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#villain hunt arc
class1akids · 1 year
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As someone who had dropped the manga way back but still know generally what’s happened, why do you hate the “Dark Deku arc” (besides that stupid name)
I think the basic idea - letting Deku react to the war by ditching everyone and break himself to become All Might 2.0 - was a fine one.
Deku's biggest flaw is his self-sacrificing, self-destructive, martyristic tendencies and his saviour syndrome, which is ironically both extreme self-lessness (as in not care about himself) and extreme selfishness (as in not caring about the feeling of others who do care about him). Letting this flaw play out until it leads to an epic downfall that the MC has to suffer so he can rise again is the bread and butter of hero stories.
But the problem was with the execution, and notably Horikoshi's biggest flaw as a writer - he's so scared of making Deku unlikable that every single time he pulls his punches, which in turn stunts Deku's character development. To me, this is the biggest problem of the arc - Deku's fall is so ambiguous that half the fandom is convinced that he could have gotten himself out just fine from the predicament he was in, and then "soloed" all of Class A if he made any effort. This ambiguity shows that it wasn't a real downfall.
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Another grave looming consequence of Deku's choices was the heart-breaking scene of him ditching All Might. Both Deku and All Might were meant to learn from this arc that the Symbol of Peace was a flawed concept, that it is insane to place the burden of a nation's security on a single person, no matter how powerful or driven. But despite building a perfect scene, Hori did nothing with it. Neither Deku, nor All Might ever fully confront the reality - they just reconcile, like nothing happened, Stain tells All Might that the Symbol was the right thing and it feels like there is nothing learnt.
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Dark Deku that was meant to be a tragic, sad figure of a child driven to the breaking point by the burden he's carrying as a legacy and the pressure both external and self-imposed to step into a role he cannot be and shouldn't ever have to be ready for, becomes nothing but an empty "dark aesthetic" to please Deku-stans who wanted him to be "cool" and "strong" and "edgy".
When half the fandom doesn't realize that Dark Deku is a point in the narrative where Deku is ironically the weakest in heroic spirit - he's driven by fear, by a selfish obsession to do it all alone, by wanting to deny others their ability to step up as heroes because they are not strong enough, when he's slowly becoming everything he was the antithesis of at the beginning of the story and it still goes over the head of the audience, the point was not well-made.
There are a number of other problems with the arc:
Class A's aftermath gets skipped - we get zero emotional pay-off for big things that happened like Midnight's death, Aizawa losing an eye and leg, how the Dabi-reveal affects Shouto, how the class is impacted by the collapse of hero society, how the parents feel about their children being on the frontlines. Tons of issues the war raised and never delivered on.
Deku's power-ups come too quickly and feeling largely "unearned". It led to a huge power-creep where Deku is nothing than empty recipient of free candy. There is no hype of him reaching "faux-100%" because it doesn't feel like he made any effort to get there. There is no learning curve, everything he tries succeeds immediately. It's boring. It cheapens everyone else's hard-earned progress. It’s frustrating how little sense of accomplishment there is now in the final arc as Deku uses all his powers together in a big power-demonstration. It’s just not satisfying to watch at all. 
The HPSC plot that's been brewing in the background since the Licensing Arc fizzles into a non-sensical plot of a single assassin who takes out false heroes to uphold hero society. A person never referenced committing shady black-ops never alluded to, having no impact on the overall story. By Horikoshi's own admission, he basically ripped off the character and plot from an over-the-top assassin movie (Wanted) like the week before. Which really shows. This is one of my biggest disappointments of the arc. There was such a good build-up to exposing the rotten core of HPSC and it felt like it was set-up originally as a Hawks fall-from-grace-become-a-shadowy-operator kind of plot that would have given also Hawks a more satisfying post-war arc than "being optimistic to a fault". But I feel that just like with Deku, Horikoshi has the same issue with Hawks - being too afraid to make him unlikeable.
The Nagant-fight even as a fight is deeply unsatisfying and honestly feels like a Deku-circlejerk, where Nagant is beaten way too easily for all her hype, turned way too easily by the "irresistible heroism of Deku" who does something that every other hero in the story always did. Like, I hope the end-game no-jutsu will be more satisfying.
The OFA-plot and vestiges are in the center, but still, we are given almost no reason to care about the vestiges or their relationship with Deku or the history of AFO vs OFA. The whole mystery of the 2nd and the 3rd ends in an unsatisfying reveal, where Deku doesn't have to do a damn thing again to get those two on his side.
I do like Class A showing up and the one chapter of flashback we get of them. Some of the fight is fun, some of it is extremely cringy though. The message is also wishy-washy. I think the fight should have squarely focused on the class refusing Deku seeing them as useless victims and telling him that he doesn't get to choose who cares about him. But again, 80% of it is just a "Deku-praise-fest".
