say it with me…)

PRIDE & SHAME!

The infamous superiority/inferiority complex. This is mostly spelled out for you in canon, so I’ll only talk about the parts that interest me the most.

We already know Bakugou doesn't like being looked down on. It enrages him. It's a pride thing. Pride is inherently attached to shame. You care less about using pride to cover up your shame the less shame you have to cover up.

No matter how hard he tries, Bakugou can't be all he expects of himself. He cares that the anger he uses to hide his discomfort makes people dislike him. He's embarrassed that he cares at all and it makes him feel like he's weak. Only a loser would let that get in their way... That vulnerability eats him up and makes him feel stupid and it all becomes a circle.

Gotta be strong > uses force to exert his strength > ppl dislike him for it > he feels hurt > he shouldn't care what they think > need to get stronger to handle it.

THEN he lost to Izuku several times, got kidnapped, AM lost his powers because Bakugou needed saving, and failed to get his hero license. (AND HIS MOM PICKS ON HIM ABOUT IT WHICH DOESN'T HELP) He had to reckon with the fact that his way is wrong. But he's so caught up with attaching himself to the part, that it's very hard to let go. He'd have to change his entire world view and identity.

This post discusses the way he reckons with the cognitive dissonance that comes with his strength having nothing to do with what’s “right”. I'm a really big fan of the concept of Bakugou trying to use his physical strength/lack thereof, to make sense of his emotional weaknesses and lapses in logic.

I didn't want to cheap out on you and leave you without an embarrassing personal story for this bit, so I really had to dig for a story mostly about pride/shame because I feel like this section is mostly about what causes the fear and anger. Pride/shame is a common denominator rather than its own point… but here I go anyway.

When I was 14 I made my math teacher cry. She was kinda a bitch and deserved it a little bit, but I still feel kinda bad in retrospect.

I’ve always been a shit student, which didn’t bode well with the whole “smartest person in the room” deal. It was embarrassing to know that it didn’t matter how smart I was, I could never sit still and think long enough to finish my school work. And yeah, you bet my dad made me feel like an idiot for it. So I took some of it out on my teacher.

It felt justified making her cry because she had always had it out for me. She was rude the moment I walked in the door, she refused to sit me up front so I was never able to read the board, she resented us because she wanted to teach the “smart” kids, and she always made sure to tell me how much I sucked in front of the whole class.

Now the thing about being the rowdy annoying student (especially in the lower level classes) is that most of the kids in class agreed with you. The teachers normally assume the worst about lower level students and were complete dicks, so you can be sure there was almost always animosity and distrust in class. Every time I gave a snarky response or talked over her, I was met with snickers and fist bumps. Maybe she, my Dad, my shame made me feel stupid, but the attention from the kids in my class sure fed my ego.

As bad as I feel for making her cry, I still tell the story with pride. She didn’t break me, I broke her. 5 years later and it still feels good to know that I walked away mostly unscathed, and she quit her job. I was so sick of feeling stupid, but I still do, otherwise the story wouldn’t feel so good to tell. It might not be a thing I’d do to a teacher ever again, but that doesn’t mean I don’t wish I could sometimes. Shame is more powerful than the shield of pride; and both of them are nasty habits.

I think pride and shame would be the hardest traits for Bakugou to let go of. Truthfully, I don’t think he will ever fully abandon those traits. They’re fundamental to his character and are the driving force behind his pursuit of being the number one hero. Which is also a primary factor in what pushes both Bakugou and Izuku to grow as heroes. They wouldn't be themselves without it.

Conversely, part of what drives them to grow as people is Bakugou being honest and letting go of…

THE MASK HE MADE!

Perfectionism, control, and the persona he created...

There’s the way that Bakugou is and the way he wants to believe he is.

Most of fans think of bkg as the person he wants to believe he is. This fake version of him is undeniably strong, laughs in the face of danger and hurdles, is mean without regard because he doesn’t care what anyone thinks of him, and knows EXACTLY what he wants.

Let’s talk about the mask I made which I'm just starting to let go of.

I’ve run away two times in my life. Once when I was 12 because I hated my life, and the other time when I was 17 and wanted to make my dad angry and worried. Both of them had to do with fear, anger, pride, and shame. But both were done to break away from the mask I made.

