#when there has been focus on it SO MANY TIMES FOR BOTH TOGA AND AFO

[dekusleftsock]

I am begging you and every other MHA fan to raise your standards cause Kohei gave everyone a yuri couple only to immediately kill one off.

…how many times has horikoshi faked deaths in this series. Because it’s A LOT. Afo, allmight, izuku losing his arm, bakugou, touya, Ochako literally last chapter, like… the story isn’t done yet my dude.

BUT HEY IF YOU WANNA ACTUALLY CRITIQUE HORIKOSHIS WRITING THEN IM ALL FOR IT HAHA

So how do I think horikoshi has seriously failed mha… hmm…

1: her

Her entire character. Well, not entire character. She GOT a lot of screen time and development don’t get me wrong, especially later in the series, and yes I love the fact that bakugou and dekus relationship was more prioritized than Izuku and Ochakos, but does that mean he prioritized her character? No! Nope! NADDA! Ochako is repeatedly sidelined throughout the story, and is also somehow excluded from a lot of arcs that SERIOUSLY RELATE TO HER CHARACTER.

Imagine if ochako was a part of the stain arc at all. She joined for selfish reasons like iida, he has a blood quirk like toga (which could’ve EASILY been foreshadowing to her not being freaked out by blood like most people), could’ve been a great way to show some nuance to her character….

And yet… AND YET…

That brings me to mistake number 2: Shoto Todoroki

Do I think shoto’s character is written badly or wrong? No! Of course I don’t! The entirety of the todoroki storyline, especially with its connection to hawks and the dirty parts of heroics, is really really good! I think it’s one of the most well handled abusive families in all of fiction. It understands EVERYONE in the family, and horikoshi is still able to show so much character and development in just a few scenes, like Natsuo or Rei.

So what IS my problem?

The fact that Ochako, her story, her CHARACTER AS A WHOLE… becomes sidelined due to horikoshi’s choice to prioritize his character over her’s. Again, it’s a great story and I wish he could balance both of them in mha, but he COULDNT, and he made the choice to sacrifice a woman’s character over a man’s.

Though I will say, a note on how ochako could’ve been in the stain arc: toga as a concept was created later and for ochako specifically, so it does kind of make sense as to why she wasn’t involved. Plans change and writers change, their ideas for their characters and what direction they go will ALWAYS change, and sadly you can’t predict that you won’t change a character or it’s direction at any point. It sucks! But that’s how a lot of these really long manga’s go. They have to write and then draw it pretty fucking fast.

And tbh I don’t really know what id do in horikoshi’s shoes with ochako and shoto! But it is definitely a critique we can acknowledge. It would take some seriously extraordinary writing skills to be able to balance, what, 3 deuteragonists? Katsuki, Ochako, AND Todoroki? Especially since one of those characters has a very complex trauma storyline that involves like five other characters? I honestly wouldn’t know what to do in his shoes!

I just wish he had picked the woman out of the two of them, but I think everyone knows that his manga wouldn’t be half as popular were he to have made it focus on two guys and a girl, instead of three guys, one of which is conventionally attractive and has major main character energy.

Anyway number 3: the overhaul arc

Ugh I have such mixed opinions on this arc. On one hand it has some really interesting storylines… when they’re on their own.

From what I understand, horikoshi did this arc because he wanted to try his hands at a longer arc and he had never really done that before. And while it’s great and very obvious he learned things from this arc, it just… takes up so much god damn space and gives us absolutely nothing long term.

Like yeah it makes a few points, like how high schoolers shouldn’t be involved in all of this and kinda sets up the ending rn where the actual adult heroes are sacrificing themselves for the next generation (ex: the guy that I forget the name of who’s now bakugous heart, allmight for deku, midnight for Mina/all the other kids, Mount lady, Aizawa for deku and all the other kids, Mirko for bakugou, etc etc), where as villains sacrifice the next generation for THEMSELVES (ex: afo and shigaraki, overhaul and eri, the gun arm girl for deku, also afo for dabi, etc etc) which is really good to do!

It’s just. Yk. Done by basically every other arc.

AIZAWA REPEATEDLY SHOWS THIS, ALLMIGHT REPEATEDLY SHOWS THIS, ENDEAVOR REPEATEDLY SHOWS THIS. Like it’s the entirety of Mount ladies arc, learning to be a hero and sacrifice for the next generation. Sacrifice and the fact that we forget 1-A are high schoolers is constantly shoved down our fucking throats; we don’t need this arc that takes so god damn long, only adds more characters that aren’t that important, TAKES AWAY FROM YOUR MAIN CAST OTHER THAN DEKU AND ALLMIGHT, JUST for it to tell you explicitly that “kids shouldn’t be fighting the battles of the previous generation, but they have to”. It just. Ugh.

There’s so much time in that arc fucking WASTED on nighteye or mirio’s character. Do I think the big three are really interesting? Of course! The contrast between mirio to deku is fascinating! It really shows how much deku can’t become allmight.

But you know. We talked about that a season ago mha. Yk. When he learns to use kicks instead of punches. Or yk. Gran Torino’s entire arc surrounds that. Everything about deku is nothing like allmight. That’s the entirety of their characters together. It’s repeatedly shown to be dekus biggest insecurity. He’s not allmight. YOU DIDNY NEED THIS ARC TO TELL YOU THAT AGAIN.

It’s like, everything that matters in this arc has already been shouting at you throughout the entire show, and everything else is never really used again outside of a mention here or there. It’s REALLY CLEAR Horikoshi was just doing this arc to try doing a long arc, not thinking about the long term of said arc.

Hmmm what else is there to complain about…

Eh, I guess the fan service? Which is, yk, in every other shonen anime/manga out there. Sometimes with people far younger than anyone in mha.

Ugh it’s like people like you just want me to be screaming “horikoshi did this! Horikoshi did that!” Every five seconds. I read the manga, I’ve talked about these flaws before on my account. Sorry if I… enjoy the manga???? Wait… omg!

It’s almost like I’m an mha account and it says RIGHT HERE IN MY BIO! Crazy!

Like seriously, what was your point? You were mad at drawings on a screen and someone enjoying that story and just… wanted to make someone’s day worse?

Did you expect me to heave over and be like “yes master anon! Toga is the worst written character in mha and horikoshi is a bad writer!” He’s a capable writer who understands his audience more than people give him credit for.

EVERY story has flaws. Every. Single. One. And because mha is literally everywhere and the fandom can get annoying because, it’s literally everywhere, I can understand getting annoyed sometimes. But you can’t sit here and expect me to solely focus on how bad horikoshi’s writing is because you’re mad at one thing. Toga SHOULD be selfless for ochako, sorry that it means thinking that she’s going to die???? What do you want from me?

I don’t have to “raise my standards” because horikoshi uses a lot of subtext and symbolism. I have other gay media I watch or read.

But like every single lgbtq movement that’s ever happened, it takes BABY STEPS. There aren’t many, if any, gay shonens out there, and if mha wants to be the first one it has to play by the rules. It has to make you think this is every other heterosexual shonen ever.

Shojo didn’t just become gay, it had to have shows like sailor moon censor a lesbian couple to be “cousins” so that other shows could exist. Madoka had to be at least semi subtle about its queer coding.

That whole meme where it shows one show saying “x show walked so that y show could run”, yeah that’s how every gay genre was made. Horror didn’t just become gay, it had to have community and relatability build up over the years, along with those new gay writers remembering where they came from, who paved the way.

My point being: I don’t give a shit if you think horikoshi is an awful writer who you think I can’t criticize. However I DO KNOW that if toga and ochako fully get together you’ll NEVER be able to avoid mha. And that thought makes me smile so much more than just the fact that they’re canon.

#I’m gonna quote myself saying ‘yes master anon’ bc that’s hilarious #should I be posting this? probably not #giving someone like this a platform is dumb #HOWEVER #they weren’t saying slurs or being offensive #it was just petty fandom discourse so whatever it’s being posted #you may say I’m giving them too much energy #however what I say to that is that I LIKED talking about this anyway so it doesn’t matter

[class1akids]

I'm annoyed at the "you can't be All Might or Deku" thing. Do we have to bring him into Endeavor's internal inferno of an inferiority complex that has always been centralised around All Might all this time? More importantly, does HK realise that Deku is not the only kid he's given the old-school All Might "ideal hero" traits to? I'd argue Mina & her move without thinking-defuse without a fight-put Bakugou in a Santa cosplay, way of heroism is a class above the All Might hero. So why do we hail Deku, who is not purely altruistic, because his primary goal was to be #1 instead of "help people", above the other kids? Is Deku a better example of a hero over someone like Momo who has expressed no desire to chart, does not want/need the money or fame, and constantly sacrifices her expensive self for others, both physically and mentally (I'm sure she's losing brain cells trying to tutor Kaminari and Mina)? He's inserted everywhere, intrumental in everyone elses growth, but these days when it comes to him, he really isn't affected or inspired much by his peers (who are not Bakugou.) Don't give us a large ensemble if the MC is supposed to be the be-all and end-all.

I was a bit puzzled at the "Deku" mention there - but then again, I'm not sure if I get clearly the point of "Endeavor's younger self" rant.

All of Endeavor's sons are shown as Young Enji is talking about how Endeavor trying to change just made him weaker and it seems to me that he wants to bring back Enji's focus to his "origin" - how he didn't want to be like that father who just turned into a useless lump of meat, dying pointlessly (at least in young Enji's perception) alongside his child. And reminding him why he was striving for super-human strength like All Might's.

So based on the scanlation and translations I've seen (but I'm waiting for the official, because it may make things clearer), I think his younger self is still talking about All Might and now Deku in that context - because their power is on a whole other level, something that's out of reach for Endeavor and not about the selfless spirit part.

I feel like there is going to be more to this fight - and I hope in that part, we'll see a bit more emotional focus on Enji's more important bonds. If we talk about heroes close to him, I am still waiting a more emotional moment of acknowledgement towards Hawks, who has been an absolute rock for Endeavor, ever since he rose to No. 1. - and even here, even now fighting with everything he's got to cover Endeavor's weaknesses (despite Endeavor's sins causing him being burnt). And the other one is Shouto - who has been taking on himself both in the first war and now the confrontation with Touya and stepping up to do something Endeavor couldn't.

And I guess this "origin moment" here is no coincidence - Endeavor will at some point understand that father (and I do wonder if it will turn out to be someone who is not just a random guy) and the choice he made, trying to protect his kid and even die with her, as something not being about strength or power or rationality, but just pure love.

I tend to get annoyed with the excessive Deku-centrism in the manga, but for now, in the endgame it bothered me less. So far, it's not the same old "what would Deku do?" kind of inspiration.

In the Toga fight, he kind of fumbled and had to be sent away

In Shouto vs Dabi, there was a call-back to Midoriya vs Todoroki, but not in the usual heavy-handed way, but to show Shouto's growth and it was a very nice moment of friendship between them, but also the rest of the class was acknowledged immediately. Plus, we had Shouto's win inspiring the battlefield.

In Jirou's flashback, Deku is there as a friend hurt by AFO

Tokoyami just does a move that's kind of an "homage" to All Might / Deku smashes, but mostly his bond with Hawks is what's emphasised

So if it remains low-key like this, I don't mind so much. However, so far this fight while it had many cool fight moments, didn't have an emotionally deeply resonating one for me. So I hope something will hit that good spot - because it's been a great storyline, and I'd love to see it come together into a 10/10 chapter.

#c1a asks #bnha 356 #bnha manga spoilers

[foundouthatdabiistouyatodoroki]

BNHA Villian Creation Oc Analysis

Introduction:

All right time for my villain creation analysis guide for people who are having trouble creating Villain BNHA OCS. In light of the War arc that happened and the reveal of Dabi being Touya Todoroki, this post went through a major overhaul. I will try my best in explaining how to create my BNHA villain.

Horikoshi stated in his design process, one thing that is most important when designing a villain is the impact they make on the people’s psyche when they first see them. You don’t half make your villain OCS disgusting or terrifying but focus on how you create a type of impact upon first seeing this villain. It’s about how you wanted to create a visual impact on someone.

It’s high time to talk about how to create a villain with these characters and about these character villain designs and how it correlates to their personalities. (This post isn’t about how to create a Marvel or dc Villain from superhero shows but to design a BNHA villain by using these characters as an example.)

What is a Villain?

While you design your BNHA Villain, you need to ask yourself this question: what makes a villain?

As Stan Lee once said in the guidebook there is no such thing as a villain, they don't view themselves as villains. Villains are the heroes of their own story and they take it further in their actions by saying the ends justify the means.  This rings true for characters in BNHA. You can see that villains have different ideologies and feelings that motivate their actions which lead them to clash with others. BNHA is proof that they are not evil. The villains are people who just have different views and different perspectives. There is no such thing as a villain; Horikoshi shows this by doing a villain academia arc with the villains as main characters of the arc.

Each and every villain reflects the very flaws of hero society.

Dabi and the rest of his family had been abused by his father who is a hero. Dabi faced neglect and overwhelming pain due to being ignored which eventually led to his death by Sekoto Peak driven by the very man who ignored him in favor of surpassing All Might.

Himiko was ostracized for showing interest in anything blood-related and labeled as a freak; most of her problems stem from the side effects of her blood-related quirk but instead of addressing this problem she was told to suppress it.

Spinner dealt with prejudice due to his appearance caused by his quirk.

Tomura’s abuse started due to his father’s abandonment from his grandmother, which drove him to abuse his son who showed interest in anything hero-related. His father’s abandonment causes him to lash out at Tenko and the rest of his family was hurt indirectly by the actions of a hero. After he killed his family and wandered on the streets people ignored him because of his appearance and used the excuse that a hero will save him.

As you see villains are people that are shaped by their circumstances, with every member of the LOV as an example of this. They are the shadow of hero society, the dark side that most people choose to ignore.

The reason why people ignored Tenko and did not bother to help him is that they don’t want to risk their cozy lives for a stranger in fear they would lose that comfort with the excuse that a hero is going to help to avoid taking action. They put all the responsibility on someone else and do not worry about this because someone is going to do it for them.

These thoughts feed into people’s complacency and indifference and emphasize people’s heavy reliance on heroes. It was these small acts of cruelty that created villains like Tomura. Looking at Tenko is a lot like admitting to how corrupt this system truly is. All this stems from personal neglect and responsibility. Personal neglect can end in being a disaster if left unchecked.  Tomura is proof of how people avoid their responsibilities in favor of having someone else do it for them. People's avoidance can lead others to the path of villainy as seen in Tomura.

For characters like Stain and Overhaul, their extreme actions that go along with the ends justify the means show that, Unlike villains who don’t view their actions as evil, both Overhaul and Stain see their actions as evil but know it’s necessary to accomplish their goals. They both see their actions as justifiable since they believe they are fighting for a worthy cause. The only difference between the two is that what Overhaul does to accomplish is much more selfish when looked at closely. Overhaul’s actions may be driven to protect the place of belonging that gave him a purpose but in reality, he has a grudge against heroes for ending the yakuza reign and blames quirks for giving others purpose while taking his purpose away. He may think his actions were for Pops, but no, they are far from what his father wanted. Overhaul doesn’t think about what he wants and gets angered when things don’t come his way: these traits are more about himself. If him abusing Eri wasn’t a perfect example of his narcissistic attitude I don’t know what is.

Stain is more of an extremist but he has more justifiable reasons than Overhaul. We are introduced to bad heroes like Endeavor, one of the heroes he hated and hunted. Despite Stain injuring Iida’s brother and ending his hero career, that part with Endeavor is what makes him comes across as more justifiable to the audience.