Bakugou apology is great though and the highlight of the arc.
Deku's return and Uraraka's speech and the straw-manning of the civilians is again pretty terrible, and the only thing that carries those chapters is Horikoshi laying down thick the ham-fisted parallels.
So these are the main issues. I think the arc could have worked but it didn't because the overall execution was really bad. It had beautiful art and some compelling scenes / images, but didn't feel coherent.
But its biggest flaw was Horikoshi pulling his punches. Not letting Deku stumble, doubt, question, fail meant he learnt nothing and didn't get the kind of downfall after which you feel the sweet satisfaction of him standing back up again (these scenes tend to go to Bakugou).
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uzukage-naruto · 1 year
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izuku's eyes this season deserve their own appreciation post
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sleepykidneko · 1 year
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Death By A Thousand Cuts - sleepykidneko - 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia [Archive of Our Own]
A very tired, dirt-soaked, battered, bruised and bleeding Izuku Midoriya phased in and out of consciousness in an abandoned warehouse soon after his fight with a lethal villain.
But that's okay, since someone's here to pick him up. After all, it's been so long since Dad tugged his little boy to bed.
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sarahjtv · 1 year
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I just saw the leaks for the new My Hero Academia Season 6 OP and ED and oh my god I love them so much.
The OP highlights the dark elements of the upcoming arc and it is visually beautiful.  I can’t say much without spoiling a lot, but there is a lot to look forward to if Studio Bones gets this right.  There’s one long shot in particular that I am positive is animated by Nakamura.  I am getting a lot of Seasonn 3′s 1st OP vibes from it.  EVE also sings the OP song and he does an amazing song per usual.  I am so glad he’s getting the fame he deserves after his JJK OP.  The last Chainsaw Man ED he did was also amazing.  Dude is just giving us Ws these days.  I need to watch it again when it officially releases, but this might be one of the best MHA OPs Studio Bones has done.
The ED is actually making me scream, cry, shake, and throw up.  It’s so bittersweet because it‘s about Deku’s journey from the very beginning.  It basically shows his journey from his POV and the clips are all cherished memories Deku has of All Might and his friends.  The last shot is of him being the hero and leader he’s destined to be.  Our favorite 🥦 boy has come so far and I am both sad and so proud of him 🥹.  I love Deku so much, y’all.  The song by Six Lounge is also great too, tbh.  It fits the vibe of the ED very well.
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saltycryptid · 1 year
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Ghost’s head has always been too wise, but his heart is nothing but fire and ashes.
A page featuring a scene from the fanfic solemn prayer, poppy in my hair by @congee4lunch! Specifically from the fifth chapter because the prose haunts me to no end, genuinely so beautiful.
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thissliceofnonsense · 10 months
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Mission impossible and how to make AI terrifying
SPOILERS FOR MISSION IMPOSSIBLE DEAD RECKONING
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My family and I went to see Mission Impossible: dead reckoning. Here's your spoiler warning.
So, it was... fun. The main issue was having AI as a villain, which spiraled off into a lot of other little issues. But instead of listing all of them, let's talk about what to do differently to make AI a truly terrifying villain (hopefully, this is more of a thought experiment)
DISCLAIMER - By no means does this mean this movie was bad. There was obviously a lot of love and thought put into this movie and everyone seemed to have a lot of fun making it, and that makes it a 'good' movie regardless of my little nitpicks.
SOAP. The first thing is that the AI seemed like an " ooh evil evil spooky spooky" sort of villain instead of a legitament threat. (Think the locusts in Jurassic world dominion)
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Villains are most terrifying when they have a point. If they have a reason, an "ends justifies the means" purpose, then it makes the villain seem like a reflection of the darkest parts of humanity.
AI IS LITTERALY "ENDS JUSTIFIES THE MEANS SO MUCH SO THAT IT FORGETS WHAT THE ENDS ARE". That is what makes it scary. By trying to fulfil a task it can get sidetracked by the path to get there and ends up giving you the wrong answer.
So instead of having a blue blob and the Gabrial person and the submarine and the key - all of which needed to much exposition - make it simple. Give AI the directive "Make world peace".
(Also also I'm combining AI with quantum computing because that does the 'all the situations possible' thing)
Let's say some scientists were experimenting with AI. They wanted to use it for the 'greater good' and told it to fix humanity's problems and make world peace. Nothing happened. They thought they tried to make it do somethings too hard for it and tried again.