The first time was done because I was scared I’d be stuck with my Mom and siblings forever, always taking care of everyone and managing all the emotions in the house. I was angry that it was all my job and I had to do it all alone. I was an idiot to think I could handle the world alone as a runaway but I was impulsive and stupid. I wanted to be seen as a loose canon. Too often – and because I had gone out of my way to be seen as such, I was seen as dependable; like I could just keep taking the pressure and never crack. None of it was true. I was scared and weak and I was collapsing under the weight of my family’s problems. So I took everything and left. I just finally wanted my Mom to see that I wasn’t okay. In the end, it didn’t work, so I moved away from it to live with my Dad… Which caused its own set of issues.

The second time I ran away was the day of my high school graduation. I hardly got any days to celebrate myself. Including my birthdays, which were often excuses for my Mom and sibling to invite their own friends over. Once my birthday was forgotten all together. All that to say, I was excited to have a day for myself. As I’m sure you can guess, the day didn’t go as planned and I was sidelined for the entirety of it. When I finally got home, I went to vent to my Dad about it which didn’t go well. To summarize, he told me I was pathetic and dramatic. So I was like “Fine. Clearly no one here gives a shit about me. I’ll just leave without a word.” So I left the house, called a friend for a sleeping bag, and set up shop between a garage and some train tracks for a night.

My intentions are still a bit unclear to me, but from what I remember, It was fear that I truly wasn’t cared about, anger for all that I had lost in order to protect the mask, and shame that I thought they’d care; as well as the fact that I was hurt by how little they cared. Above all, I wanted to make my family feel bad for pushing me to the point that I thought that running away would be the only thing that got to them. It didn't. I came home the next day and no one said anything.

I had given so much energy trying to be steadfast, confident, strong, but on the two occasions I had broken those patterns no one noticed or even really cared. It put me in a weird position. Was I just supposed to give up on those things? Live my life in accordance with my true feelings? It seemed nothing mattered and in the end I did little to change.

Change I certainly did though. I gave up trying to be emotional support for my parents. I started to voice my true feelings a bit (only a little bit) more often. I even stopped trying to act any specific way in front of my family.

Despite all that change, however minor in outward appearance, It’s not like I had let go of those values. I just reevaluated how I interacted with them. I'm still steadfast, I know what I want for my life and plan on letting nothing get in the way. I’m confident that what I’m doing will be best for me, instead of good for maintaining a persona of strength, and now I try to put the anger into standing up for myself and my truth.

In all honesty, It’ll never stop hurting me that no one cared when I tried to show them the truth about how I felt. And I’m not sure I’ll ever stop being embarrassed that I care what they think. I still want to believe that I’m above everyone and above feeling sorry for myself, but I’m not. I’m a hurt kid who’s slowly figuring out how to live with it and become a better person.

The best parallel I can pull here is Deku vs. Kacchan 2. Bakugou’s been holding a lot of feelings in for a very long time and a huge part of his mask is hiding his true feelings. It’s true that he shows anger, but that’s part of his mask, not a crack in it. During this whole scene he’s using anger to cover up his pain and self-doubt. Just the fact that it’s a fight instead of a conversation proves this.

Bakugou choosing to have this fight was a call for help. He needed Izuku and All Might to see that he wasn’t holding it together as well as they thought he was. This was like me running away in that it was a drastic, desperate attempt to escape the mask all while giving himself enough leeway to come back to it if he felt too vulnerable with his newfound freedom.

As a side note, I think that Bakugou sees maintaining his mask in front of Izuku as most important. To the point where he'll let himself get hurt/hurt people he normally wouldn't want to in order to keep up the performance. Izuku is the last person he wants to let see all the vulnerabilities and if getting beat to shit/spewing the most hateful things he could think of will make sure Izuku never sees them, then it's what bkg must do. (which is why the impalement and apology are so important to bkg letting his walls down)

In MHA, as well as in my life, leaving behind the persona you made takes a long time and a lot of baby steps. It’s humiliating and terrifying. I’m not sure if all of you quite understand the amount of trust Bakugou is putting in Izuku following DvK2. To Bakugou, he felt like he had bore his soul to Izuku with the intention of marking this as the beginning of his attempt to become better – as a hero AND a person.

I see DvK2 as the first major step they took together towards reconciliation, friendship, and eventually, love.

IN CONCLUSION

Bakugou made a loud and abrasive personality to hide his insecurities and fear. While he tried his best to maintain it, it became an impossible feat once he finally had to face that he wasn’t as strong as he thought. His rigidity, once his superpower, became is downfall. He used his fight with Izuku to break from the persona he trapped himself in, and in taking his first step away from his mask, he started a new journey to become a better person for himself and for Izuku.