As AFO puts it,

Villains are people who committed a couple of quirk-based crimes and couldn’t control their quirk. People who disrupt the balance in hero society are labeled as villains, even ones who use their quirk freely for good deeds or unintentionally cause problems with not controlling their quirks are still branded as villains.

if villains are people who have done a couple of quirk-based crimes and then the heroes are the civil servants who are allowed to use quirks, as stated by Knuckleduster: "heroes are no more than cogs in a machine that is meant to uphold societal order."

People are labeled as villains because they disrupted a machine for societal order. Heroes are only meant to apprehend villains to uphold social order just like how Knuckleduster once said heroes only exist to keep the status quo in check to prevent any disruptions towards it the same way on how heroes choose to save people, not the ones that fall through. The very same system that is never made to catch people who fall through the cracks.

Even Nagant pointed out heroes are cogs in a machine made to uphold social order and eliminate anything they deem as a threat; they sacrifice others to keep the image of peace in society running smoothly ignoring the problems growing underneath.

As AFO answers say that people who are villains are thoses that society outcasts with quirks who don’t fit in the societal standard, people who can’t fit into a tightly controlled society become excluded by others and become villains whose ranges are true if you look at the LOV.

The Villains are created in response to heroes’ societal problems who were driven to change the LOV are not just here because of some grand ideology but they’re here because of their hurt and hatred towards the hero society and desire to destroy it to make a change the LOV is driven to destroy what they hate most of their actions that they lash out where their pain got from society.

As I mentioned before, the main members of the LOV are prime examples of hero society own flaws,

For Tomura it's how the actions of heroes can indirectly hurt their loved ones and other people. People's over-idolization and overdependence on heroes causes them to neglect the growing problems that are present within.

For Dabi, it's how we don’t look at the issues regarding the heroes in favor of our security or want to see these issues within others because it would be like looking at the very same issues ourselves.

For Toga it’s in how people treat those who have issues. Instead of addressing these problems, we instead tell others to suppress them so we wouldn’t have to deal with them. Telling someone to suppress wouldn’t make it go away; instead it makes what’s suppressed stronger.

If you are going to choose a villain, think about how they become villains by using the LOV examples. How did your OC become a villain? What flaws do they reflect in society? I am going to elaborate on these there characters design and how it matches up with their characters.

Design:

Tomura Shigaraki:

Wow I mean wow. There is so much jammed-packed Tomura’s character design that I don’t know where to begin. Tomura is a pretty fascinating character that has an equally fascinating design that goes with it. There's so much that goes into it that I’m worried that I may not be able to mention it all in this post. Shape-wise Tomura has no prominent shapes to speak of but his design has a lot of visual components put into his design. Unlike Izuku’s character design Tomura’s character design changes a lot correlating to his character development in the series.

Tomura has a lot of symbols that are the main components of BNHA, one of which is hereditary. Hereditary is one of the main central components of BNHA since it’s about passing on one’s legacies to the next generation. This example of hereditary in his design is seen the most with his grandmother Nana Shimura the 7th holder of OFA and All Might's master.

Tomura resembles Nana Shimura with him inheriting most of her physical features. They have the same face shape, sharp eyes, sharp chin, even the mole beneath his lip. He’s even drawn to have many parallels to her in the series. Tomura’s relation to Nana Shimura deepens his connection with Izuku and All Might, his resemblance to her linked him closely to those who are connected with Nana through OFA. This makes him more compelling because it gives a connection with the protagonist Izuku Midoriya

Horikoshi designed him with Hero society's main flaws in mind with the first flaw being in how people can be indirectly hurt by the actions of a hero when they are not thought through.

This is highlighted by Nana’s abandonment of her son Kotaro, Nana gave him up to the foster care system to protect him from AFO’s evil clutches. Looking at this from a different angle you may think she is doing this to protect Kotaro but it could be considered selfish since she wasn’t taking Kotaro’s feelings into the equation, only her own. She never thought about what Kotaro would want; she never thought about how Kotaro felt when she did this to him. she did what she thought was best for him but not thought Kotaro would feel when she did this. It seems like she was asking something from him and not thinking how he felt.

Her choice can be considered selfish. She could have given up being a hero or not carry OFA but choosing not to Nana’s choice to have Kotaro despite the responsibility she had when given OFA only to ask something from him in return while she abandoned him is incredibly selfish on her part. Her letter sounding this is more about her than her son.

Her saying “I love you” while abandoning him than killed later was only adding more salt to his wounds

again on her not thinking about Kotaros feelings at all, only her own. She never thought any of this through when she was given OFA and the abandonment of Kotaro. Her abandonment showed that she chooses her duty of being a hero over her son’s feelings. though she only was doing this out of good attention to protect her son, good attention does not lead to good results. Nana’s abandonment and death left Kotaro deeply hurt from her actions. His pain from the abandonment makes him lash out at others and abuse tenko who showed anything interested in hero-related things. You can see how one person’s actions affected the people around that one person. Kotaro’s abuse of his son caused him to kill the rest of his family and him leading down the path of becoming a Villain the pushed further into AFO clutches. It was Nana's choice that caused all the series events to happen in the first place.  Nana’s actions remind me of something like just how a hero’s actions can inspire others by doing good. They can also harm as well especially if the character harbors the same responsibility to the people around them.

There are characters from BNHA whose characters’ environments entered around their quirks. Tomura’s design is centered around his quirk decay. It is based heavily on a corpse since corpses decay after the person dies. His white hair reflects loss of pigment in the hair a corpse has when the body decays. His hair is unkempt and messy resembles in how he wasn’t taken care of and neglected to rot like a corpse as seen in his skin and his entire body is emaciated and his skin looks like it's physically rotting away his attitude in the way he was first introduced in the USJ arc looks listless like a corpse. His second appearance in the series with him donning a trench coat resembles a robe from a grim reaper again with both the corpses and grim reaper notes to how he carries the aspect of death with him emitting fear when first introduced.

Death is another factor in his design, this is seen in how he brings death and destruction to those around him seen in how he killed his family when his quirk first manifested and himself when AFO gave him a new name to say goodbye to his old self the heroes broke his pod and how he emits fear to people by just a look. People avoid talking about death, when you hear the word death most people are afraid of it and avoid mentioning it directly. In different cultures such as Japan death isn’t something that is scary but it’s dirty, the lack of care in his appearance references the dirtiness of how Japan views death. Seen in the flashback of his childhood when he was wandering the streets people noticed but looked away not looking at his appearance directly. The way people ignore Tomura in the series is just like people’s attitude towards death, something they want to avoid mentioning as a reference to death itself.  Tomura's death motif is a reference to the concept that Horikoshi is trying to convey in his art.

Another way the dirtiness and emaciated-ness in Tomura’s unkempt appearance in his design note the second flaw of hero society. This second flaw is seen best in how the people around treat Tenko, who wandered the streets after he killed his family onlookers saw him but ignored him due to his scary-looking appearance by using "hero is going to help you" as an excuse to escape any responsibility.

People ignoring tenko symbolizes how they don't want to look at the ugliest side of society and go in and out of their way to avoid it with their willingness to look away from the corruption to protect the cozy lives they have. This small cruelty showed us that they don’t want to look at the ugliest side of hero society and see how corrupt the system is. People looking at Tenko would be a lot like admitting they are something wrong with the system they profit from. The real cruel reason why people didn’t help Tenko is that they cared so much about their security they don’t want to risk their cozy life for someone they just met so they use the excuse hero to escape responsibility so they don’t need to worry about it if someone else is doing it for them why would they need to? People's overreliance on heroes making them out to become overly complacent. People’s negligence and compliantly caused the rot to slowly accumulate and spill out from the injustices that others ignore.

Now for the second flaw, it’s that people's over reliance on heroes causes them to be complacent in helping others to escape responsibility for someone else to do letting their negligence create more villains.

It’s all about those hands, hands, hands it’s all about those hands that are prominent in Tomura’s character design.

According to Horikoshi, he likes drawing hands because they are the body parts most capable of showing emotion and character. This makes sense since hands are rich in symbolism in BNHA,

This is seen in how people use their quirks with their hands, as well as having agency and the ability to get things done with them. The way people use their hands symbolizes how the characters interact with the world around them. Hands are a universal symbol of reaching out to lend a helping hand to other people. Hands are symbols for heroes; hands are used in BNHA as a symbol to reach out to save people.

There are also the general meanings of hands that have been used in relationships, with sites of intimacy and connection to other people with the hands are used to touch and express affection to someone. Hands are capable of destruction and creation they can either reach out to soothe someone or strike them with violence.

The symbolism that is associated with hands are central to Tomura as a character which is in how he activates his quirk, Decay, if all five fingers touch something it disintegrates into dust.

The way Tomura’s expressionless hands are drawn reflects the emptiness and hollowness he feels constantly.

The hands that grip all over his body in his character design if you look closely it doesn’t look at all comforting. The exact opposite the hands look exactly as if they are Strangling and choking him, putting him in a suffocating death grip. The hands that grip him look like they’re controlling him like a puppet with the hands possessing him to control the person underneath this symbolizes how he is bound by the hands of AFO who is groomed to be his successor chaining Tomura down.

The image of Tomura being gripped by hands in different angles symbolize a lot of things that are,

Abuse, manipulation, exploration, control, restriction, destruction, comfort, connection

This symbolism that here is present with Tomura’s character with the “Abuse" he experienced under his father and AFO, him being exploited by AFO as a child who picked him up in the streets after he killed his family and is ignored by the civilians, control can mean he how he was only saved to be controlled by AFO, AFO’s manipulation of Tomura, Violence can mean in how he was abused by his father who hit him if he ever disobeyed the rules and how Tomura is threatened by violence from the people he comes in contact with, the destruction portion notes on how Tomura choose to utilize them because of his quirk in that wants to destroy everything since he thinks destruction is the only thing that he can do, he subconsciously holds his quirk back to the trauma of how he killed the rest of his family when his quirk first manifested, the Comfort portion is how the hands both give him comfort and disgust, his connections he has with the members of the LOV in which he accepts them in open arms. The hands also symbolize how his entire identity was molded by AFO.

Hands have a lot to do with his character arc with him in need of a helping hand since in his arc, He requires a helping hand but no one gave him helping hand Tomura was never given a genuine helping hand by others even when he was abused by his father no one in his family helped him or society ignored him when he needed help and only was saved by AFO only to manipulate him. The only hands he dealt with were people who were violent or wanted to use him.

The way Tomura uses his hands looks like he's reaching out for help. His desire to connect to seek people out for help was also what caused him to disintegrate his own family. and the only hand that reached out to him only was there to control him. The pose with Tomura reaching out symbolizes him reaching out for help.

The hands-on Tomura’s body is revealed to be his family’s hands AFO gave him his family’s hands to constantly remind him of his trauma and act as an AFO control over him. His family hands don’t give him comfort or connection to them and are there to remind him of his guilt and trauma.

As I stated before The hands around his body that both comfort him and restrict him this aspect symbolizes his complicated feelings towards the rest of his family even though Tomura loved them he hated the way they treated him. His father forced Tenko to give up his dreams of being a hero so he can keep his ideal family in line the other beat around the bush on the abuse caring about the peace of the household over Tenko’s feelings and they don’t matter and that their not important they only cared about the peace of the household over Tenko own wants and needs. He hated him for standing by and allowing the abuse to happen and completely rejected his wants and needs. He only wanted to be accepted for who he is but didn’t get it. He feels that the house only rejected him quietly. Though he felt guilty for killing his family he is glad to end the pain of the abuse.

His family’s  hands make him it seem like their holding him back with his memories locking away he subconsciously keeping his quirk in check due to guilt he’s imprisoned by the death of his family in which he caused when his quirk when first manifested. The hands symbolize his past in which he is bound by from the trauma of him killing his family.

The last remaining hand that grips on Tomura’s face represents AFO’s incredible control over Tomura.

Here is another important reason: The reason why Tomura’s face is always covered with his father’s hand was to fully utilize the fear,  the popular reason why most people are afraid of something means in how we don’t understand anything about it. This can mean how none of the characters can understand or relate to Tomura.  Most of they see him could relate to him or understand him

The fear that Tomura is presented with is unrelatable and inhuman. Rather than being a human, he is a symbol of terror that creeps with malice and causes others to tremble in his presence. As something to be feared he wasn’t supposed to look human to others, this goes hand in hand with the dehumanization he has and how he wasn’t treated as a person by others.

The mask on Tomura’s character is a very important representation of how his identity is molded by AFO to be a villain. Tomura taking his mask off shows what he feels to Himiko and twice with him he becomes more of his person Tomura is bad at communicating his thoughts with others even if left vague this may be due to Tomura’s distorted memories he has.

The clothes Tomura wears correlates his development as a villain with his original outfit: a black shirt and slacks. His lanky posture indicate his immaturity. The long trench coat he wears while on the run and AFO arrested notes his competency as leader of the LOV.

The clothes Tomura wears correlates his development as a villain with his original outfit: a black shirt and slacks. His lanky posture indicate his immaturity. The long trench coat he wears while on the run and AFO arrested notes his competency as leader of the LOV.

Another interesting detail that correlates to his character development is been his competency as a villain is Tomura’s "NEETNESS" he was called a neet before by Ujiko,

His second outfit when he and the members run from the police and heroes AFO arrested is like a neet striking out on his own becoming more independent looking for employment.

Tomura final outfit a business suit when he defeated the MLA and created the paranormal liberation and that he’s now a powerful supervillain with everything at his disposal symbolizes how the neet finally got a job.

The last thing that I want to discuss in his design-wise and writing-wise is how Tomura is the foil to Izuku Midoriya. Both Izuku and Tomura are villains and hero foils in which their development correlates to each other.

With their design harboring the same red shoes to further collating them to be foils and their posture with Izuku having a straight positive posture that reflects his personality and Tomura being slouchy and lethargic citing his listlessness that is present in his personality. Another interesting thing to note is in their bios they are both seen standing straight. one with an anxious expression in the beginning before he acquired OFA and the other with confidence in being a villain, one another aspect to reference to them being foils.

Writing-wise they are very similar to each other, both are taken in as successors for Izuku to All Might the greatest hero of all time, and Tomura to AFO the greatest villain. Before meeting them, they both face opposition that prevents them from going to their dreams with Izuku being quirkless and Tomura being abused by his hero-hating father. They are both inexperienced in many ways when they were first introduced Izuku recently acquiring the quirk OFA and lack of control and Tomura lacking the means to be an effective terrifying villain as Izuku is growing in the mastery of OFA Tomura is growing ineffectiveness to be a villain.

Tomura’s bonds with the members of the LOV mirror Izuku who started with no friends due to his quirklessness until he’s enrolled in UA and gained friends Ochaco and Iida similar to how Tomura bonded with the LOV after AFO arrest. Even the hand injuries parallel to each other with Tomura’s hand injuries from his fight with ReDestro mirror Izuku’s hand scars that he received from his fight with Todoroki.

Himiko Toga:

Time for my 2nd favorite character design for the BNHA series and my second favorite villain, Himiko Toga. Himiko's design is easy because you can tell what sort of person she is in one look.

Her character design says what sort of person she is. Firstly, she’s a high school student: you can instantly see that she is a high school student because of the uniform she wears.  In Japan, schools require students to wear school uniforms and Himiko is 17 years old. The blushes on her cheeks make her look like a lovesick girl also showing her insanity when first introduced to us. You can tell from her background in one look that Himiko is designed to look like a girl in love all the while telling that she’s ready to stab you. Her design is enough to know that she’s someone you need to look for and be a villain. Horikoshi is a genius when it comes to styled character design, Himiko has many design elements that go very well into her character.

Himiko has two prominent shapes in her design: a circle and a triangle. The circles are visibly seen in her face and hair buns; it tells her personality and entire character. For symbolism that goes with circles, it’s that they are feminine, cute, honest, expressive, love, youthful, likable, charismatic, emotional, cheerful, compassionate.

The youth aspect is, as said above, from how Himiko is the youngest member of the LOV being 17 years old.

