Been thinking about Present Mic's Quirk a lot lately and I actually found some evidence to suggest that his Quirk is a lot different from how we normally think about it.
His Quirk is listed as an Emitter type and a lot of people seem to portray it as him simply being able to amplify his voice or make sounds with his mouth that create shockwaves to attack his enemies. Very similar to someone like Black Canary of DC Comics fame. But the thing is, I don't think that his Quirk really has to do specifically with shockwaves, and I don't think that his Quirk works with just any old type of sound that he could potentially make with his mouth.
His Quirk is called "Voice." Rather than thinking of his Quirk as an amplification Quirk that makes his natural voice louder, I think his voice is his actual Quirk, and I think he can adjust the output of his voice in both directions: both low volume and high volume. It's just that speaking at a volume quiet enough that a normal person can't hear it isn't useful for attacking villains, so we only see him using his Quirk to be loud.
But the name of his Quirk isn't the only evidence I have for this theory. There's also the fact that he was born with his Quirk. As a general rule, Quirks tend to manifest at the age of 5 in most children and the only time you really see exceptions to this rule are with mutant or mutation type Quirks. For instance, Ojiro and Iida both have mutant type Quirks. They were given extra body parts by their Quirks and they've had these extra body parts since birth, even if they didn't know how to properly utilize them (Ojiro's tail and Iida's engines, for example).
Mutation Quirks aren't exactly the same, but they're similar. Mutation Quirks are often extremely powerful Quirks caused by gene mutation. They seem to manifest out of nowhere and are usually Quirks that aren't passed down to them from their parents like other Quirks are. Mutation Quirks sometimes manifest earlier than 5, such as Eri manifesting her Quirk between the ages of 2 and 3. This is also the case for the glowing baby, who had the first Quirk ever due to some kind of gene mutation and had glowing skin from birth.
Hizashi has had his Quirk since birth, and it's stated in the introduction of his Quirk that he made the ears of his parents and the hospital doctors bleed with his first cry. If his parents had similar Quirks to him, wouldn't they have anticipated something like that and been able to wear noise-cancelling headphones or something similar?
Just to use Black Canary for comparison again, she can mimic sounds and she primarily creates shockwaves by screaming or whistling. Most people portray this as being the same for Hizashi, but we just don't have any evidence to support the idea that he can mimic sounds or that he can whistle to create shockwaves. We've seen him whistle in canon before but never while using his Quirk at the same time. In fact, the majority of the time that he's using his Quirk, he's talking while doing it. Talking at extremely high volumes rather than simply yelling or screaming
One of the only times this pattern is broken is during the war arc, where he does actually just scream to break all the Nomu tanks. But even at that, him yelling and screaming still utilizes his vocal cords whereas something like whistling does not.
The last bit of evidence that I have for this theory is the fact that in Vigilantes, it's shown that Aizawa can use Erasure to silence Hizashi's voice. No, he's not just canceling out any volume amplification, he's LITERALLY erasing Hizashi's whole voice.
Hizashi was speaking at a normal volume in this panel, but his voice gives out entirely while Aizawa in the next panel over has his hair floating, the tell-tale sign of his Quirk--as well as a smug grin on his face.
This would suggest that, like mutation Quirks (such as Ojiro's tail and Iida's engines), Aizawa can erase the function of Hizashi's Quirk even though the body part is still there. Meaning that Aizawa erased the function of his vocal cords, though the vocal cords stay intact. If Hizashi's Quirk was simply that he could make his voice louder, then Aizawa would only be able to cancel out the volume but not necessarily Hizashi's voice as a whole.
So, I think "Quirk: Voice" should be taken literally! I think that Hizashi's voice IS his Quirk and that he has crazy control over his vocal capacity with both the ability to make his voice loud enough to shatter eardrums and quiet enough that the normal human ear couldn't hear it. The latter ability could certainly have its own uses. This also might lend to the possibility that if he can change the volume of his voice, he might be able to change pitch, tone, and other aspects of his voice with ease. He might be able to mimic other people's voices or change the sound of his voice at will! Wouldn't that be an interesting piece of information, especially in regards to a young student who just got moved to the hero course...?
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Very interesting to me that a certain subset of the BES fandom's favourite iterations of Mizu and Akemi are seemingly rooted in the facades they have projected towards the world, and are not accurate representations of their true selves.