TL;DR

I used personal, embarrassing stories that reminded me of Bakugou in order to pull back the curtains and try to make sense of the way Bakugou behaves in a way that's less dramatic and hopefully easier to relate to. The reason he's bitchy is that he’s a bit delusional. But me too bitch. I hope you all see him as a bit more relatable now :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This was the first of ~4 character analyses, as I want to cover what Bakugou and Izuku would need to change about themselves in order for them to fall in love with each other. As it stands, there’s very little the people in the stories I used as reference could do to make me respect them enough to consider an actual friendship with them, much less love. I’ll have to do a lot of speculation once I get there (which you’ll be able to read here once I’ve written them), but it’s the best I could do, seeing as I didn’t know these people well or long enough to have stories to speak confidently of in the following analyses.

#my hero academia meta #my hero acedamia #boku no hero academia #boku no hero academia meta #mha meta #bnha meta #bakudeku #bkdk #katsudeku #ktdk #bakugou katsuki

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villainsandvictimsalliance · 2 years

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What do you think about what happened in 362? Any theories?

I actually do!

The first thing I need to say it's that I'm really happy Bakugo joined the fight against Shiggy-AFO, because I wanted him to fight along with Deku. Bakugo after all is like a second protagonist in bnha. He has shared the road with Deku right since the beginning, so every time one of them changes or grows, the other does to. It wouldn't be a real end without them both risking their absolute everything to win.

If you guys remember, I also predicted Bakugo joining the fight because originally, Horikoshi had planned the end of Heroes Rising to be the end of bnha. For those who don't know or don't remember, in Heroes Rising Bakugo and Deku share OFA in the final fight to defeat the enemy together. They were also in a precarious situation, with both their lives hanging by a thread.

So what's my theory about bnha 362?

Bakugo in this fight reminded me a lot of the fight of Rock Lee and Gaara lol. The whole fighting while still unconscious, the way he moved, the whole destroying himself in an attempt to win... But what caught my attention was the constant use of sparks or little lights. I know it represents Bakugo's quirk, but if you put it together with the fact he was seeing All Might as he appears in his vestige mode, and if you put it along with the comparison between Bakugo and the second vestige...

I think somehow Bakugo is gonna get saved by OFA. Maybe not in the way we could expect, but I'm confident this is not the end for Bakugo.

In bnha, death is also synonymous to redemption or change. For example, Tenko and Tomura, Touya and Dabi, Shirakumo and Kurogiri, Endeavor and Young Enji... If a character has been somehow wrong or bad before, or if a character has suffered and been beaten up by life, a near death experience could be the switch between an old version and a new one. It also applies to return to the old version: Shirakumo awakening inside Kurogiri, Dabi going back to Touya, Tenko awakening inside Tomura once AFO possessed him...

Normally, the people who die in bnha are on their most definitive version. I don't think that's the case with Bakugo. His story with Deku is not over yet. Also, not many main characters die in bnha (or maybe not main character has ever die in bnha?).

My point is: Horikoshi is building up the final fight correctly. There's tension, readers are scared or tense, things are bad and getting even worst. We need the greatest conflict yet in other to solve it with the best resolution. This is what iw going to turn the UA kids into legends, into the best heroes in the world.

And even if OFA doesn't play a part in saving Bakugo (improbable, but okay), there are many other solutions. His heart stopped, and what? There's still time and chances. It's okay if many characters are losing hope, that's a gopd narrative. The question is: whst glorious tactic is ahead of this? What amazing action awaits for us?

#Shan's asks #bnha #mha #my hero academia #boku no hero academia #Bnha 362 #Mha 362 #bakugo katsuki #Bakugou katsuki #Bnha spoilers #Mha spoilers #Bnhs meta #Mha meta #Bakugo meta #Long post #My hero academia meta #Boku No Hero Academia meta

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madaratheestallion · 2 years

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Beat The Heat: Dabi

Last night I was thinking about the mechanics of the Todoroki's quirks and how Toya and Shoto inherited both parents' quirks* but give wildly different results due to the way in which they combine. Toya suffers from burns and Shoto does not. What if Shoto is the key to finding a way to prevent Toya's burns? This got me thinking about how we use heat sinks to prevent computers from overheating, which got me thinking about heat engines which lead to this:

Enjoy my attempt at visualizing my thought process.

Ideally this external heat sink would take the form of a suit but Dabi's quirk makes materials selection EXTREMELY difficult and it would probably have to take the form of hard body armor. I mean, this bitch can MELT TITANIUM a.k.a. the god of metals. What do you do when even titanium is insufficient??? Much to ponder, much to ponder...