The feminine can point to how she’s the only girl in the group. Himiko is the most cheerful and liveliest in the LOV and her honesty is Himiko’s best qualities. Himiko is honest about herself; she's one of the members of the LOV to speak her mind even if she honestly comes off as morbid. Characters designed with circles are expressive and emotional. Himiko wears her emotions on her sleeves and does whatever makes her feel good. An example of her being emotional is how she goes out on her own to do what she likes and how she reacted to Twice’s death and cried when talking to Ochaco. Himiko is an emotional person that acts on her emotions.  Himiko is one of the most expressive members of the LOV as the symbolism for the circles implies she shows an abundance of emotions in her gestures and mannerisms her joining the LOV Villians was primarily to be herself to express herself in a way she wasn’t allowed to s a kid: you can see how she freely uses her quirk when at the LOV being the ultimate act of self-expression. The best example of this symbolism of expressiveness is seen in her hair buns, her hair bun is shaped like two circles and also carries along with the symbolism of self-expression.

In her childhood when she first discovered her quirk you can see that she wore her signature hair buns that were when she was expressing affection with the bloodied bird reinforcing the expressive symbolism. 

The way she put her hair down resembled how she was forced to repress a side of herself by others being forced to hide her bloodlust all these years by other people. Her hair down symbolizes how she repressed a part of herself. In the present she is happy expressing herself with her quirk when she was with the LOV she wants to express herself when she wasn’t allowed to do for her using her quirk freely is a form of self-expression Himiko is considered cute by Giren and she loves cute things. This is seen in how her villian uniform was deeply upsetting to her as she says it’s not cute. Himiko is all about love: she falls in love with Izuku, and Ochaco and Stain to the point of wanting to be them the people she loves Himiko loves to fall in love with others as her shape implies she has no problem with showing affection even if it's considered dangerous to the people to she attracted to. Himiko is compassionate. This compassionate side is prominent when she is consoled Twice for his guilt for letting Overhaul into the hideout and killing big sis Magne and taking Mr Compress’s arm.  Himiko has a likable design and is considered popular with the audience ranking 3rd in an American popularity poll.

Now for Himiko’s second shape: it’s a triangle. The symbolism for triangles is that there is a quick, nimble, agile, conniving, scary, dangerous shape reserved for villains.

You can see this in her eyes, which have a distinct triangle to them.  Himiko is a villain like her shape suggests withdrawn with his shape. The symbolism notes her intelligence to how she picks someone she needs to imitate to go undercover and reflects in the way she fights being very quirk. Himiko is considered dangerous by the people she is attracted to and she was wanted at large by others before she joined the group.

Another detail is her sharp teeth,  this can refer to Himiko being blunt by nature and how she always speaks her mind. She is forthright when she points out others' feelings, making her emotional perceptive a skill she picked up when she was on the run from police and heroes. This is seen in how she provoked Mimic in the Yakuza arc and comforted Twice.

Horikoshi sure loves cats, he loves incorporating cats in his characters as with Aizawa and his favorite thing being cats and the Wild Wild Pussy Cats with a cat theme. Cats go with Himiko in her design and character, too.

Himiko has cat-like features in her character design with slit iris in her eyes and the blushing under her eyes resemble whiskers on a cat along with her canines in her teeth coming from fangs stuff that is seen in a cat a lot of these traits related to cats and are very prevalent in her design. Another example of her cat motif is how Himiko styles her hair into two messy buns, if you look at the silhouette of her buns resembles the ears of a cat with the hair strands coming out of her buns that look like ear tuffs from a cat. I find another interesting fact as to why she has two buns in her design the reason why she has two messy buns is that in Japanese the word for two is ni, ni sounds like nya a sound a cat makes her putting her hair up in two buns reference to her cat motif in her hair.  Her speed and agility in her abilities reference cats that includes how she stalks her victims and attacks them. It resembles how she hunts like a cat, by moving without a sound stalking her prey and waiting for her prey to let her guard down then take them out when the moment is right.

Her villain costume has many influences from DC and Marvel villains with the blood-sucking machines, for example resembling Bane’s from Batman, but it has feline teeth reinforcing her catlike appearance.

Himiko was inspired by two cat yokai in Japanese mythology: the Bakeneko and Nekomata. Cat demons that have shapeshifting powers that turn human and cause chaos, which references Himiko’s quirk and personality. Bakeneko is known to have a taste for human flesh and can transform into humans by licking their blood ingesting blood and becoming a human in disguise fits Toga’s quirk Transform which she uses blood to transform into other people. The Nekomata is a cat that can transform but is seen with a fork-shaped tail, the fork-shaped tail being the cat being able to shapeshift into two different things: a cat and a human.  The Nekomata plays more into Himiko’s quirk with her two buns referencing the Nekomata with the forktail. In mythology cats are known as tricksters or creatures of deception this references her quirk transform and what might be what Himiko’s was heavily inspired from seen in Himiko’s quirk transform and her cat-like appearance.

Himiko’s bun might not only look like cat ears but are meant to represent a red spider lily. In her concept drafts, Himiko had a spider lily hairstyle. The red spider lily is a flower associated with death and is put on gravesites because it is believed it can guide souls into the afterlife. The flower symbolizes death and transformation that could strongly reference her quirk transform. Another aspect of the flower comes from two lovers who feel each other at first sight but are cursed to never be together. This is why it's considered a flower of separation hence the separation between the two lovers. This notes her relationship with Izuku how she fell in love at first sight when he was bloodied and beaten but could never be together due to being from two different sides. The separation aspect in the flower goes with how Himiko feels separated by others and can never be close to them due to her interest in blood.

A minor detail in Himiko’s design is that it’s heavily influenced by Yami kawaii, a subculture in japan that glorifies sickness and mental health being taboo subjects in japan the point of the movement is not to glorify death be to express themselves in the way they haven’t prior. This subculture goes with her character and is seen best in her home cut in her character design the same hair that you see Yami kawaii use. as someone pointed out her straight Hime cut bangs and bags under the eyes reference the bags comes from the makeup effects from a Kawai trend which emulates the sickly style. Himiko’s fascination with blood is deemed a mental illness because people don’t view blood as toga does even call it wrong or weird. Himiko’s desire to express herself by expressing a taboo feeling or emotion the idea of wanting to express a taboo feeling instead of repressing it comes from the Yami kawaii movement. The use of syringes and box cutter jewelry reference Himiko’s choice of weapons her villain costume has deployable syringes that gather blood and she has a knife as a weapon of choice with the box cutters reference her butterfly knife she uses often in her fights. her syringes that gather blood resembling the strings from the Yami kawaii movement.

Toga is a strong allusion to a vampire. Even her backstory starts in a chapter “interview with a vampire” denoted to her.

Her sharp teeth play into vampire fangs along with her quirks of bloodsucking nature. The Vampire allusion notes her quirk's blood-sucking nature and her ambiguous bisexuality; vamp in a vampire is slang for bisexuality this notes her ambiguous bisexuality as she displays interest in both Izuku and Ochaco.

Vampires are written as biting commentary towards the upper class in how it guzzles down the lower class. This can refer to how Himiko’s character makes a biting commentary on society in which I will discuss later in this down below.

Another aspect is how she expresses affection openly in the way she chooses to express reference to how affection is treated in Japan. showing affection in public is considered indecent. This can infer how she was called indecent by her parents when she carried the dead bird while smiling since it's her showing affection. 

To Himiko when she sucks someone's blood it's akin to kissing someone with her making the chu noise the sound of kisses in japan, 

kissing in public is considered indecent. It could be said that the people in BNHA view Himiko the same way as Japan views affection.

Next, Himiko is the Villainous foil to Ochaco, with them being the only girls in their group. Both are blunt, cheerful, and outgoing and are extremely expressive, as seen in their exaggerated mannerisms. They are also perceptive of others’ feelings, traits that they learned from others around them with Ochaco watching her parents and Himiko becoming sensitive of others around her when she was on the run from heroes and police.

They are different in how they deal with their personal feelings. Where Ochaco chooses to suppress her feelings, Himiko chooses to be open and act on her feelings.

They are both in love with Izuku,but the way they approach their feelings is different. With Himiko becoming excited at the thought of seeing him and becoming open in her affection for him, Ochaco chooses to keep her feelings down thinking that her feelings for Izuku would hinder her from becoming a hero.  Ochaco's admiration towards izuku mirrors Himiko’s desire to be close to the people she loves it was Toga who made her realize her feelings towards izuku later on.

Even they have similar goals to each other in which that they want to make things easier, for Ochaco was making the money from being a hero so they can have easy life out of poverty

For Himiko, it wants to make the world an easy place for her to live in so that she wouldn’t be forced to repress herself again due to her blood-related quirk by others and live freely without having to repress herself again.

Another detail in the way they contrast each other in being foils in their designs with them having permanent blush stickers on their cheeks and how she balls up her hands much like Ochaco. This may be considered an unintentional part by Horikoshi.

In her design draft Himiko was considered to symbolize distortion by Horikoshi but in what way does she resemble distortion in her personality? The distortion aspect might have meant hero society.

This makes sense since she represents the hero society's main flaw being in how it distorts other’s views.

How Himiko’s perception of herself had been shifted and distorted by her environment this is largely due to how hero society looks at others with distorted lenses regarding quirks and judge what is normal and condemn something wrong and weird. Himiko was designed and written as a biting commentary of her society in the way it views quirks in general.

Dabi:

I am super stoked to talk about my favorite character of the series, Dabi a.k.a Touya Todoroki, it's not surprising since I have a blog dedicated to finding out his character. His character design is my favorite in the entire series. There's just so much to go over in his design there are so many things jampacked in his design, many elements that are prevalent in his character. Unlike with Himiko's by which you can tell what sort of person she is in one look, Dabi’s design carries a lot of questions such as where did you get those burn scars? He just has this mysterious vibe when he was first introduced. I loved Himiko’s character design for being easy to tell and I love Dabi design for having an enigmatic presence.

When it comes to shapes his design Dabi has one prominent shape that is visible in his design which is a triangle, His entire body is a reverse triangle. You can see the shape of a triangle in his hair and face having the same shape. Something is interesting about his eyes; it's that the shape within the eye resembles a reverse triangle. His eyes have a little bit of an upside triangle to them, again referring to his main shape.

Triangles in character designs are reserved for villains with them being lanky with the triangle in their design since they commiserate being edgy and evil. Triangles when seen on designs on characters are dangerous, devious, stubborn they show danger to warn others to watch out.

I find the symbolism fits very well into Dabi’s personality and communicates these aspects of his character well.

If there's one thing we underestimate is just how smart Dabi can be, he's very calculating, always planning his next move and acting when the moment is right. You get to see this side in action when he was put in charge of the vanguard action squid during the camp raid where he completed the mission despite having three casualties and put a dent in U.A’s reputation.

Dabi is good at reading other people; this is where his intelligence truly shines. He knows which buttons to push; this comes in handy to recharge his quirk:

You see this with Vlad and Eraserhead and know what to do to rile them up, predicting how they will react. Another example is in on how he didn’t trust hawks during their cooperation because he suspects that hawks are a spy sent to infiltrate the LOV. He always watches others in the background while he's planning his next move that comes in handy to know what he's going to do next. 

Another example is how he reveals his identity as Endeavor’s long-dead son Touya Todoroki and exposes Endeavor's past on broadcast effectively ruining Endeavor’s reputation destroying peoples faith in heroes. This goes so well with the deviousness Dabi’s triangle represents. The stubbornness symbolism in triangles can infer to his tenacity in his character you can see this in how he set out his plans whether he was Touya in trying to surpass all might make his father proud and Dabi in exposing the abuse on television one of the main things about Touyas the tenacity to carry out plans in his character. For Danger, despite his appearance being shrouded in many mysteries, we know from a look that he's someone to look out for he gives off a sense of ominousness just from one look at appearance and we know that he's someone to look out for and the danger part refers to how his identity as Touya Todoroki which he can use the truth to his advantage. His presence would spell danger to not only heroes but all of society in general because of how he knows the truth of Endeavor’s abuse and the dirty side of heroes; the danger in how he has the potential to put a dent in peoples trust in heroes he lacks the sharp edges when it comes to triangles downplaying his dangerous aura. Another thing to note: triangles are attention-grabbing in warning signs and characters they scream look at me to use. This strongly corresponds to Dabi’s need for acknowledgment in his catchphrase look at me.

Dabi’s slim lanky build resembles how villains are drawn as being somewhat lanky in design but also it can be a direct call back to what I said before I said that his body is an upside-down triangle. Triangles symbolize imbalances that ties directly to Dabi in a nutshell. The imbalances aspect notes Dabi’s lack of control of his life due to his abuse and neglect from Endeavor.

The triangle notes his ill health in his body which can mean his constitution in which he has a powerful flame quirk but a body made for ice his quirk burns his skin because of the incompatibility. His quirk runs on his emotions burning him if he becomes too emotional which results in him almost dying like he did at Sekoto Hill. His quirk is dangerous to his unmatched body leaving him with burn scars all over his body.

Dabi was never in control of his life at all due to his situation. The triangles note Dabi’s constant contradictions in his character in which he acts cool and collected on the surface but deep down he's an emotional beneath. Dabi may claim he doesn’t care about the LOV only using it for his objectives but he is seen risking his life for them many times despite what he says. He follows Stain’s will but it serves only as a basis to him; in reality he is only doing this to get revenge on Endeavor for the abuse he put him through.

One thing about his eyes is that they are the most prominent features of Dabi. Dabi’s eyes say a lot about his personality: they’re almond-shaped with a downward slant to them and have a double folded eyelid; the eyelid makes him look indifferent, lethargic, aloof and detached to his surroundings giving him a sense that he's cool and indifferent. The eyes give off a sense of emptiness to others when you first see him. Dabi has a double fold in his eyelid it makes him come off as cool and aloof to others a call back to his surface exterior.

For his face, Dabi’s chin is long and narrow to indicate that he's an adult. 

Like most characters in BNHA, his hair is designed based on his quirk. His flame quirk makes his hair shaped like a flame. Dabi’s hair resembles Bakugo’s but with one big difference, it's designed based on flames with the strands resembling the sparks of fire. 

There is something to point out about the way his hair flows. Dabi's hair goes outward in different directions. Dabi may look cold and stoic on the surface but deep down he's emotional and is driven by his feelings. dabi is emotional and expressive with his hair going outward. He's chatty and vocal on his opinions to the point of being ill-mannered; this is seen in the way the direction of their hair flows.

Another good design example is seen in his childhood as Touya. Touya’s soft round face indicates that he's 13 years old since characters having around sort of face point to the age of juvenile characters that are not yet adults.  His hair is unruly; this can note his bright energetic personality when first introduced when training endeavor His soft hair notes his innocence that was destroyed by endeavors abuse neglect. If Dabi’s hair looks like fire Touya has a candle flame shape for his hair much like the kanji in his name is spelled. This showcases his youthful innocence in his features before he becomes the villain Dabi.

Dabi’s staples that keep his burnt skin and unscared skin together symbolizes how his practical mind keeps him level headed not completely off the edge his burns note how his ice body that is unmatched for his fire quirk with his quirk slowly killing him showcasing his self-destructive tendencies. Dabi’s stitches in his skin is metaphorical in how he's barely holding his life together. The piercings on his skin together show how he becomes numb to his pain but at the same time makes him look in pain both metaphorically and literally. The staples give off this failed experiment connotation this notes he is called a failure by Endeavor since he discovered he cannot surpass all might. In Dabi’s coat, you see the combination of medical staples and stitches on his clothes emulate stables that go with skin. The staples point out that Dabi is a contradictory character in BNHA and this part in his design proves this with his skin drafts reference his constant contradictions in his personality. Dabi’s dyed hair and multiple pieces suggest Dabi has more of a rebel attitude, with his general outfit resembling a typical delinquent appearance: piercing, loose white shirt black coat. Dyed hair is usually considered a delinquent concept having dyed hair and multiple piercings frowned upon in some parts of conservative areas in conservative areas in Japanese society.  Dabi rebels and acts opposite of his father by becoming a villain who opposes heroes like his father and follows Stain’s ideology the same one that despises heroes like Endeavor. Dabi’s rebellion is supposed to go against his upbringing of being raised by her father and the values he grew up within how he was raised in a traditional Japanese household. When he takes on Stain’s ideology he rebels against the system that creates heroes like Endeavors.His delinquency is how he reacted to the abuse from Endeavor by going into delinquency and lashing out. The thing I noticed about rebellions is how they always aimed to get attention from others  I find this very sad since Dabi that despite his hatred he still yearns for acknowledgment from others.