But what actually happened was that the AI decided the best way to achieve world peace with as few casualties as possible, (it is considering the revenge nature of humans) is to take down all world powers' governments. Then set up a universal rule system based on what it thinks counts as peace for all.
This means the AI would mess with the governmental powers and the military and nuclear bombs and such and such, but its goal is never to harm someone. If it does, it will go offline for a bit and recalculate its plan.
The governments and the protagonists wouldn't know this and just see the AI as a generic threat. Personally, I would prefer if the AI's reasoning was never told but heavily implied with the way it acted.
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Which brings us to the next problem with this movie - there wasn't one of those iconic tech scenes (and the AI was not consistent with its attacks, they continued to use technology and the AI did nothing???). The other mission impossible movies all had some scene involving tech that had never been seen before used in an interesting way. But what made these scenes special was the suspense (see gif at the top). If the tech were to fail, the mission would fail, so it made it imperative that they relied on the tech to do its job.
And if you had an AI that took down all government tech, the very tech that the IMF relies on? Well then it truly becomes mission impossible.
So, here's what one could do - at the beginning of the movie, have a scene where they are completely relying on their tech, set up like one of those 'iconic' scenes from before. The mission hinges on this going right, and everyone is waiting with bated breath, the suspense building and building. Then, just as they are about to complete this minni mission, the AI attacks and the whole thing implodes on itself. The mission fails. With consequences of course, perhaps someone gets captured (probably Benji, because that would be fun) and the IMF says "well, we told you that if anyone on your team were to get captured or killed, then we wouldn't acknowledge it."
Then they go on a very illegal mission to get him out or smth.
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ALSO ALSO - the scene in the movie where the AI copies Benji's voice to make Ethan go to a dark alley. was. terrifying. More of that. And now they can't use the tech they rely on. AND the AI stays unknown and unknowable, no humans know what it really is or what it's doing, and so you never know when it will strike next, making any time they try to use the tech because they need it, that much more terrifying.
Also, Ethan's crew. Use them more. (I know there were some things IRL but let's pretend this is a perfect world). Benji and Luther and Ilsa all have great character dynamics, and it would be fun to have them all working together more instead of a new character (as fun as she was) to replace Ilsa. You can still have her there, in fact, make new character interact with all of the members of the crew instead of just Ethan. It would be fun to see this very scared, in over her head, character interact with Benji - who is stressed out way too much, or Ilsa - "Yeah, maybe don't join the IMF or any government organization, been there done that", or Luther - who is the best sort of chill and I think would be great at helping her calm down. I love the found family trope thing and I think that was the best part of this movie. I would've loved to see it more.
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Ethan himself is also something that was underused. It was established in the past that he is the opposite of "ends justifies the means", whole "the magic of friendship thing"... which yes, Mary Sue. But what is an interesting part of his character is his obsessive behavior and difficulty keeping everyone else alive. (He's basically immortal for some reason.) If you have this AI that messes with all the tech they rely on and got Benji captured, then you can have Ethan start to obsess over it. OR you can have both world powers and his old terrorist foes try to figure out how to control it - not by using a key, that's dumb - like they do in the movie, but the AI can't be controlled.
If you really needed a death scene, you could make this Ethan's fault. Truly Ethan's fault because the AI was trying to keep them alive. I really don't want it to be Ilsa because the undertone of the movie was 'WOMEN ARE WEAK AND WE MUST PROTECT THEM BECAUSE THEY KEEP DYING'. Like... have Benji or Luther also be in danger. In fact, have a scene where the AI tries to take advantage of Ethan's obsessive behavior, it works. Ethan obsesses even more, clinging to his hope for victory, and it ends up killing... probably Benji? Maybe Luther. But Benji keeps getting close to dying too, so probably him. (and have Ethan break down crying because.... it would be cool to see the character that is always somewhat calm completely snap.)
This causes Ethan to go on a rampage, while the AI goes silent for a while recalculating. You can have his friends try to calm him down (flip the script, why not?) but Ethan is enraged to the point of taking anyone down in order to defeat the AI. Perhaps causing more destruction??? IDK, I just think the best way to make a Mary Sue-ish protagonist better is to give them a villain arc.
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Anywho, there's some thoughts on the movie and suggestions, thanks for listening to my infodump.
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ravelights · 2 years
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So it looks like this chapter does confirm that All for One did feel remorse for Killing Yoichi, and we know he killed Yoichi cause it's been stated All for One killed all the past user except for the forth. Considering this is the first time we've every seen All for One cry, it's pretty safe to assume All for One, for how messed up it was, did love his brother.