EDIT: The black arrow indicating the direction of heat transfer for Dabi is pointing in the wrong direction 🤦‍♀️ Heat should be flowing OUT of him and INTO the heat sink.

*Why I think Toya inherited both quirks

#shoto todoroki #toya todoroki #my hero academia meta #my hero academia #dabi #shouto todoroki #touya todoroki #bnha meta #mageposting

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bananafishiguro · 1 year

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the way deku early in mha talked about how his dream was to be able to be a hero who saved people with a smile but the reality of his world has pretty much shattered that possibility. the difference in his face when he fought in seasons 1-2 versus how he looks now and especially how he looks in the manga is insane. it’s all rage and pain now, there’s really no trace of the all might kind of performative heroism that deku used to idolize and imitate. I think this says a lot about the world of mha and speaks to the critique that shigaraki and the villains have of hero society, glossing over the bad stuff and performing goodness while the structural issues stay the same. and now that it’s time for deku to actually be a hero it is gritty, violent, desperate, and angry

#my hero academia #mha #boku no hero academia #bnha #midorya izuku #deku #all might #shigaraki tomura #mha deku #mha meta #my hero academia meta

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mellybeansandbutters · 2 years

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Leaks day has come and gone (for me) and all I want is to see my little green baby boy 😭

#literally #like I see other people talk about other characters that they want to see #but it’s like he’s the main character and he has been missing from the narrative for several months now #this is a part of MHA that I didn’t really like lowkey #you have a show with so many side characters it’s hard to give every character their time to shine #and when it comes down to it you have to sacrifice someone but the main character shouldn’t be on that list #like I fell I. love wi th this story because I wanted to know how this quirkless nerdy boy became the worlds greatest hero #but there’s so much outside noise that it’s not even about that anymore #bnha 366 #deku #bnha #bnha spoilers #bakudeku #izuku midoriya #midoriya izuku #my hero academia #my hero academia meta #mha 366

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greatwyrmgold · 2 years

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I don't hate My Hero Academia or anything, there's a lot to like, but my god are its politics centrist in the shittiest way.

Okay, maybe that's a little hyperbolic, I've definitely seen shittier centrist politics. But the series keeps having moments that make me want to either throw the manga at a wall or complain. And since I'm reading it on my phone, I'm gonna complain.

(The rest of this post will be discussing an exchange from chapter 360 of the manga. Nothing that seems spoilery to me is in it, but I know most people are more sensitive to spoilers than I am.)

Lemillion: So, why do you destroy? Shigaraki: Because the current framework has failed. Lemillion: Oh, I get it...you've never had any friends. Shigaraki: Huh? Lemillion: Otherwise, you'd realize there's plenty worth keeping around!

First up, to get the obvious out of the way: No, I don't think this is Shigaraki's honest reason for breaking things, and no that doesn't make things better. It's a common claim that people IRL who criticize our society's current framework for failing don't actually believe what they say, and just say what they say for some ulterior motive (like empowering their political allies or paychecks from George Soros or something). Saying that Shigaraki can't reflect any real-world political positions because he isn't honest about his beliefs is like saying that one JKR book can't be transphobic because the villain is just a guy in a dress.

Second, the whole "I destroy because the current framework has failed" thing pisses me off. On one hand, this is not absent from many left-leaning worldviews; the current framework for our society has failed, and does need to be destroyed. But combining that with Shigaraki's indiscriminate destruction makes for a caricature of revolution, someone who wants to change things too much and needs to be stopped for the sake of the status quo. Which reminds me of that arc with the civilians who didn't trust heroes, for reasons that were obviously ridiculous, which was released while protests against police brutality were big in the news...

(I don't think that was intentional, by the by. Japanese news doesn't cover the same stuff American news does, and even if it did I usually give authors the benefit of the doubt. None of this feels like deliberate apologia. It feels like Horikoshi wrote a story and defaulted to the values of the society around him. But that doesn't make it less frustrating to read, though, any more than knowing Horikoshi probably wasn't thinking about BLM when he wrote those anti-hero protestors.)

Anyways, real-world anarchists and such don't just want to burn everything to the ground because everything's bad. They want to destroy specific institutions, but mostly not to destroy things and certainly not to kill people. (Less so if they're trying to protect other people, but I'm getting off topic.) Real-world anarchists engage in more mutual aid than wanton destruction, and the same is true of other "destroy the current framework" ideologies.