Another way his dyed hair symbolizes other than concealing his identity represents him hiding his identity and feelings from others, removing his dye is how he's letting himself feel the pain instead of repressing it.

Dabi turns his hair back to his original color that symbolizes how his identity as endeavors son is out and him leaning it white to spite him.

An interesting detail is seen in his villain costume after he joined the LOV other than the stitched up aesthetic carried over to his coat but they added cuffs, His cuffs are inspired by Japanese stove burners: 

When you turn on the stove blue flames appear which is likely a reference to Dabi’s blue flames, a design reference from Horikoshi.

Dabi’s animal is a snake. People often say dabi looked like a serpent when he was first introduced. This may be a bit of a stretch but if you see the recent art it might not be. Snakes are sneaky and cunning this is symbolic of his strategy and cunning with his approach to bringing down endeavor. The snake goes with the whole hell symbolism that the Todorokis have. It brings to mind the serpent from the bible the serpent in Adam and Eve is near the fruit of knowledge tempts them to eat the fruit. The snake plays into the fact that Dabi harbors knowledge on Endeavor and the abuse. Seeing Dabi’s snake form reminds me of the Japanese phrase “Ryuutou-dabi”, the Japanese phrase of a strong start but a disappointing end in sort of an anticlimax. Dabi embodies the phrase in his snake form in how as Touya he started as Endeavor’s successor with a powerful fire quirk only to be tossed aside by him and considered a failure for having a body made for ice someone deeming him incapable of surpassing All Might, someone who started with a strong beginning but ended a disappointing start.

Dabi has the entire death theme in his design a closer look at Dabi’s face you see what's left of the skin of his face looks like an upper half of a skull with his fire quirk resembles fire from a cremation. This notes his supposed death as Touya when he was almost burned to death at Sekoto Peak when he was younger. Dabi has a death theme similar to Tomura, but different because tomura represents the dirtiness of death in his design being his design based on decay. For Dabi it would come from cremation. Even his villain alias means cremation, noting on how dabi is designed to represent how the body looks after its cremated nothing but bones and ashes. Tomura’s design is based on a corpse decaying from negligence; Dabi’s is a charred corpse that was burned to death from neglect and lack of care.

Dabi is a heavy allusion to Frankenstein's monster with his patchwork skin and background. Dabi’s birth bears similarities to how the monster was created that being created through unethical means with Touya’s birth is through a quirk marriage between his parents. The monster was created through the sewn together of different corpse parts. how both Endeavor and Dabi have humongous allusions to the novel Frankenstein with on how Victor created the monster for the pursuit of scientific knowledge to discover life similar to how Endeavor created Touya because he wanted to create a powerful child that can surpass AllMight. Both Victor and Endeavor are characterized by their ambitions with both placing their ambitions above their famil;y Victor threw himself into his studies to neglect his family and his fiance, while Endeavor neglected his family's feelings.  Victor's abandonment of the monster is when it first came to life: he fled in terror being disgusted by the monster's appearance, mirroring Endeavor’s neglect of Touya when he realized that he can’t surpass All Might. Frankenstein is motivated by his ambition to achieve something great when it comes at a great cost which led him to mess around with life in creating the monster; Endeavoris characterized by his ambition and want to be stronger no matter what means he has to do with it which results in him in getting in a quirk marriage to create Touya. Both Victor  and Endeavor did a crime of messing around with life with both failing to recognize how their actions have repercussions and failing to learn from them. Both failed to take responsibility for their actions when it matters with Victor failing to act when learns the death of his brother under false accusations of Justine victor can act be choose not to fail to take responsibility allowing Justine’s execution and endeavor fail to take into account how his actions deeply hurt his family. Both Victor and Endeavor blamed their faults onto others running away from their responsibilities. The monster and Dabi have similarities too with the monster been shunned by society for his appearance and isolated by society mirrors Touya’s isolation from the rest of his family and feeling unseen by them as Dabi he feels unseen by others in society knowing his father the hero and how abusive he is people won’t believe them since they never see anything wrong with hero society and heroes. Another similarity between is their experience with fire with Dabi almost burned to death with he was young and the monsters first experience with it. Both Dabi and the monster serve as reminders of how Endeavor and Victor fail to take responsibility.

Dabi is the villainous foil of Shoto Todoroki. Like Shoto, he holds some Asian influence this best seen in his eyes in which as more of a downward slant to them they have many similarities in their designs to correlate to each other with having the same eyes, face, body type and height this isn’t the first time that BNHA uses hereditary in character design as I explained with Tomura. Dabi is similar to Shoto not just in his same features and positive in his design but also their personalities. With Dabi and Shoto both cool and collected in their respective groups and both suffered under endeavors abuse to be endeavors successor where Shoto was favored due to his quirk and Dabi was cast aside. Dabi harbors the same attitude and mindset as Shoto, in the beginning, they share they were cold to the people around them and viewed their flames as Endeavor’s are both cold and focused when it comes to their goals Shoto wants to be seen not as an extension of Endeavor, and Dabi wants acknowledgment from Endeavor and others. Dabi and Shoto are foils to each other and have known to have more similarities to them than differences in his design. Dabi was around Shoto’s age had a rounder sort of face like Shoto had indicating theirs simulates the way. Their hair flows is different Shoto hair goes inward refers to Shoto subdued and reserved and Dabis being an emotional person his hair goes outward it also symbolizes their dispositions regarding their abuses where Shoto is closed off to his abuse Dabi in the other hand shows it openly.

What is the flaw that Dabi represents in hero society? It's how heroes do scummy things than the villains of hero society. The people in hero society don’t question the heroes because it is a lot like how the civilians treated Tenko after they wandered the streets. They don’t see anything wrong with the heroes allowing them to get away with crimes without punishment. This is why Dabi said to stop and think he wants people to question pro heroes in the broadcast. Dabi knows there are bad heroes like Endeavor.

Epilogue

Each of the LOV is modeled after a monster in some way this can be considered intentional since it would represent how hero society can create its monster as seen with the LOV. Designed to look like monsters or maybe part of Horikoshi’s preferences since he loves pop culture references note them many times in the story. Horikoshi took inspiration from horror and slasher film genres when he designed his villains.

Horikoshi said when he designs his villains he when he creates villains he tries to bring out a sense of disgust and what sort of impression they make on the psyche of the audience like the concept behind Shigaraki was to install fear among his audience with Himiko being cute and being able to mix into society and continue living and Dabi comes as more mysterious to us readers to use readers.

The villains of BNHA are based around a flaw in hero society like with Stain and getting rid of fake heroes It tells us that there are bad heroes like endeavor and people who become heroes for money and glory rather than selfless hero work. and Nagant addresses how the hero commission uses heroes like hawks to protect their self-image then make everything and eliminate anything that is a threat to that self-image.

These two things to keep in mind when you create a villain in BNHA are in how they make an impression on someone and a flaw that hero society has.

Color:

In most media, black is the color reserved for villains since it’s a color that traditionally symbolizes evil. The LOV of villains is no exception,: black is the LOV image color. But beyond that, each one of the members of the LOV has an image color that correlates to their personalities.

Tomura Shigaraki:

Tomura Shigaraki’s image colors are both black and white. Black references him as a villain, but in actuality his main image color is white. White may seem a positive opposite to black colorwise in western cultures; however in Asian cultures white is considered bad luck, because it’s the color of death.

White is the color of death in Japanese culture. In many Asian funerals you see people wearing white; it is used as a symbol of the mourning. Funerals are a call back to his given name Tomura because it translates into mourning and the character for death is his surname.

But, white also symbolizes innocence or someone who has a blank slate; the color white is known to be dyed by any color, noting Tomura’s ability to learn and reflect and his character development.

Black is the color of evil, death, chaos, and destruction  

Black is the perfect color for a character revolving around death to himself and those around him. For himself as death his old identity as Tenko Shimura the civilian with a hero lineage to Tomura Shigaraki AFO’s successor physically as seen when he was accidentally killed in the raid of the hospital caused his heart to stop. Chaos and destruction note his personality is what he wishes on hero society for rejecting him.

There’s also another aspect of him that is his hair that changed color. After he killed his family when his quirk awoke how he was left wandering the street with everyone ignoring him no one helps him because of his appearance and him being taken in by AFO name change him in those instances he was reborn as the greatest supervillain. His colors signify Tomura’s dark rebirth as Tenko civilian from a hero family to Tomura adopted son of an overlord: it's a transition from good to evil black to white Tenko’s hair being black to white is powerful.  

This suits Tomura really since he is someone who is always in constant morning metaphoric, literally and figuratively and physically

Himiko Toga:

Himiko’s image color is red, as red is the color of blood. Himiko's quirk transforms in which she ingests blood to become someone else and her obsession with blood. The symbolism of Red goes with Himiko personally, red is the color of passion and emotional color that symbolizes desire, danger, instinct, impulsiveness, liveliness. Red also symbolizes love, but the deep passionate kind. Love has a lot to do with Himiko as a character. She falls in love with the person that is covered in blood. Feels it deeply so much that she wants to be the person of her affection. Desire could reference Himiko's distorted desires she has in wanting to be the people she loves via by draining them of all their blood. Red is the color of passion and emotion that goes well with Himiko; she is emotional and follows her desires and impulses when it comes to her warped desires diving headfirst not thinking about anything else.  Himiko is the most morbidly cheerful and liveliest of the LOV; she is the most energetic of the group and gets excited when she sees her crush. She feels her desire deeply as she stated before in her conversation with Ochaco. The dangerous part can refer to how she's a dangerous criminal who is wanted by both police and heroes who were a subject in the blood-letting cases. Her affection is considered dangerous to those she's attracted to.  

Her color scheme goes hand in hand with her cat-like features seen in her design with Himiko's pale hair and gold irises resembling colors that are seen on a cat and Her cat likes the ability to sneak and stalk her target.

Dabi:

Dabi wears darker colors. As I stated once before in my last creation meta character who wears darker colors shows a brooding, aloof and detached personality; this goes with Dabi who is seen as aloof and detached from his allies. But for image color Dabi’s main image color is blue. Blue is seen in both his eyes and his flames in contrast to the popular belief that his eyes are turquoise and blue.  Blue flames are said to be the hottest flames of the spectrum. blue is not only the color of his flames but also his entire personality as a whole the color blue is very complex and contradictory which is Dabi’s character in a nutshell.

On the surface, Dabi is calm, serious, intelligent, cool, cold, like Blue.  Dabi is the most serious-minded and focused when compared to the rest of LOV when it comes to missions. Blue is the color of order and rules, Dabi has his own sets of principles and ideals in contrast to LOV that he follows. He follows Stain’s ideology but albeit very differently since it goes hand in hand with his motives.

Dabi is intelligent, it has been proven many times in the story, in how he leads the vanguard action squad by using himself as bait to distract the pro heroes from the original objective and being successful in his mission despite three casualties. Dabi has a degree of emotional intelligence and he knows what makes them tick. He taunts opponents and reads their emotions then attacks at their blind spots. Dabi is good at people. He always watches his expressions in the background and has a good idea of their emotions.

How he gauges his opponent’s weakness to buy himself time to recharge his quirk and to find an opening in their defenses. This is how he makes plans: Dabi is calculating and waiting as seen in the way he makes plans watching endeavors every move to await the opportunity to publicly expose endeavor.

There’s another thing about blue that’s related to ice and water since blue is the color seen in both of them. The cold and cool of ice and water symbolism may refer to Dabi’s surface personality and constitution as having a body made for ice. His surface personality is in how he comes off to others cold, cool, and empty on the surface with him having empty eyes, he’s emotionally distinct with others and himself. He keeps a low profile and approaches with uncaring and cold indifference to others. Despite his aloof and cool exterior is passionate as I will elaborate.

Blue is a sensitive color; the same can be said with Dabi despite saying he cannot feel anything. He feels his pain so deeply and his own emotions too strongly he is just too numb to his pain emotionally and physically.

Blue may seem like a calm color on the surface but it’s a color that feels things deeply. Blue symbolizes deep emotions. It goes well with Dabi since he is deeply emotional.Dabi may seem cool and collected in the exterior he usually displays, but deep down he’s emotional. Blue being a color that feels things deeply notes the function of Dabi's quirk in that the power of his flames is linked to his emotional state.

Blue is also the color of sadness and depression. This references Dabi’s inner pain he suffered from the abusive neglect from endeavor in that he was used and discarded as a tool to endeavor ambitions and the pain he got from his quirk which burns his skin when he uses it. The definition also notes the lack of acknowledgment he was given of his pain and on how he distances himself from his emotions to prevent him from having any more pain. The sadness is noted in how he reacted to Twice’s death, but couldn’t cry since his tear ducts were burned and thinking about Snatch’s words on family while he cried tears of blood.  Dabi’s inner motives regarding heroes to why he wants to bring down the hero society have a lot to do with him harboring deep emotions related to Endeavor's abusive neglect he suffered underneath. Though we only hear his voice, his making stains will, in reality, aren’t his own. In reality, his motives are exposing his father’s abusive past and making him suffer for the abuse he put Dabi under. Dabi never voices his desires due to how little he has an opinion of himself. blue is both an orderly color and emotional color. They are contradictions like Dabi himself: underneath his cold and aloof exterior he’s full of emotional turmoils.

Blue also stands for truth and idealism. The truth is referred to in how he knows the truth of Endeavor, abuse to his family, and corruption of heroes. Dabi is more truthful to what we give him credit for as seen when he introduces himself to Tomura and states that he will reveal his real name when it’s time and carry the hero killer’s will. When it comes to idealism though he has Stain’s ideology he views it differently: where Stain believes in true heroes Dabi believes that no true hero exists. Dabi is very open, honest, and true to the point of being ill-mannered by other people. He is truthful when he broadcasts Endeavor’s family abuse on television. Although Dabi himself is not straightforward like the color blue, he's honest about his goals.

Blue symbolizes commitment. This can go in how Dabi is steadfast and tenacious he refuses to give up when the goal is done. This dedication is seen in his devotion to how he follows stain ideals and commitment to his plan to publicly expose endeavor and bring down hero society. Dabi has a lot of emotional depth to his character and the blue shows this.

There’s also a lot of symbolism of black that goes with Dabi very well in his design and character.

Black is a color reserved for villains so he’s a villain with his own villain persona Dabi. Black is the color of what corpses look like when they’re burned to death the color black is reminiscent of charred corpses or cremation the color black.

Again, black means a lot of things: power, fear, mystery, and death. The mysteriousness in Dabi is noted when he was first introduced to us as someone mysterious and his motives that we don’t know until it was revealed. The black Dabi wears as his color symbolizes how he is rebelling against endeavor by becoming the villain Dabi who ignored him since dying one’s hair is an act of rebellion or change. Black symbolizes death. It shows up a lot in Dabi’s design and character to when he was Touya who burned to death at Sekoto and Dabi who killed 33 people and his ending Endeavor’s reputation.