And I see this is especially the case with Mizu, where fanon likes to paint her as this dominant, hyper-masculine, smirking Cool GuyTM who's going to give you her strap. And this idea of Mizu is often based on the image of her wearing her glasses, and optionally, with her cloak and big, wide-brimmed kasa.
And what's interesting about this, to me, is that fanon is seemingly falling for her deliberate disguise. Because the glasses (with the optional combination of cloak and hat) represent Mizu's suppression of her true self. She is playing a role.
Take this scene of Mizu in the brothel in Episode 4 for example. Here, not only is Mizu wearing her glasses to symbolise the mask she is wearing, but she is purposely acting like some suave and cocky gentleman, intimidating, calm, in control. Her voice is even deeper than usual, like what we hear in her first scene while facing off with Hachiman the Flesh-Trader in Episode 1.
This act that Mizu puts on is an embodiment of masculine showboating, which is highly effective against weak and insecure men like Hachi, but also against women like those who tried to seduce her at the Shindo House.
And that brings me to how Mizu's mask is actually a direct parallel to Akemi's mask in this very same scene.
Here, Akemi is also putting up an act, playing up her naivety and demure girlishness, using her high-pitched lilted voice, complimenting Mizu and trying to make small talk, all so she can seduce and lure Mizu in to drink the drugged cup of sake.
So what I find so interesting and funny about this scene, characters within it, and the subsequent fandom interpretations of both, is that everyone seems to literally be falling for the mask that Mizu and Akemi are putting up to conceal their identities, guard themselves from the world, and get what they want.
It's also a little frustrating because the fanon seems to twist what actually makes Mizu and Akemi's dynamic so interesting by flattening it completely. Because both here and throughout the story, Mizu and Akemi's entire relationship and treatment of each other is solely built off of masks, assumptions, and misconceptions.
Akemi believes Mizu is a selfish, cocky male samurai who destroyed her ex-fiance's career and life, and who abandoned her to let her get dragged away by her father's guards and forcibly married off to a man she didn't know. on the other hand, Mizu believes Akemi is bratty, naive princess who constantly needs saving and who can't make her own decisions.
These misconceptions are even evident in the framing of their first impressions of each other, both of which unfold in these slow-motion POV shots.
Mizu's first impression of Akemi is that of a beautiful, untouchable princess in a cage. Swirling string music in the background.
Akemi's first impression of Mizu is of a mysterious, stoic "demon" samurai who stole her fiance's scarf. Tense music and the sound of ocean waves in the background.
And then, going back to that scene of them together in Episode 4, both Mizu and Akemi continue to fool each other and hold these assumptions of each other, and they both feed into it, as both are purposely acting within the suppressive roles society binds them to in order to achieve their goals within the means they are allowed (Akemi playing the part of a subservient woman; Mizu playing the part of a dominant man).
But then, for once in both their lives, neither of their usual tactics work.
Akemi is trying to use flattery and seduction on Mizu, but Mizu sees right through it, knowing that Akemi is just trying to manipulate and harm her. Rather than give in to Akemi's tactics, Mizu plays with Akemi's emotions by alluding to Taigen's death, before pinning her down, and then when she starts crying, Mizu just rolls her eyes and tells her to shut up.
On the opposite end, when Mizu tries to use brute force and intimidation, Akemi also sees right through it, not falling for it, and instead says this:
"Under your mask, you're not the killer you pretend to be."
Nonetheless, despite the fact that they see a little bit through each other's masks, they both still hold their presumptions of each other until the very end of the season, with Akemi seeing Mizu as an obnoxious samurai swooping in to save the day, and Mizu seeing Akemi as a damsel in distress.
And what I find a bit irksome is that the fandom also resorts to flattening them to these tropes as well.
Because Mizu is not some cool, smooth-talking samurai with a big dick sword as Akemi (and the fandom) might believe. All of that is the facade she puts up and nothing more. In reality, Mizu is an angry, confused and lonely child, and a masterful artist, who is struggling against her own self-hatred. Master Eiji, her father figure who knows her best, knows this.
And Akemi, on the other hand, is not some girly, sweet, vain and spoiled princess as Mizu might believe. Instead she has never cared for frivolous things like fashion, love or looks, instead favouring poetry and strategy games instead, and has always only cared about her own independence. Seki, her father figure who knows her best, knows this.