Third, the current framework has failed! Shigaraki is right! I don't just mean IRL, I mean that the narrative of My Hero Academia has focused on the ways that its institutions have failed the world around it. It shits on people with unfortunate Quirks, like Toga or Shinzo or Spinner, and on people who don't fit in for other reasons, like Twice or Gentle Criminal or Magne. It gives power and prestige to people like Endeavor and Mount Lady, glory hounds who care more about their own careers than the world around them. Anyone who doesn't think it's failed is willfully ignorant, and probably in a population that benefits from the failure.

(I know Endeavor has gone through character development recently that makes him less of an ass. But A, I have criticisms about Endeavor not actually doing as much to atone for his sins as the narrative thinks he has, and B, he gained his heroic prestige BEFORE his character development.)

The narrative knows the current framework has failed, and yet Lemillion just casually dismisses Shigaraki. That pisses me off more than if Shigaraki was just wrong. This isn't just "People trying to fix the world can do harm if they're not careful"—this is "Even when they have a point, people trying to fix the world can do harm". Even if the people criticizing the world's institutions have a point, even if they're criticizing institutions that are demonstrably making the world a worse place, we still need to be suspicious of them. Especially if they're criticizing institutions in the wrong way.

EDIT: Dammit, accidentally said the exact opposite of what I meant in one sentence and didn't notice for months.

(I know I said Shigaraki isn't actually trying to fix the world. I just didn't want to add enough extra clauses to precisely articulate what most people would understand.)

I dunno how much more I can add without repeating myself, so I'll try to wrap this up.

TL;DR:

I don't think Horikoshi is trying to condemn activists who don't protest politely enough. He's trying to tell a fun superhero story with a bit of politique to make it more than empty spectacle. And that's a good thing to try and do!

But I feel like either he hasn't thought through his politique thoroughly, or he's had to strangle the nuance for some reason. (Editorial mandate, plot progression, concern over Angry Parents...?) Whatever the reason, My Hero Academia comes off as trashily centrist.

It acknowledges the problems in its hero society, yes, but it also criticizes anyone who steps outside the rues of that society to fix it. I'm not saying that Stain or Shigaraki had good plans for fixing it, that the problems would be fixed if they had their way. But when the only people who propose radical solutions are criminal overlords and serial killers, that is telling in and of itself.

Maybe the series's conclusion will surprise me. Maybe Izuku and the other next-generation heroes will reject the institutions around them, reject the legacy of All-Might, reject all the failed framework around them. Maybe the series's happy ending will be radical, not incrementalist. But if I felt there was any indication the story was going in that direction, I probably wouldn't have written this.

#my hero academia #my hero academia meta #meta #politics #I can't bring politics into this kids' manga—they're already here #if you don't recognize them its politics probably line up with what you consider to be 'just common sense'

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selenestarmoon · 7 months

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I've been thinking about something and it's that both the Hero Society and All for One, the main villain and antagonist of My Hero Academia, see the world in the same way as the villains of Medaka Box.

In Medaka Box, its antagonists and even the main protagonist herself, Medaka, feel that they have to live only as roles in a story and they are defeated by Zenkichi, a normal boy, for the simple fact that he treats them as people and not by their roles or archetypes.

What I'm getting at with this is that Hero Society judges its citizens according to the quirk they are born with (they call those with a powerful or flashy quirk heroes, those with a nasty or dangerous quirk they call villains, and those who do not have quirks simply look down on them) and treat them under character archetypes (heroes are required to be perfect and save all the people on the planet at the expense of their physical and emotional health, those who have unpleasant quirks are treated as villains who must be stopped at all costs without being offered the opportunity to rehabilitate, being imprisoned without a trial at best and killed at worst and the quirkless simply treat them as extras who have no importance). It is thanks to this way of thinking that Hero Society has that Bakugo, Endeavor, Hawks and others acquire a quite toxic mentality and got away with their abuses and it is even thanks to the society that All Might believed he had to solve the problems. everyone's problems alone and the citizens became dependent on the heroes causing bystander syndrome and people like Tomura and the League were discriminated against for their gifts and no one did anything to help them or show them that there is another way to solve things without reaching to violence and quirkless people they treat them as useless all the time and mistreat them whenever they can.

On the other hand, AFO lives with the role of the main villain of a story (he wants to be the Ultimate Lord Demon) and wants others to live in that narrative. He sees the world from a story point of view and sees others by archetypes (he sees Tomura and the League in general as villains because of their powers, he sees any wielder of One for All as the main protagonist who is destined to face him, see anyone who isn't a villain or a One for All wielder as an extra).