The power symbolism in black can mean the power Dabi has over Endeavor and his position of power in terms of his quirk and position in the LOV. Dabi’s black resembles his strength and power he carries over his father that he knows about the truth of Endeavor’s abuse towards his family and Dabi displays this power when he gleefully taunts Endeavor and exposing his past to society.

Black is a dangerous color. You can note this in his design when he is first introduced that even one look can make anyone tell that he's dangerous and someone to look out for and in the way. He knows a truth that would shatter hero society to the core and weaken people’s trust in heroes and put the hero-reliant society to question their faith in their idols.

Black conceals where white reveals, this plays very well on how he conceals his identity by dying his hair black to avoid others from knowing his real identity and taking on the villain persona Dabi than at the dawn of the war arc he washes off his hair with dye remover revealing his white hair to Endeavor and Shoto. The saying black conceals where white reveals goes hand in hand with his reveal as seen with his hair.

The greatest thing he did he didn’t choose white or red but both! He subverts our expectations by saying his hair color is both colors. There one interesting thing to note it’s about how Touya’s hair color represents his mental state. Horikoshi shows Touya’s character and mental state by using his hair colors as a reference. His mental state is seen best in the color of his hair with his changing color symbolizes his deteriorating mental stability.

Touya’s original red hair color represents hopes, dreams, and passion. You see this in how he was feeling excited to be trained by Endeavor and his energetic personality admitting passion and radiance. The color red symbolizes others such as determination, strength, and anger. This regarding the red in his hair displays his determination to surpass all that might make his father proud.

Touya's changing hair color meant he was having the inkling that he was getting replaced and the process of him losing importance in Endeavor’s eyes, faith in his father and himself. as time passed every time a new sibling was born his hair became more and more white fully turning white until the birth of Shoto a reflection on how each child becoming closer and closer to being obsolete in endeavors eyes with his hair losing his fathers color entirely like a child who would take his place was born with the birth of his successor that would mean that the birth of Touya is meaningless. The red hair symbolizes Touya’s eagerness and liveliness and his white hair symbolizes his loss of purpose, becoming vulnerable to the abuse. Touya's red hair changing into white symbolizes his fire and potential was slowly put out with the whiteness of his hair is the decline of his radiant self.

The white hair represents the loss of his purpose and importance in his father’s eyes, his innocence, and the vulnerability that was brought out by Endeavor’s abusive neglect. His white hair symbolizes lifelessness and his loss of purpose by being treated as a tool for endeavors ambition when it was discovered he has a mismatched body. His hair color is the tragic implication of how he used to be an upbeat child until endeavors abuse sank in.

His hair is the ice genes he inherited from Rei as well the color of emptiness that plays heavily in Dabi dissociates himself with his feelings and that he is usually seen having empty eyes.

Quirks:

I already explain what quirks are in the BNHA section with my last creation analysis. The character's personalities complement their quirk but this is more complex with villains.

As I stated in my previous analysis, characters are influenced by their quirk in some way; their quirk in which forces them to interact with their environment can be changed based on how they view themselves and shape and shaped by that person's self-image and perception of the world.

This is true to how these quirks affect these main three, in particular, they impact mental health as seen with twice and Himiko and lead to discrimination towards someone’s based appearance leads to villainy as we see with Spinner,or pain such as Dabi and Tomura these problems could have been prevented but chosen not to it shows how society cared about a slice of itself and would rather ignore the part they take too much effort to change.

If you think about it most of the problems in my hero academia contributed to quirks. Look at how people with villain quirks are treated with gang orca’s appearance saying that he resembles a villain’s hero that looks like a villain Gang Orca is stated to have a villainous appearance even voted to be the hero that looked like a villain. Shinso’s mind control quirk is orchestrated for being a villain by his classmates Shinso’s mind control quirk is considered villainous. None of the quirks showed villainous qualities but facets of a character’s personality. This is how people react to quirks, heroes, and villains that cause other people to shun them due to how they feel. If you look closely villains are victims of their environment they are from society is another many creating villains.  

Before I talk about these characters’ quirks let me clear something up first: quirks are neither good nor evil in fact quirks were originally had no meaning to them it only depends on the people behind these said quirks the quirks don’t have to be villainous to be villains look at Mr. Compress, Twice, Spinner, and Magne’s quirks.

Mr. Compress compresses things into marbles; they are a typical magician magic trick that makes sense since he’s a stage magician. Magne’s quirk shows her sexuality on how she’s attracted to men but repels women.

Twice’s double allows him to make doubles of other people and himself but it depends if he knows them well enough to measure them with their personalities. His quirk symbolizes his need for companionship and self-acceptance. Spinner’s quirk gecko allows him to stick to walls this can note an aspect of Spinner on that he is known for riding on the coat tail of someone for whom he’s passionate in like Stain and Shigaraki like sticking to walls and shows his strength as being supportive and on the side of people he cares about. That's something to keep in mind when you’re choosing a quirk for a villain oc they don’t need to be villainous just as long as you wrote them to keep their personality in mind.

Another  non-villainous quirk but used for villainous means is Overhaul the quirk of Kai Chisaki. His quirk allows him to disassemble and reassemble things on command; it says something about his personality in how his quirk is a metaphor for how he treats people. In which he can disassemble and reassemble people like objects, rebuild them in a moment, and see no value in them other than their use. subordinates childhood friends and Eri treats them as all dispensable tools for their use. It highlights Chisaki’s main flaw is that he doesn’t understand people or their values; he only sees others as objects for their use. The main reason why Chisaki hates quirks is how quirks give people self-worth, believe that they are special, that they are worth something, how quirks give them purpose or self-worth.

Chisaki wants to protect the place he found a home in the place that gave him worth that’s going extinct because of quirks he hates because it brings the end of the yakuza the home be found in. He hates heroes and quirks because they took away his purpose.

As I stated before he doesn’t see value in others as people he views the people they see value in themselves based on their quirk are infected mice infatuated with their disease which is a quirk. Overhaul believes himself to be different from others because he found this realization but in reality, he doesn’t care at all about what others want or think and society in which he doesn’t care what happens to it. Him wanting to reinstate the yakuza may seem selfless on paper but it’s actually to protect his fragile sense of ego from the place he has found worth in. Heroes and quirks threaten his fragile sense of self-worth, reinstating the yakuza as his self-worth was being threatened. when his arms are taken away it is a blow to his ego it was the same way he mocked mirio for the same reason.

Tomura Shigaraki:

Tomura’s quirk is called Decay, his quirk allows him to disintegrate anything that comes in contact with all five fingers. Decay serves as a metaphor for hero society. This system is slowly decaying on the inside out from all the injustices and corruption and the people’s neglect of this causes it to accumulate and spill out. The decay happened because people ignored all their problems in front of them. Tomura is the metaphorical decay that society neglected.

His quirk Decay turns everything into dust with no hope of return. Tomura has no hope in a society that constantly rejects him for who he is and sees no hope in being saved and thinks that there's nothing else to do but destroy.

Tomura believes himself to be capable of nothing but destruction AFO and other people say the same thing and he internalizes this he believes of what others tell him Tomura defines himself that he is only useful for anything but destruction he doesn’t find identity other than destruction. We know that Shigaraki is capable of more than that. Shigaraki proved to us that he is more than what they say. He doesn’t take delight in destruction as we are led to believe in the recent arc no matter what Shigaraki destroys he's not fulfilled. He is capable of feeling genuine guilt and remorse for what he's done; he felt guilt and disgust within himself for killing his family. you know how Tomura is careful about what he touches. This detail may note how he surprises his quirk subconsciously he does that out of guilt for what he's done. Tomura’s impulse to destroy wasn’t his need for destruction but a reaction to his abusive environment and desire to be freed from it.

His itch wasn’t a destructive impulse but a reaction to his toxic environment. The reason why he destroys was no more the reaction to the abusive environment he's in, the reason why he is quick to lash out is a reaction to the abusive upbringing. The flashback shows how he was forbidden and punished for being the one thing he chooses to be. People in his family take a blind eye to his suffering and make excuses for the abuser not validating his pain being rejected by the household. being punished violently is a good reason to feel anxious and uneasy with his environment until he reaches the point of not taking it anymore. People are born with people around them as I stated people are villains by how the characters interact with their environment the same can be said with Shigaraki. He embraces but contradicts it as Tomura showed us he is capable of more than just destruction I think I have already gone over what hands mean in Shigaraki’s character design as I stated before in his design aspect hands a very important aspect in his design his hands are used to activate his quirk  I stated in Tomura’s hand motif that hands symbolize connections to others since his quirk requires him using his hands it showed us his connection to others the great example of it is in his bonds with the LOV. His hands are capable of connecting with others.

His insecurity in his quirk acts as a metaphor for his complete inability to form connections with others without lashing out due to his trauma.

Himiko Toga:

Onto Himiko and her quirk transform, which allows transforms she digested blood from. In Himiko's design drafts Horikoshi was basing her on this concept of distortion. Himiko herself has distorted desires of love but he must be giving a commentary of hero society when he was designing Himiko's quirk as a social commentary on BNHA society. This is seen well in how her quirk forces her to interact with her surroundings.

Toga had her worldview shifted and her emotional tendencies distorted by the world around her, things we find wrong or weird. Instead of addressing this we brush it aside,  ignoring the issues hoping they would go away when instead it only represses them; it was something they could have prevented by choosing not to. Himiko's concept is a distortion but this could not only mean herself but the distortion of society around her. The distortion was not only Himiko herself but society as a whole. Himiko is the symbol of distortion or better yet society distortion in the BNHA universe.

Himiko states in her monologue when she loves someone she sucks their blood and she makes a chu sound which is the sound of kissing to her blood is the same as kissing. In Japan kissing in public is frowned upon and displaying affection is considered indecent. She was called a deviant by her parents for expressing interest in blood. This is not only based on the Japanese attitude on affection but also her bisexuality. Though homosexuality isn’t taboo students in adolescence experience harsh bullying when students go to guardians or teachers the common thing that they are told is to act normally this sounded similar to Himiko’s background and similar to what Toga was taught.

The functions of the quirk note aspects of her personality how her digesting blood. Her quirk only changes her appearance and can note her surface-level admiration towards someone and her desire to be close to them. When Himiko loves someone she sucks their blood because her blood is the only way to get to know someone. She expresses affection by becoming the object of said affection. The way her quirk acted in changing appearances notes her surface-level admiration; this can mean she wants to be close to them on a deeper level. Her views on love and connection are considered wrong or weird because she knows they don’t view blood as she does.

Himiko wants to be close to other people but Himiko was forced to repress herself to a quirk that she has that digested blood no one knew the real her she wanted to be close to others and no one was close to her. Her real self was not accepted by others around her: Himiko wants connection but doesn’t know how. That may be what she envied Uraraka and Izuku's relationship because she is accepted and loved for who she is. She can use Uraraka's quirk is because she wants to have the same connection that Uraraka had with her loved ones. Her quirk notes that she wants to feel loved and accepted for who she is and her desire to connect.

Dabi:

Now for Dabi’s quirk. Dabi’s has a powerful flame that is incompatible with his body made for ice.

Dabi’s quirk is incompatible with his own body like Aoyama’s and using his quirk burns the skin of his body faster. His flames run on his emotional state even changed color when he hit puberty. If Dabi becomes emotional he might accidentally set himself on fire.

Dabi having a flame and ice body notes Dabi’s numerous contradictions in his personality and actions. These two things say a lot in Dabi in a nutshell as seen with his actions and personality. His ice makeup notes how Dabi is cool-headed on the surface due to his body made for ice and how he comes off to others being aloof, detached, cold, uncaring, and serious. His flames note the intense emotions he has underneath his cool exterior. Dabi is cool-headed on the surface but underneath he’s deeply emotional and he’s hiding his sithing emotions underneath his exterior.

His flames are blue a cool color yet burn hotter; as stated earlier, blue fire is the hottest of flames in being what burns bright and the strongest this represents Dabi’s deep ever so turbulent emotions.

He may act rational and sensible on the surface but His actions are fueled by his own emotions with the blue flames representing how intense his emotions are. His flames are blue which are considered the hottest and brightest, the hottest part of his flames symbolizes his need for acknowledgment from others.

Another thing Dabi dissociates himself by saying he can’t feel anything anymore but this is him trying not to get too emotional otherwise it could kill him like it did when he was younger and to not get close to others due to the pain he experienced from the abuse in his past.

Dabi uses his quirk very recklessly without any regard towards himself or others. This is seen in the way he uses his flames quirk to burn away his enemies while he burns himself.  The way he uses his quirk and his quirk will burn himself refers to how little he thinks of himself and doesn’t value himself since Endeavor never valued Touya as a person but a tool as seen in the way he fights. Because he was neglected by Endeavor he neglects himself in a fight and his unhealthy mindset to how he pushes himself and not care because he feels he’s never going to be good enough this refers to Dabi’s self-destructive tendencies his intense emotions which come out as self-destructive with his body served as a reminder that he was never going to be good enough Dabi felt inferior and neglected due to the abuse. Dabi's self-destructive tendencies come from his quirk; it comes from his abusive environment. The abuse gave him an incredible shattered sense of self-worth as seen in how he uses his quirk: he doesn’t care about what happens to himself; he is a dead man walking.

His quirk reflects his character flaw perfectly in which the flames serve as a metaphor to how he cannot regulate his own emotions since he was never taught to know how.

So when you choose a quirk for your villain, have it represent their inner insecurities like these, such as Dabi’s needing validation of himself and his feelings, Himiko wanting to be herself, and having the ability to connect to someone. Twice the need for companionship and Tomura may be the most obvious need for freedom without restrictions.

Names:

Tomura Shigaraki:

Time for names,

Tomura Shigaraki’s name is packed with a lot of interesting things that are intrinsically linked to his character, quirk, and development he underwent in the story.

I will go over his original name Tenko Shimura (志村 転弧) first. For the kanji in his given name “Ten” means “転, shift, curve, crescent, turn, abrupt, fall, change, revolve” and “ko” means “弧, arc” when put together it is read as "changing arc”. His given name notes his transition from civilian to villain and his character arc that develops in the story.

His given name “Shimura” when broken down goes like this with “Shi” means “志, aspirations” and “mura” means “村, village” when put together means "village of aspirations”. His surname notes his grandmother's hero lineage and connection to OFA and Tenko himself as a boy who once had dreams of being a hero but was forbidden by his father.

On to his villain name Tomura Shigaraki (死柄木弔). It is  rich with so much meaning that goes very well with his character, situation, and role.

For “Tomura'' means “弔, funerals'' in Japanese but it comes from the Japanese verb “Tomura'' which means "to mourn”. His name is given to AFO to symbolize the death of his old self reborn as one who inspires fear and acts as mourning around the world. Someone who constantly is reminded of his pain by AFO.

Tomura came from “Tomura-age”, Tomura-age is the final stage of the memorial in Japanese culture

Being a completion of the rites with the spirit has been one of the kami. This alludes to AFO’s plans for Tomura to how he plans to rule using Tomura’s body and to get back OFA All the while getting revenge on All Might by using his master's grandson. Tomura’s body being taken over by AFO brings his final rite to being a villain. the one of kami and refers to how AFO is called a god to his followers, to how AFO gave his real quirk to him taking control of Tomura being one with him is similar to how one with the kami sounds. AFO named him intentionally to reference the final stages of his plans.

For his surname Shigaraki, when broken down the kanji, is comprised of “Shi” means “死, death” and “gara” means “柄, grip” in Japanese. when the first two kanji of his name is put together it means “death grip"

As I explained in his character design segment death is a core aspect of his character you can see this well with his villain name, with death grip is the literal interpretation of the function of his quirk Decay if he touches you with all five fingers you dissolve into dust. Death grip can be used in the literal sense the moment when Shigasaki grips you with his quirk. The meaning came from the term death grip which in itself for something gripped too tightly which is exported by a person in panic or fear of life and that their grip causes a death that you cannot escape from. This notes Tomura carrying this image of fear that he conjures up to the other characters signifying the definition of the literal death grip. Death Grip also means something on Tomura’s entire situation to how he is always being under someone’s control by both AFO and his family, with his family in the abuse he was put under and their hands that keep him both in check and suffocate him.