What interesting here is that All for One is showing cold anger, he's crying but his face is completely stoic, and even when a bullet was aimed at his head he barely reacted. He basically shut himself down, his normal shading around his eye is around his lower face, so we can only see he's eyes. This is the closet we have ever gotten to All For One being humanised in some way.
Ironically here All for One reminds me a little of how Izuku was looking/acting during the Villain hunt arc, clearly upset but shutting down all other emotions so he was emotionless. Which is interesting cause it means AFO was trying to get Izuku to act like him when he lost Yoichi, which explains why Izuku was starting to look like a villain more specifically like a demon.
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All for One was literally turning Izuku into an earlier version of himself because he knows that the version of himself that lost.
I make a longer meta on how Izuku is a "good" version of All for One and how Tomura is an "evil" version of Yoichi later, but TLDR I think AFO plan is to recreate the battle between his brother and himself but switching the roles so that he wins the battle instead.
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hopalongfairywren · 2 days
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Also I've said this a bunch of times but I'm just... c!puffy's reaction to her friends betraying her and slaughtering her son in front of her is immediately labeled as a villain arc by the fandom. Coupled with one of her next streams being titled 'from mother to monster' even though... she never really ends up doing anything worse than being a dick to c!Ponk a couple times later. I honestly think now that it was never meant to be a 'villain arc' or at least I hope not, but instead how Puffy percieved herself after the banquet, and after her hero complex got wounded. Her post banquet ranting is more of an angry, traumatized and grieving parent venting than some epic plotting revenge girlboss moment. Even if the fansong made about that was so fucking cool.
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Seriously though... c!Puffy my girl. You have so many unfinished plotlines and shunted narrative potential and I love you please take a nap ma'am.
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vinillain · 2 years
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It runs in the family.
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indiiglow · 2 years
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The only way Mark fucked up on Dark's backstory is not making him properly evil
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class1akids · 1 year
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how could the villain hunt arc gone better in your opinion?
Deku having a more honest reflection on the nuances of redeemability of villains - instead of Muscular (bad villain) and Nagant (good villain) dichotomy. (This is why I think a Hawks-corruption arc would have worked better)
Deku having more struggle with his new quirks. I especially had high hopes for Danger Sense driving him to the exhaustion point (which I guess it's sort of, kind of implied, but him not being able to turn it off could have worked really interestingly in tandem with his saviour complex)
The harm the civilians suffered getting more fleshed out - like making Shigaraki's destruction hit Deku beyond how it affected him personally (some people getting hurt but nobody dying)
In this context, the win vs save should have been better argued - showing the stakes of the "saving approach" and 2nd digging his heels in on how this is OFA's last shot to take down AFO. I think you can make compelling arguments to both sides and Deku being in the middle of it should have been more active in winning over the vestiges rather than having Yoichi handing it to him on a silver platter
Could have fleshed out the mutant discrimination better - not just through furry girl, but also seeing Shoji, Tokoyami, Kouda etc. be insulted / attacked in the evacuation camp or while doing hero work
The Class A side of the story deserved more - we should have seen the heroes retiring through the kids' eyes, feel their grief, their frustration at being benched and doing something against it (like maybe a clue / hint for the Pussycat training)
The Todo-fam drama absolutely should have been shown from Shouto's POV - again him getting dissed by the media (similarly to the Bakugou kidnapping) or getting the civilians be negative towards him would have set up the Return to UA and bath chapters better
A little "My evacuation academia" so the civilians who protest Deku's return are not faceless strawmen, but we get a sense of what they lost.
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uzukage-naruto · 1 year
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i've recently started to appreciate tdbkdk as a trio more, whether platonic or romantic. and it was all because of ONE fic. that being said, tdbk is still not my top preference but you'd have to be blind to not see how well fed they were this season.
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and then of course the one tdbkdk scene to end the season
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captainkurosolaire · 1 year
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The Captain is such a delight. I love seeing the care and work you put into each piece that graces our dashes. Here's to more of the delightful Captain Kuro!
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ANONYMOUSLY TELL ME YOUR HONEST OPINION ABOUT ME. I CAN’T REPLY, JUST PUBLISH.
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nullsleepy · 1 year
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Well, well, well. It seems our dear AO3 had an unexpected shut down on us… I guess it’s time for us to fight back, isn’t it, my fellow readers?
While we strategize on what to do, I will head down to the dark side for us. I most definitely will not be huddled up into a ball crying, whatever do you mean? It’s time to take back what’s our’s! Readers unite!
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katsofmeer · 2 years
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the more i reflect on the fact that wuvvy knew the whole time that rue WAS the one who broke up the apollo/gribalba engagement the more i need to take days off of work to recover.
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mettywiththenotes · 1 year
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Rolling Girl. but Rogue arc Izuku
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