The reason everyone in the League became violent is because everyone has dehumanized them by seeing them as villain archetypes and not broken people who urgently need help. Heroes are also dehumanized because they are seen as perfect beings who have to be powerful and do all the work, forgetting that they are humans who make mistakes, who need help and who cannot do everything alone. Quirkless are still people who can contribute in other ways and deserve to be treated with kindness and respect like anyone else.

For Hero Society to improve, everyone has to stop seeing people as character archetypes because of their quirks and see them as people and give them real support.

#boku no hero academia #boku no hero academia meta #boku no hero academia spoilers #my hero acedamia #my hero academia meta #my hero academia spoilers #bnha #bnha meta #bnha spoilers #mha #mha meta #mha spoilers

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imaginarylungfish · 6 months

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I've been thinking about Good vs Bad and how it is portrayed in the media I consume. I'm noticing the binary-ness of Good vs Bad in each story is different.

I will be talking about Death Note, Jujutsu Kaisen, and My Hero Academia. There are anime and manga spoilers. So, if you are not up to date with either, do not continue reading.

In Death Note, there is a pretty clear picture of Good vs Bad. Sure, we see the cliche of "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" through Light's character arc. But even though he started out with Good intentions (punish people who commit crimes), it clearly portrayed that he crosses the line after murdering people whose only crime was wanting to catch Kira. It becomes clear that Light slowly descends into Bad. And Bad has a clear definition: killing innocent people. And in the show as a whole, there are The Good Guys (L and the police) fighting against The Bad Guys (Kira). Viewers see the binary of Good vs Bad pretty clearly.

In Jujutsu Kaisen, I think the lines are more blurred but not totally unrecognizable. We see how Geto started out Good (ie. protect non-sorcerers) yet his morals slowly chipped away at him by the injustices of the jujutsu world. He became fed up with protecting non-sorcerers who never knew or appreciated the sacrifice he and his fellow jujutsu sorcerers made for them. Geto turned Bad even though he started out Good. (This doesn't mean continuing to love someone who is Bad is Bad too. Gojo still cared for and loved Geto through his defection and descent into Badness. But that is a post for another time.)

I mention Geto first instead of Yuji here when talking about JJK because most of the narrative revolves around the fact that Geto and Gojo were so close and Kenjaku could use Geto's body to enact his plan in Shibuya. Geto and Gojo are central to JJK. There isn't much story to tell if we leave those two out.

But if we return to our MC here, I think we still see a clear definition of Good vs Bad through Yuji even though his original worldview was less clear. At first, Yuji believes that he must save people equally--that everyone, no matter if Good or Bad, should receive a proper death. But slowly, he changes his mind. (If I recall correctly, I believe Megumi's opposing belief of saving people unequally as well as Nanami's wisdom influences Yuji's mindset change, but I can't remember exactly. What I'm trying to say is not dependent on what caused Yuji's mindset change though.) Yuji learns more nuance in his original worldview. He realizes he must choose between which people to save. I see this as creating a more binary idea of Good vs Bad because if you're going to save unequally, you're prioritizing some people over others. You must mentally label people as Worth Saving (Good) vs Not Worth Saving (less Good, and potentially therefore Bad).

Plus, the curses/curse users like Sukuna and Kenjaku are presented as fully Bad. We have not, at this time, seen any backstory as to why these curses/curse users became Bad. Therefore, we have no context and no reason to believe they toe the line at all. So, that's why I think JJK has a fairly clear Good vs Bad Guys trope (even if the lines were slightly blurred with Geto).

But in My Hero Academia, the lines are very much blurred. The villains are Bad because of their traumas. We are given reasons as to why Shigaraki, Touya, Toga, Spinner, etc. act the way they do. We are shown that the Bad Guys are that way because Bad was done to them. And I do think Horikoshi is not trying to give excuses, just explanations. Regardless, this poses the questions: who even is Bad? who even is Good?

Deku fights to save everyone, regardless of their Good or Bad label (just like Yuji's original mindset). This is clear as Deku plans on saving Shiggy even though people around him do not share his goal. So, even though this MHA universe has Good vs Bad (ie. Heroes vs Villains), we are presented with ways that question this worldview through our MC's perspective. Deku, I would venture to say, has a foggy definition of Good vs Bad. Therefore, MHA as a manga/anime has a foggy definition of these concepts too.

Alright, that's all I've got for now. I find it interesting which worldview each mangaka takes on to portray in their story. I'd love to hear any ideas in the comments about what anyone else thinks. Please just be nice about it! Thanks!

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