The last kanji in his surname “ki” means “木, tree”, The tree aspect can reference family tree as such as his connection to his grandmother nana Shimura 7th holder of OFA with the tree can mean how he’s tried to both all might from his mentor and a being AFO successor and surrogate son. His reference to being the symbol of terror in opposition to the symbol of peace, All-Might.

Death plays into his character well as seen with him having the kanji death in his surname as the death of Tenko his old self and the rebirth of Tomura the Villain and the successor of AFO. Tomura’s name notes his morning for his original self that was lost to the abuse of AFO.

Later we found out that Shigaraki is AFO’s surname. Shigaraki is a homophone for a town in Shiga prefecture that was once an imperial capital for a few months. This notes the AFO empire which was short-lived since it was dismantled by his little brother and All Might and the presence of OFA. when Shigaraki is revealed to be AFO surname’s it not only symbolizes AFO control over Tomura but also being his successor in his evil the translation of death symbolizes AFO having complete control over him.

Tomura Shigaraki’s name is nuanced just as his character is a character coated in death both literal and metaphorical is the Perfect transition from being a civilian to a villain.

Himiko Toga:

Now time to take about the only girl in the LOV Himiko Toga (渡我 被身子) and her name.

Himiko’s entire name notes the function in which her quirk is used, with the first kanji in her name “Hi” means “被, to wear or put on” and “mi” means “身, somebody” and “ko,子 ”  is a common end particle for girls in japan Her given name when put together means "to wear or put on someone else”.

For her Surname Toga when broken down into the first kanji “To” mean s “渡, cross over or migrate” and “ga” means “我, self, and ego” together with its read as "migrate one’s self”. When her entire name is spelled together you can read it as “covering up all over my body and hiding”.

Her entire name is structured to note the functions of her quirk transform which allows her to take on the physical appearance of the person she consumed blood from.

Dabi:

Last but not least, Dabi, otherwise Known as Touya Todoroki. I did several metas on his name on my blog and I explained over it again. Dabi’s name like Tomura’s carries a lot of nuance in both his character and role in the story. The meaning in his villain name is very complex and intricate, much like Dabi himself.

I am going to start with his civilian identity, Touya. His name fits the naming themes of BNHA and ties well with his personality in the story the first kanji of his name “Tou" means “燈, lamp”, The kanji both notes his flame quirk and his ice constitution that is unmatched for his fire quirk. The other definition is “the fire that illuminates the surroundings”. This definition notes how powerful the flames of his quirk are when compared to Endeavors. "燈” the old version of the common kanji. The old version in which the kanji used in his name notes how he grew up in a traditional Japanese household. The kanji "Tou" is used for saying “lanterns, torches or night lights" in Japanese. Light/torch indicates that he’s the oldest of his siblings and lanterns mean torches that can refer to how Touya has a fire in his soul lit by Endeavor. Lanterns and torches are seen at the beginning of the festivals but slowly fade out when the festival ends. The indication of a beginning like night festival notes his previously exuberant, fiery personality when he was first training with endeavor only to slowly fade in the background after he finds out that he was being replaced as Endeavor’s successor with the arrival of more children.

Lamps are used by people to help them see through their way in the darkness. This suggests Touya’s entire situation to how he needed help to see where he was going but didn’t receive help from his family. No one was that lamp to help him see through the darkness of his situation leaving him all alone in the darkness with no help. Touya needed help but the people in his family didn’t understand him. His bedtime talk with Natsuo fully incorporates the night lamp symbolism that goes with his character. The lamps used to see these ties very strongly for Touya’s need acknowledgment from others. The lamp notes his current situation has never had any help received; he is still stuck in the dark in need of a light.

The second kanji "ya" means "矢, arrow" in Japanese “ya" is a common end particle of a boy’s name.

Arrows are aimed straight to hit their target, a blatant implication on Touya's one-track mind, his arrow-like ambition to surpass all might to make his father proud. The arrow meaning in his name notes his disappearance as an object that is fired doesn’t return.

The lamps and arrows in his name are tools used by others They have no agency. This plays into the irony for Touya of how he’s seen as a tool to be used and discarded by endeavor once he realizes he cannot fulfill his ambition, another reference on how Endeavor views his children as a tool for his ambitions. Touya having no control over his situation in an abusive household with Endeavor or his body makeup notes his lack of agency seen in the tool symbolism I previously mentioned in the paragraph. His civilian name is tragic for his entire character.

Time for his villain name Dabi, Dabi is translated to “cremation” in English. His civilian name may have an obvious meaning in English but if you look closely at Dabi’s villain name in Japanese it has much more nuances to his character and design especially in how Dabi is used in Japanese culture.

If you break down the kanji in Japanese "荼, weed" in Japanese the kanji used to translate Buddhist terms borrowed from Sanskrit. The other meaning of “Da" is “suffering” The second kanji “bi" means "毘, help or save”  it doesn’t mean anything in Japanese but if you put these characters together in Chinese it’s translated as “saving people's souls from their body”.

This meaning correlates to Dabi’s Buddhist religious origins where it notes the actual cremation funeral practice Dabi is the Buddhist ceremony the purpose of Buddhist cremation is to liberate the soul from the body so that the person can be reborn the ultimate purpose of cremation is rebirth since the purifying flame of cremation to separate attachment of the soul to be reincarnated again. The reason why they choose cremation in Buddhism is that Buddha was cremated so his followers would follow suit. cremation is the most common practice to bury the dead in japan.

Dabi’s villain name might reference the Japanese phrase "entrust to the flames” (Dabi ni fusu,荼毘に付す). “Entrust to the flames” is the English equivalent of "they passed away" in English. "entrust to the flames” original meaning comes from Buddhism. The Buddhists have the idea that the body is a cage and believe that cremation frees the soul from its body by freeing them from any impurities by setting its body on fire. The fire is used to burn away any worldly attachments to purify the soul for reincarnation. the part you’re putting them in better hands could come from that definition of Buddhist cremation funerals.

Now you know the entire context of what people meant by entrusting the flames and here’s the reason why. His villain notes on how his character and design are centered around death and how he uses in his flame quirk resembling fire from a cremation robbing the lives of and leaving nothing but bones and ashes seen in how he burns the thugs in the alley much like an actual cremation. and Dabi’s cremation ties back to his supposed death being burned alive at Sekoto Hill.

The Buddhist origins of Dabi of his codename represent his character and ideals. His flame quirk represents the flames of destruction but also rebirth both physical and spiritual to Touya he died from the flames of despair and reborn as Dabi the villain who revealed the truth of the corruption of hero society in the person Endeavor, who set on a mission to change society through the flames of destruction that it might be reborn anew a society without heroes.  

The purifying flame of cremation symbolizes not only Touya being reborn as Dabi but in a spiritual sense symbolizing the societal change he wants to bring down hero society through his purifying flames to be born anew free from the influence of false heroes.

There are two ways to say cremation in Japanese one of which is “Kaso” 火葬" which is translated into “fire burial”. Dabi is used frequently in funerals instead of Kaso because Kaso is straightforward for the meaning of cremation and in Japan polite people avoid saying unpleasant things directly so they substitute Dabi instead to avoid bringing up death to seem less harsh.

This can refer to how no one can bring up Touya because he died in the eyes of his family. He's dead and his family avoids Talking about it directly. But the way Dabi is used in Japanese refers to Touya’s position in the abuse being the scapegoat. Where everyone in his family avoided confronting their problems and ignored them. Dabi is well aware of the circumstances in his family but no one brought it up until Dabi’s reveal as Touya Todoroki on the broadcast.

Epilogue:

In light of the war arc and the story coming to its final arc I did this all in a rush, I apologize if I forgot to add anything or left stuff out Feel free to add this post. This post is here to serve as guidelines to help others when they need help in designing their BNHA villains OC. I want to give credit to these people down below who helped me write this meta. One last thing to say is to have fun.

Here are the previous metas I did if you want to go look.

BNHA Oc Creation Analysis

BNHA Bio Creation Analysis

Sources:

https://www.youtube.com/c/MetiNotTheBadGuy/videos

https://scarletrain1724.tumblr.com/

https://linkspooky.tumblr.com/

#Dabi #touya todoroki #himiko toga #shigaraki tomura #tomura shigaraki #my meta #Character Design #meta #Thank you Hamliet~ #THANK YOU SO MUCH HAMLIET! #league of villains

[itsnothingofinterest]

Have you heard? Apparently, Horikoshi said Hero Academia might be headed to a conclusion soon. This was surprising to say the least; not just because fans don’t want it to end but because it doesn’t really feel like it’s anywhere close to it’s end (plenty think it’s closer to halfway, with a select few like me thinking it’s closer to the 1/3 point). This has led some to speculate, partially in denial, if the conclusion Horikoshi is talking about is not actually the series’ “conclusion” concussion, but instead a Naruto Shippuden style “new name for the next part” type of deal. (Or if he’s just having the word “soon” put in some serious work.)

So I want to discuss that; go over as many reason I can think of for why the series could end within the next year or 2, or for why it could see another 5+ years to it’s life. It mean it sounds fun, right?

(Going into this though, I would like to state my bias. I don’t want the series to end soon; and if it kept at it’s current pace to conclude Deku’s academic life in chapters 800~1000, I would be a very happy camper. I’ll try not to let this affect my judgement, but I’ve got no oversight but myself here so...)

Anyway, here we go.

Reasons for the series to end soon.

I think a good point to start is that Horikoshi once stated he planned to end the series at around 30 volumes, roughly what’s already been covered, before finding he needed to expand the series further than that. That’s understandable, it’s easy to see how this arc could’ve been the end of the series had things played out differently enough in the last few chapters; but if he’s already said he’s expanded beyond that, what does that have to do with this discussion? Well for this side of the argument, it means 2 things: 1) all that’s left can be considered the ‘expansion’ on Horikoshi’s original idea, so how likely is it that there’s a lot of that, & 2) that Horikoshi likely didn’t intend for the series to last for Deku’s full school life, a major belief for those expecting the series to last a significant time.

And when we look at the actual content of the series, yeah there’s certainly things that could point to the series ending soon; namely all the arcs and plot threads that kinda just got resolved rapid fire. Dabi’s reveal, Mirio getting his quirk back, Hawks launching the attack he’s been orchestrating since his first appearance, Compress’s face, Bakugou letting go of his resentment for Deku; just to name a few. True, this is nowhere near all of the arcs & plot threads; but it’s a sizable enough portion if we’re assuming the rest have the next year or 2 to resolve themselves. A few more arcs like this last one and yeah, the series won’t have anything really tying it down from ending.

There’s also Deku’s rate of vestige quirk acquisition to consider. I mean in the 3 arcs featuring him since we learned about his extra quirks, he has acquired 3 quirks. At that rate, he’d have them all in 3 more student arcs and basically be at all but full power by then. Not that him keeping up this rate of quirk acquisition is guaranteed, but it sure seems like a sign of the series not lasting too long.

It’s also worth mentioning that there are ways for the series to end soon, easy paths to the finish line available to Horikoshi. It wouldn’t be that hard, for example, to get to confronting Dabi & Toga and resolving their arcs in some timely fashion. And AFO’s presence as a bigger bad over Tomura could allow for him to pull a Kaguya to his Madara, allowing for the plot to resolve with his defeat without really needing to address a lot of Tomura’s issues. And heck, that might’ve even become more likely after this latest chapter, wherein AFO acquired his very own army. That would likely involve finding too-easy solutions a lot of the more complicated issues, or worse, brushing them under the rug; but it can’t be denied that this is an option for how Horikoshi could resolve the series in just a few years.

Last piece of evidence worth mentioning is the simple nature of shorter series being the “path of least resistance.” You can argue all you like how the series lasting longer makes more sense or might result in a better story (and I’m basically about to); but in the end it can’t be denied that the less the series has left, the less work it is for Horikoshi. And that’s just gonna make it inherently more likely; a largely equivalent result for less effort is never not gonna be attractive for people.

Reasons for the series to last a long time.

Okay, I’ve done my best to be fair and included as many points as I could think of in favor of a shorter lifespan; but I won’t lie, this 2nd half is gonna be the fun part of this post for me.

Let’s start at the opposite end of the other side’s first point; Horikoshi planned to originally end the series at around 30 volumes. This past arc, ending in Volume 30, took place in the space between Deku’s 1st and 2nd school year, or you could say it took place during the end of his 1st year. This implies that while the original plan was not to go through Deku’s whole school life, he did intend it to end at a point of significance; the end of a school year. And what that implies is that he won’t end the series smack in the middle of the 2nd year, which would be where the series would end if it only lasted less than 3 more years. It implies he’d likely aim to end the series at the end of year 2 at the earliest, a significant ways away. (And before you ponder about a time skip; remember that year 1 had a time skip and still lasted ~30 volumes & ~6 years.)

Another reason to think the series is gonna last a while; it’s quite slow, in an overall sense at least. It’s hard to describe but; It doesn’t always feel that way because the moment-to-moment pacing is very good & it always feels like something is happening and stuff is getting tackled. But this is because it tends to tackle plots one at a time; so while plots make good development while in the focus, they can stay out of focus for a significant duration. For example; the ‘Shinsou becoming a hero’ plot was introduced in the Sports Festival, only saw real development during Joint Training, and has still yet to resolve with year 2 not starting yet. Or for another example, we learned over 150 chapters ago that All Might had his future predicted where he’ll die at the hands of a villain, setting up a plot where he’ll try to twist his future and survive this unknown threat to his life. His life has not once been in danger since. Not even in a broad sense like someone’s targeting him; no, this man has not has one risk to his life since the plot thread was introduced. There’s tons for plot threads like that, I’m barely scratching the surface here. And that’s actually fine...if the series has a long future ahead of it. This system of pacing actually works wonders for BNHA; because while people can occasionally miss their faves and their plots, crying out “where’s Shinsou” and all that, they generally like what’s being focused on when it’s handled and paced well (which it usually is). As long as the series itself has time to get to all of these plots and develop them to their resolution, this pacing system works like a well oiled machine.

Deku especially is a useful measuring tool for how slow this series can be. He’s not like the other plot points see, because he’s almost always around so he’s made to develop at a more even pace until the end. This is in contrast to characters like Shinou, Aoyama, Kirishima, Toga, or Shigaraki; who get bursts of development because they don’t spend consistent time in the spotlight and Horikoshi can’t be entirely sure when he’ll get the next chance to make use of them. So with that said, how slow is his development & how far along is it? Well, not very actually. Aside from in terms of powers, his development has been a bit lacking. Not to say he hasn’t had character moments, but they have been a bit scarce & minimal; and a lot of his major flaws (such as his self-destructive tendencies, his self-esteem issues, and his toxic hero worship) have barely been addressed, let alone resolved. In general, his character feels like it’s barely changed since he got into UA; in stark contrast to characters like Shigaraki, Todoroki, Shinsou, & even Bakugou. And that kind of implies a long road a head of him.

To bounce off another point from the “short future section” I mentioned how a lot of overarching plots just ended. The thing about that is, I actually made a post talking about that and how a lot of how they ended seems to set up more overarching plots then they seem to end. To not repeat myself too much, because this post is already really long; it’s like the series resolved the greater part of 6 years of content only to set-up up to 6 more years of content, and all in one arc. (Goodness that was a busy arc.)