But neither is she some authoritative dominatrix, though this is part of her new persona that she is trying to project to get what she wants. Because while Akemi is willful, outspoken, intelligent and authoritative, she can still be naive! She is still often unsure and needs to have her hand held through things, as she is still learning and growing into her full potential. Her new parental/guardian figure, Madame Kaji, knows this as well.
So with all that being said, now that we know that Mizu and Akemi are essentially wearing masks and putting up fronts throughout the show, what would a representation of Mizu's and Akemi's true selves actually look like? Easy. It's in their hair.
This shot on the left is the only time we see Mizu with her hair completely down. In this scene, she's being berated by Mama, and her guard is completely down, she has no weapon, and is no longer wearing any mask, as this is after she showed Mikio "all of herself" and tried to take off the mask of a subservient housewife. Thus, here, she is sad, vulnerable, and feeling small (emphasised further by the framing of the scene). This is a perfect encapsulation of what Mizu is on the inside, underneath all the layers of revenge-obsession and the walls she's put around herself.
In contrast, the only time we Akemi with her hair fully down, she is completely alone in the bath, and this scene takes place after being scorned by her father and left weeping at his feet. But despite all that, Akemi is headstrong, determined, taking the reigns of her life as she makes the choice to run away, but even that choice is reflective of her youthful naivety. She even gets scolded by Seki shortly after this in the next scene, because though she wants to be independent, she still hasn't completely learned to be. Not yet. Regardless, her decisiveness and moment of self-empowerment is emphasised by the framing of the scene, where her face takes up the majority of the shot, and she stares seriously into the middle distance.
To conclude, I wish popular fanon would stop mischaracterising these two, and flattening them into tropes and stereotypes (ie. masculine badass swordsman Mizu and feminine alluring queen but also girly swooning damsel Akemi), all of which just seems... reductive. It also irks me when Akemi is merely upheld as a love interest and romantic device for Mizu and nothing more, when she is literally Mizu's narrative foil (takes far more narrative precedence over romantic interest) and the deuteragonist of this show. She is her own person. That is literally the theme of her entire character and arc.
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all the rise boys get done dirty on characterization by fandom in different ways i think. (not ALL the time every fanwork etc etc these are just like, trends i tend to notice?) every fandom suffers from losing character nuance.
- leo i’ve talked about plenty on this blog, how some of his canon traits (genuine belief in his skill and cockiness, capacity for joy, his manipulativeness whether for good or ill) seem to get watered down or wiped off the board and supplemented with generic sad boy. his struggles with purpose and identity and not wanting to fail somehow morph into “he hates and completely holds no value for himself”
- donnie’s canon personality gets blurred out and largely replaced with whatever list of Neurodivergent Traits. and i think there’s such a fine line to walk between exploring a character that’s been word of god confirmed as on the spectrum and overwriting what’s canonically there. it’s a hard needle to thread. it also feels like a lot of his canon emotiveness gets left off the table for some reason. bc he does have his moments of flat/deadpan delivery, but a lot of the time he’s honestly very emotive. he has the passion of a theatre kid and the vindictiveness of... also a theatre kid. and the mind of a scientist.
- raph loses so much of his rowdy teen boy energy it’s kind of wild? like interpretations sand off that he’s also impulsive and can be reckless and dumb and LOVES fighting and roughhousing and isn’t the most eloquent person. suddenly there’s this pitch perfect soft boy big bro who would never hurt a fly and always says the exact right supportive thing and singlehandedly raised his 3 brothers (which simultaneously sands off all the nuance of splinter’s issues emotionally connecting with his sons and how that affected all of them). and like i LOVE raph, he’s so full of love and care and anxiety, he clearly has learned to put a lot of work into being aware of his strength and size. but there’s a difference you know?
- mikey is like. where raph gets overparentified by fanon, mikey gets over “family therapist”-ed IMO. the impulsiveness, the goofiness, the powerful emotions including a VERY powerful temper, the flat-out dumb teen boy choices... they get ignored. suddenly there’s this only very sweet and earnest boy who has read a hundred psychology books and runs group family therapy weekly or something. he is crying in his room bc leo and raph are arguing about something. which is so. he IS very sweet and can be very earnest and is full of love! he HAS come in with his opinions and unsolicited advice a couple of times and life coached for the greater good. but there’s a difference between what he does in canon and the role he gets in fanon.
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