And that’s just the advancement of already existing plot points. There’s a lot it can feel like he hasn’t even touched on yet. Mostly characters. There are just. So. Many. Characters in this series. That are in positions of seeming importance, but have done nothing. For example, Horikoshi’s been known to suddenly focus on class 1A students to make them feel important, and has gotten through maybe over half; but hasn’t really touched on Sero, Sato, Koda, Ojiro, Hagakure, & especially Shoji (who really, really feels like he has something planned, but nothing’s happened yet). And that’s just the guys below Mineta’s development level, which itself is pretty low. To say nothing of Class 1B, or Ms. Joke’s students, or most of the 30 faces known in the PLF, the main antagonistic group of the series! And yeah, this could all just be because Horikoshi likes introducing characters in larger groups than he’s actually equipped to handle; I’m not denying that. I’m just saying it’s also possible that he could be doing this because he feels like he has the time to explore them whenever he wants. (Heck, it could very well be both.)

Conclusion:

...I don’t know dude. I mean a longer series looks more likely to me; but I am very well aware that I’m not unbiased enough to make any real conclusive statement. Maybe I should consider that to mean it’s more even than that.

Perhaps we’re just too far away from the ending to really be able to tell either way. I mean low estimates still give the series at least a year. But even so, I do think this was all worth considering; because if nothing else, I did get a feel for all that’s likely to happen between now and the inevitable end. And I guess it turns out to be kind of a lot. So that’s neat.

#bnha #horikoshi #midoriya izuku #katsuki bakugou #shigaraki tomura #mr. compress #mirio togata #dabi #one for all #all for one #toga himiko #hitoshi shinsou #all might #aoyama yuuga #kirishima eijirou #shoto todoroki #sero hanta #rikido sato #koji koda #ojiro mashirao #hagakure tooru #mezo shoji #class 1a #class 1b #ms. joke #PLF #paranormal liberation front #analysis #literary analysis

[thotsforvillainrights]

~Library Study Session~

Au: League University

Part: Four

Theme: General

You changed into a pair of soft gray joggers, your most comfy T-Shirt, and a simple hat (or hijab depending on reader), and exited the bathroom. “Hey before I head out to lunch, can we please discuss the bathroom situation?” You called Dabi’s attention. He looked down at you from the top bunk in confusion. “What bathroom situation???” He was genuinely confused. You sighed and pointed out the door. “It’s literally empty. Like I get this is the first day and all, and we’re both still unpacking but you’ve been here a bit longer than me. Don’t you have some decorations to put up in there so it won’t be so barren?” You expected to get an answer but instead you were met with laughter. “You’re hilarious Y/N, yknow that? Decor! As if that shit is necessary. Look, I know we shared a little tender moment earlier, but it’s a bit early to be asking me for things. Besides, I don’t see the point in decor. I can use that money on food instead.” Dabi then went back to mindlessly scrolling on his phone. You sighed and shook your head, then you headed out the dorms to search for the cafeteria. It took quite a bit and at some point you had to stop and ask a sweet scaly boy for directions as he was on his way to band practice apparently. Finally you found your destination and you entered quickly, eager to fill your stomach with more than just the croissant you had earlier that day from the library cafe. 

It didn’t take long to find Magne or Toga because Toga spotted you first before you could even finish walking across the floor. “Y/N!” She shouted loudly (embarrassing you a bit), and she dipped/darted past other people towards you. Toga gave you a tight hug and pulled back to look at you. “It took you like 15 minutes longer than it should have to get here haha! Anyway, come with me! We got a good seat by the window this time!” She wasted no time in grabbing your hand and leading you to the table where Magne was happy to see you. “Y/N how your first day hun?” Magne asked as she kept chowing down on some soft serve ice cream. “Oh well...I wouldn’t say it was too bad. The classes are okay, and I met a few people but like, eh. I’m looking for just a little bit of excitement or relief, but instead I need to get some studying done!” You groaned as you leaned down to lay your chin and arms on the table. Toga giggled and munched on her fries while Magne reached across the table to give you a reassuring pat on the head. “Yeah it’s actually rougher during the first week here instead of after it. That’s because you’re getting used to your schedule and classes. Everyone knows not to chill during the first week of college here because it’s the time you can use to get ahead of everything first. After that, then you can relax once you know what’s around the corner as far as classes and assignments are concerned. Anyway, you can come study with us this evening if you want to.” You looked at her and smiled. 

“Yeah, I’d really appreciate that.”

Magne nodded and kept chowing on her ice cream. “Wait a minute...that’s desert. How long have you two been here waiting on me since that phone call?!” You sat up straight with worry riddled on your face. “Haha, calm down Y/N! When we called you, we had just made it to the cafeteria and sat down. Magne just always eats her desert before her food.” Toga explained to you. “Now let’s go get some food while she finishes her ice cream!” You nodded and followed Toga’s lead to the buffet style line. You both grabbed your plates/bowls and some utensils to eat with and proceeded to follow the line of people in front of you. There were so many food options and the drink machines were immaculate. You could almost see why the tuition was so high there...almost. Anyhow, you both took a seat and by that time Magne was able to get up and get her food as well. The three of you ate till you were silly (with you having eaten more than them). “Okay, let’s go ahead and go to the bathroom before heading to the library.” Magne directed and you nodded alongside Toga. You already knew where the library was, so it was no issue to chat and talk once the three of you were on your way there. It was nice to not have to focus on your surroundings so much, and log information of destinations in your brain. 

Well...until you made it to the library and realized there were like 4 floors.

“What the hell...?” You mumbled as you looked at the directory sign in the middle of the main floor. “You didn’t notice it this morning when we went to the cafe for croissants?” Toga asked you and you shook your head. “Uh no. The only thing on my mind was food at the moment.” She giggled at your response and Magne playfully rolled her eyes. “C’mon to the elevator around this corner. We like to use the 3rd floor to study since the huge windows have a good view of the sunset at this time. Also, the top floor is reserved to student meeting rooms and the computer labs. The second floor is mainly book like the 3rd, but the second floor has this really weird mildew smell that no one can locate.” You made a disgusted face as you followed Magne and Toga into the elevator and to the 3rd floor. Once up there, Magne quickly turned to you and placed her hands on your shoulder. “I don’t know if he’s up here, but be extra quiet just in case he is...” She warned you before turning to face forward and leading the group to one of the window tables. “Who is he supposed to be?” You whispered to Toga and she groaned quietly. “The goblin of the library...Kai Chisaki...” She whispered back. ‘Goblin’ you thought to yourself as you took a seat at the table. It wasn’t long before the three of you quietly discussed your classes and your study plans. You even gained an opportunity to talk about how Dabi helped you with Mr. Giran’s homework. Shortly after that, you developed a tactic to help each other study where you really needed. Then you guys ended up watching some funny compilations on YouTube and trying your hardest not to laugh. There was no issue there. It was only when you began packing up to leave did the real problems arise.

You accidently ended up dropping your poor laptop on the hard floor and it made a deafening clack when it hit the ground. You wanted to scream out but you remembered the rules. You would simply suffer in silence as Toga and Magne mourned the possible loss of your laptop beside you. Unfortunately the laptop falling to the ground was far too much. “Shh...do you hear those rapid footsteps??? He’s coming! Y/N, run!” Magne whisper yelled at you before she and Toga quietly took off to hide behind one of the extensive book shelves. It was too late for you when you looked up and realized there was a very annoyed boy standing in front of you. You gasped and pointed at him. “Hey I know you! You’re the other guy that made honor roll in Mr. Giran’s class last semester!” You whisper yelled in amazement. He was the other boy from the picture that Dabi showed you earlier. He was also very pissed off...

“Excuse me but I don’t know you. Judging by that face of yours and the fact you clearly didn’t know the rules about silence here, I’m simply going to assume you must be one of those freshmen that joined up today. I’m Kai Chisaki and I really don’t care who you are so there’s no need to introduce yourself. What you need to be most concerned about is the clear and obvious rule in this library: silence. This is essential to not only me, but to the other students as well. I would advise you to take note of this rule and adhere to it, less you be reported to the administration and be banned from this building for the rest of the semester. And believe me, I will do it if I have to. Consider this your first and LAST warning. Good day.” He gave you an aggressive (and oddly quiet) earful before silently stomping off towards the other end of the room and to one of the back tables you could assume. “Geez...” you frowned and turned your attention back towards the laptop on the ground. Toga and Magne quietly came out from their hiding spot and helped you scoop up some of the apparent broken screen chips on the ground. “Let’s get outta here before the gremlin comes back and tells us we’re breathing too hard.” Magne spoke in annoyance. You nodded and quickly followed the pair into the elevator, not wasting a single breath until the door closed signaling your descent back to the main floor. “Damn that was scary! But at the same time, I can’t see why you call him the gremlin of the library. He’s kinda not as atrocious as I thought he’d look.” You said. “Hun we don’t call him that because of his looks. We call him that because he’s literally always here! I mean, at this point he must live there. At least that’s the rumor going around school. None of the other students have ever seen him leave. This is especially considering the library is 24/7.” Magne explained to you. Toga piped up to add to the conversation. 

“Kai Chisaki is pretty much known around here for how serious he is about his grades. Word around campus is that he’s never passed a class with anything lower than an A before. There have been so many student that would come to him asking him...no BEGGING him to tutor them but the answer is always ‘no’ from him. Even the professor AFO’s son came to him and offered a shit ton of money to be tutored. Chisaki turned him down immediately! It’s absolutely insane.” Magne nodded at Toga’s words. “Yeah, and he’s reported like 20 students in his entire time going to school here. Each of them got banned for a semester or two from the library. At least two of them got banned for the rest of their time at this school. One of them got it so bad that they dropped out of school and Chisaki never batted an eye even knowing he was the reason for it all.” 

“Yeah! Kai is ruthless! He’s a med student and on his way to med school after he graduates from here. I think there’s nothing in his way of passing there either.” Toga added. Magne shook her head in disagreement. “No you have to look at it this way too: It takes more than just good grades to get into med school. You also have to have empathy I heard. Chisaki severely lacks that, so he’s probably not going to get into med school until he shows some form of kindness towards people.” Magne added and Toga nodded. “Anyway, don’t worry about him. He’s an asshole. As long as you got us, we’ll make sure Chisaki can’t hurt you! Besides, we can always get together in the dorms and study together there too. We can be as loud as we want to there...I mean except for dead week. But you get the picture!” Magne reassured you and gave you a quick hug while Toga did the same. The elevator stopped at the first floor and let you guys off. Magne and Toga walked you back to your dorm and left you to properly morn the loss of your old laptop while Dabi laughed at you from his spot on the top bunk. “Hahahahha, freakin idiot!” You glared at him but it didn’t do much good to stop his teasing. 

“Looks like I need to get a new one.” You sighed in defeat.

»—————————–———————————————————–✄

Instagram: @pastelbattydraws & @pastelbattystore

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRNMJH7vHL7APNobUykhK4w?view_as=subscriber

#league university #league university au #au #lov #league of villains #magne #toga #overhaul #spinner #dabi #Giran

[stillness-in-green]

Changeling: The League (1/3)

Being some errant nerdery combining two things I love very much into one thing that is exponentially more nerdy than either thing on its own: My Hero Academia villains as Changeling: the Lost characters!

This will(/should) be a series of three posts containing some mid-length write-ups on the League of Villains, the Metahuman Liberation Army, and some odds-and-ends on other characters/alternate takes.  

Some prelude: The most prominent question that kept coming up as I was brainstorming the write-ups below was, “Is this retelling the story of My Hero Academia using Changeling: The Lost’s mechanics and world, or is this exploring Changeling: The Lost’s themes using the My Hero Academia cast?”  Would these versions of the characters be NPC villains in Izuku’s story, opponents (or possibly eventual allies) in some grand, epic clash between Heroes and Villains as begun with All Might and All for One?  Would it be the story of a corrupt system, pulled down by the PC group that was Shigaraki and his motley?  I had ideas for both, but in the end, I decided that, rather than oblige myself to the MHA canon, I was ultimately more interested in just letting the implied “story” focus on the League and their histories of loss, trauma and recovery, so that’s the spirit in which these are written.  (Though things do get a bit plottier when their story intersects with the MLA’s.)

Lastly, these are, of course, completely AU, but if you don’t know who the Liberation Army is, you’re probably still going to trip over manga spoilers, so be mindful.  

First, let me lay down some backstory!  Specifically, the story of All for One, One for All, and the lives they drew into their story...

THE PROLOGUE

There is a realm in Faerie inhabited by a pair of binary-matched Fae, All for One and One for All, styling themselves as warring brothers.  They’ve been fighting for many long generations, each in their own fashion.  All for One has tended to keep his power mostly within himself, employing many underlings, but sharing his power with very few of them.  One for All, conversely, has shared most of himself with a succession of users, and in each generation, the pair clashes, with OFA not very "present" for the battles (and thus at less risk), while AFO is able to bring more of himself to the fights.  Before each battle, each user of OFA would be "freed" for a period to find and designate a successor (who would inevitably go missing a few weeks later), before returning for the battle.  They often did this with deeply tormented feelings, but saw little escape from the pattern.  Each one hoped that they might be the one strong enough to break the cycle, as OFA told them each time was a possibility--patterns grow stronger for being repeated, after all--but none of them was able to do so until recently.  Toshinori Yagi refused to designate a successor, and finally, for his stubbornness, was recalled to do battle without one--without having passed even a fragment of OFA's power on, he was finally able to defeat AFO.              

In his defeat, AFO was cast out from Faerie.  He had little memory of who and what he was, but retained a sense for fae matters and a limited grasp on his powers.  He spent the next several years setting up shop in the local freehold, dabbling with Spring and Autumn Court matters as his fancy took him, and racking up a fair amount of renown with the latter in particular when the former found him too ruthless, and not only with humans.  One day, though, he stumbled across what would eventually become his way home--a little boy who felt startlingly familiar, black-haired with a mole on his chin.  AFO struck up a friendship, and when he eventually met the boy's father, things began to click into place--he knew this family because he once fought their matriarch, and that connection was the key to his return.  As he was once defeated by this bloodline bearing his brother's power, for his rise, he had to defeat someone of the bloodline--but he couldn’t just do it straight out.  With his brother, there were pacts in play, old bargains and arrangements.  He couldn’t just waltz in and kill Shimura Kotaro.              

One of them needed to ask. 

THE LEAGUE

Here are the League roughly as we might find them when they’ve been out long enough to build a motley, solidify their bonds somewhat, and start taking on bigger, toothier problems.  All have 7 dots of Contracts except Shigaraki, who has a modest leader bump.  Just assume he’s been out doing some level-grinding the others haven’t.

Shigaraki Tomura

Quote: “There’s always a win condition.”

Type: Gameplayer Wizened.  A trophy/souvenir of AFO’s time on Earth, Tomura survived a durance filled with little but tests in the guise of games.  Survival, combat, endurance, manual dexterity, reaction time, strategy, academics, even odd trivia--he learned them all under his Keeper’s tutelage, in preparation for the next battle with his brother's champion (AFO having seen that his brother's way of doing things has its merits).  Tomura grew up believing himself responsible for his family's deaths (though he's blocked most of the specifics, he knows in his gut that he's responsible somehow) and watching the realm celebrate the champion who'd defeated Tomura’s Keeper, but who hadn't done a thorough enough job to prevent the cycle from resetting after all.

Toshinori, for his part, initially had no idea that AFO had returned with a child, a new champion.  But he did know that AFO had returned (the realms are connected enough that you can't really miss it), and so waited for the next battle with some impatience.  He thought that he, perhaps, just hadn't done well enough, that he'd be more careful, more thorough next time.  After all, patterns become stronger when they repeat.  He doesn't truly understand that All for One can't be killed--not in Faerie, at least--and so there will be no end to the cycle as it stands.  Eventually, he got tired of waiting and sought out AFO on his own--and was shocked to find a kid, just a kid, where he expected to find AFO.  AFO did not think Shigaraki was ready for this yet, and was not prepared to watch several years' worth of effort and his cute keepsake get slaughtered (and he probably would have been; Shigaraki could have all the lives he wanted in training, but an official battle against the sanctioned bearer of OFA would have been different), so he ejected Shigaraki from Faerie and fought the battle himself.  As to what happened afterwards, Shigaraki has no way to know, but the gradual return of various other servants of AFO may eventually begin to shed some light on the subject…

Shigaraki is, when his story truly begins, still figuring out his current game--outside of Arcadia, second chances are harder to come by--but he’s a sore loser and a quick learner, so he never stays down for long, and he’s already made a friend in Toga, who he met in his escape from the Hedge.  He still has very ambivalent feelings about his Keeper, which makes him something of an outlier amongst changelings, who typically feel only terror and loathing for the Others that upended their lives and scarred them in ways that will never--can never--fully heal.  No one, including Shigaraki, has quite realized his connection to the Emperor of Darkness who caused so much havoc in the freehold when he escaped back to Faerie five years ago.  Likewise, Tomura’s fetch, only ten years old, is still in a mental care unit in juvie for the murders of the Shimura family, but dealing with that mess will have to wait until Shigaraki can stomach the idea of even looking at that version of himself.  

Tomura looks much as he does in canon, thin and covered with scratching and scarring.  Behind his tousled white hair, though, his red eyes gleam and flicker as if they’re forever reflecting the dancing lights of a screen.  His masked form has black hair rather than white, and eyes the color of dark, old rust.

Court/Mantle: Autumn, the season of fear.  Shigaraki’s entire durance threatened him always with the fear of failure (and the fear of the consequences of failure), and he himself would rather intimidate than charm, but he also shares the Leaden Mirror’s inquisitiveness and discerning eye.  As such, even when he first emerged from the Hedge, it was with a strong Autumn mantle, and it’s only grown stronger over time.  He’s often trailed by dead, desiccated brown leaves, and Hedge foliage that’s in his presence for any length of time visibly begins to wither--but his mantle flares up even more when he’s being actively combative.  Chilly, dry bursts of air can wring involuntary chills from those on the receiving end of his wide grins and dire promises. When he’s feeling more playful, one can sometimes see small flickers of light in the shape of unknown words or hear odd little strains of music from unrecognizable (albeit somewhat tinny) instruments.

Contracts: 

     Fleeting Autumn I.  He’s not so concerned with becoming some kind of symbol of fear that he’s pursued this Contract very much, but it never hurts to get an idea of what your opponent’s afraid of.

    Eternal Autumn I-III.  It takes time, glamour expenditure, and good dice rolls, but he can kill people this way, withering them down to nothing.  Conversely, he can also make plants bear fruit.  It’s occasionally useful.

    Hours I.  He’s figured out how to consciously botch the activation of this clause so as to decay the targeted object instead of restoring it.  It usually works, but sometimes randomly backlashes onto him instead, causing him injury--the bigger the object, the worse the damage.  The Wyrd doesn’t like being toyed with.

    Lucidity I-IV.  Clarity is a fluid, malleable thing for Shigaraki, which can make him extremely frightening--he can thank his Keeper’s lessons in control.  With this series of Contracts, Shigaraki can and does laugh off the kinds of deeds that would make other changelings quail back in fear of what their own minds would do to them in the aftermath.  He can also be shockingly perceptive for someone who by rights should have terrible trouble distinguishing the boundaries between Real and Unreal, Self and Other.  However, his use of these powers does make him somewhat mercurial and difficult to predict, even to his motley, as derangements come and go with the artificial inflation or drain of his Clarity.  It’s a downward slope, but one he’s taking more slowly than would otherwise be the case.

(Hypothetical Powered-Up Shigaraki: Adds two 5-dot Goblin Contracts, Blood-Binding and The Fatal Transformation.  Be it the power of glamour or the breath of life itself, if Shigaraki wants an enemy drained and is willing to pay his pound of flesh, Goblin magic will provide.  It’s a good thing he’s got friends to back him up, as both of these powers leave him in a pretty vulnerable state.) 

Toga Himiko

Quote: “I met someone cute today.  Don’t wait up!” 

Type: Mirrorskin/Leechfinger dual kith Darkling.  Toga served her durance in the chrome-tinted underbelly of a glass-and-brass dystopia full of mirrors, learning to steal life as easily as she stole food, and to slip from one form to another to keep ahead of everyone who’d chase her down for doing it.  More free than she’d been in her old life, to be sure, but still not free to truly do as she pleased, she dreamed of being able to hunt people down the way she’d been hunted down, with no one to answer to for it.  In time, she managed her escape and, on her path back through the Hedge, crossed paths with Tomura--distraught, lost, but still with plenty of fight left in him.  Each decided that the other was dangerous but sympathetic enough to be a better ally than an enemy, and they teamed up to find their way back to the real world.

Back in that real world, Toga is learning to put herself back together.  Getting back home only to find something waiting there wearing her face was a shock to her system, but after some agonizing (and a bloodbath in her parents’ kitchen), she’s decided it’s for the best.  If going back to being that girl means giving up the amazing psychic buffet the world now presents her, it’s not even a debate.  

Toga in her masked form is dark of hair and eye, a school girl with a wide smile and swift, excitable hands.  In her true form, everything bleeds paler--she’s china white, even her hair turning paler than flaxen fiber, most of her features seeming somehow insubstantial except for the long points of her teeth and the gas lamp yellow of her eyes.  

Court/Mantle: Spring, the season of desire.  Toga, more than anyone in the motley, has embraced the fact that she wants things now that she never would have before, that she has desires that no human would ever understand.  And why not?  She doesn’t kill people, after all; she just likes to taste.  The air around her is always infused with heady floral scents, and when she walks, phantom flowers trail up behind her.  Hemlock and cypress vine, spider lilies and nightshade--all lovely, to be sure, but the language of flowers does give her away.

Contracts: Everything about Toga’s Contracts heightens her skills as a predator, and she’s unquestionably the best in the group at it.

        Mirror I-II.  Allows her to shape her form with more specificity and finesse.

        Darkness I-II.  Makes her targets more suggestible.

        Fleeting Spring I-III.  Lets her pinpoint what her targets want so that she can shape those wants or her reflection of them as needed.

Bubaigawara Jin

Quote: “Nothing’s too much for my friends!”

Type: Truefriend Beast.  Jin’s human life didn’t differ much from his canonical backstory, minus the super power, but went drastically off course when he was hunted down--even on a motorcycle, hunted down!--by a monster on horseback and the various other monsters tumbling before it.  His changeling life consisted of one cage, one chase after another, and while most of the people around him were shaping themselves into being better vessels for coursing, baying, sharp-toothed menace, what Jin most wanted was the pack solidarity.  His Keeper thought this was funny but not a very useful trait in a hunting hound, so they started taking him to dog fights instead, hoping to scour the excess sweetness off of him.  Lacking a pack to stay for, he escaped, but the wanting for one never left him.  

Toga basically tripped over him his first night out, and her kindness then meant he was more than happy to follow her home.  He later made the acquaintance of Mr. Compress and Magne on a bar crawl and, wanting all of his friends to be friends together, introduced them to Shigaraki and Toga.  He’s also trying to make friends with his fetch, who is finding the whole experience of having a clone pop up at him at unexpected times to be unbelievably disorienting and nerve-wracking.  Which one of them is the real one, anyway…?

His mask looks much as Jin does in canon, though his scars are in different places.  In mien, he  always looks a bit rumpled, with short, sandy brown fur and bright, emotive eyes.  He’s dog-eared (literally), one alert, the other floppy, and his hands have stubby, darkened nails.  Unbelievably expressive and more overtly doggish body language--he didn’t keep a tail in his flight back through the Hedge, but people tend to remember him as having one anyway.

Court/Mantle: Courtless.  Jin’s too mixed up in his own emotions to pick just one to focus on.  He likes the idea of Spring, but he’s also skeptical that just wanting is enough to keep people safe, and that fear is rooted deep.  He’s also not without his old sorrows.  Of the High Court emotions, wrath is his rarest visitor.

Contracts:

        Fang & Talon (Dogs) I-III.  Jin’s got an undeniable rapport with dogs.  He loves them and they love him.  There’s practically no mutt he can’t get some words out of if he asks nice.  He’s also still got a hunting hound’s nose, when he needs it.  

        Hearth I-II.  Deeply dedicated to his friends, the Contracts of Hearth make advancing the goals of the motley (or hurting the chances of their enemies) even easier.

        Eternal Spring I.  Easier to be a people-pleaser when you know what pleases people!  Toga taught him this one.

        Moon I.  It’s good to know what people want, but it’s also good to know what kind of crazy people (fetches especially) might be sitting on.  This one also helps the group nail down where Shigaraki’s head is at on any given day.

Spinner

Quote: “What a mess.  Where are we even going with this?”

Type: Steepscrambler Beast.  Spinner spent, by his best reckoning, four years in a Faerie jungle.  It was always sweltering, sickbed heat with air so wet you could choke on it, and after a few close calls with the serpentine river dragons and over-large birds of prey that prowled the place, he’d all but given up trying to search for a way out--the sea of trees just went on forever anyway.  A long-tongued madman named Stain convinced him otherwise, with talk of hidden trods and clues found in the bellies of gutted fish.  When Stain went missing, Spinner resolved to try again, and though he can no longer remember the method of it, whatever he did seems to have worked.  He got back to his shitty hometown, but found it just as bad as ever, if not worse, with a fetch still cooped up in his old bedroom, spiralling ever further into depression.  And so, fed up with the state of his life and the apathy his fetch reflected back at him, he did something that very few changelings are capable of doing--he left home.  

Finding his way to the nearest big city with a proper freehold, Spinner gravitated to the Summer Court and got set up with an apartment in a small complex the freehold maintains for newbies to stay in while they get their feet under them.  Not too long after, Shigaraki and Toga wandered into a Summer recruitment drive, with Shigaraki immediately managing to get on Spinner’s nerves--which made it all the more exasperating when Spinner went home and found the both of them moving into the apartment next door to his!  Spinner’s still trying to figure out what he thinks of the mercurial and difficult Shigaraki, but they have been bonding over video games of late.

Spinner’s mask is a sun-darkened young man with a prominent nose and a thin, terse mouth.  He’s straight-backed but with a certain nerviness in his eyes, a stance that suggests he’s ready to throw the first punch.  He has a street punk look--pointy fingernails and pink hair--that people without the sight to know better assume is achieved with a nail file and hair dye.  His mask looks exactly like canon!Spinner with one exception--changeling!Spinner has ears.  They’re pointy, green and finely-scaled, but otherwise normal humanoid ears and they make his face look just a little wider and more humanoid than canon!Spinner’s lizard profile.  

Court/Mantle: Summer, the season of wrath.  Spinner’s angry about a lot of things--the state of the world, the injustices served to his motley and the wrongs of his life in particular--but he’s also wrestling with a lot of self-loathing.  It’s easy for him to slip into fatalistic thoughts and get mired down in apathy, and every time he thinks he’s gotten past it, someone or something comes along that throws him off, and then before he knows it he’s back on the ground wondering how he’s ever going to get past this.  Leaning into Summer’s hot anger helps keep him focused.  His mantle is relatively weak, tending to manifest as a warm, dry wind only when he’s particularly fired up or activating Court contracts.

Contracts: Spinner’s well-rounded, but that’s because he has a hard time settling on anything.  His ridiculous spread of Contracts illustrates this.

        Den I-II.  Not interested in leaning into his animal instincts and learning to talk to lizards, Spinner has instead leaned into possessive territorialism.  Unfortunately, he still feels like a small fish, so it’s hard to muster up the swagger that would allow him to progress this Contract further.  

        Fleeting Summer I.  Need to pick a fight and score some quick glamour?  This is the clause for you!  Just make sure Dabi’s not around; that guy’s angrier than the whole rest of the motley put together and it skews the readings.

        Eternal Summer I.  Makes Spinner a walking thermostat. Yes, sometimes Toga and Mr. Compress take advantage.

        Oath & Punishment I.  There’s a certain capital-R romance to this Contract that Spinner likes, but he’d need to find something (or someone) to whole-heartedly devote himself to first.  At least he can do sick parkour jumps in the meantime.  

        Artifice I.  Temporary repair magic.  Handy around the house and when you fight with cheap knives.  

        Dream I.  Useful facts about the local Hedge and he’s generally content to leave it at that--he doesn’t have a lot of use for dream-spinning, not when Magne’s so good at it.

Dabi

Quote: “You’re mad, huh?  So what are you gonna do about it?”

Type: Gravewight Darkling.  Once upon a time, there was a barren couple who wished desperately for children.  For many years, it was only a wish, until Todoroki Enji finally found someone who offered him a solution.  Nine months later, Todoroki Touya was born, to be followed by a string of children, each haler and heartier than the last.  Seven years later, the firstborn child was taken away in the night.  No fetch was left behind--after all, the Other was only claiming the price they’d been promised.  Fifteen years after that, a changeling calling himself Dabi dragged himself out of the Hedge, having spent most of his life lighting funeral pyres and digging graves in Faerie until he dug his way out.

Dabi fell in with the rest of the League motley after being found by Magne after a fight went sideways.  She patched him up and offered him a group to run around with for a while rather than doing the solo act.  He accepted, but his pledges with the rest of the group are a bit different--more paranoid, less supportive.  Dabi is distant from the motley, and only time will tell if he eventually lets them in or not.  

In mask, Dabi’s a beanpole, wild black hair and bright blue eyes with a caustic grin, skulking about in a succession of black coats and heavy, workmanlike boots.  In mien, he’s even taller, a too-thin gaunt with great swatches of skin burned away by restless soul-fires, which still cling and flicker blue around his hands.  His skin fits him a bit too loose, and he wears staples to keep it all in place.  

Court/Mantle: Summer, the season of wrath.  Could it ever be anything else?  Rather stronger than Spinner’s mantle, Dabi’s manifests as heat distortions in the air around him and, when he’s particularly riled up, blasts of hot air like you’d get opening up a hot oven.  He has some trouble advancing in the Court proper, though, as he prefers to only fight battles he knows he can win.  He feels, all the time, sick with rage, but until he proves willing to make stands even when the odds are against him, the Iron Spear’s time for him will be limited.  

Contracts: 

        Shade & Spirit I.  If he’s going to see ghosts around all the time anyway, he might as well be able to talk to them.  They’re only sporadically helpful, but as a skeleton in the closet himself, he has some fellow feeling for them.

        Elements (Fire) I-III.  He brought fire with him out of Faerie, but it’s a difficult thing for him to master, foreign to his seeming despite sometimes feeling as if it’s nestled in his very bones.  

        Fleeting Summer I-II.  Dabi’s much at home with wrath, and very willing to shape it to his own ends.  Whether or not he sticks around for them, he likes starting fights.  

        Punishing Summer I.  An odd branch of Summer magic, but one that he feels has some promise for him.  Compared to the more straightforwardly righteous Contract of Eternal Summer, this feels harsher, longer-burning, and that sings to him in ways he finds very appealing.

Mr. Compress

Quote: “If we’re going to break the law, why shouldn’t we do it in style?”

Type: Larcenist Fairest.  A simple stage magician of modest fame once upon a time, right up until he was offered a promising and lucrative gig by a stranger who thought he deserved a better stage for his talents.  The stage in this case turned out to be--well, you can guess.  His client (Keeper) wanted things stolen--they seemed to enjoy the taste of things ill-gotten--and there was always some new diamond or painting or antique.  Sako’s time in Faerie (which he came to share with Magne) was like a string of heist films: glamorous and bubbly and thrilling, but the underside was rife with lurid, impossible violence waiting on the slightest error, the stakes always seemed to be climbing, and of course you could never say no…  But one thing you can say for heist films is that they always allot a proper amount of time for planning, and so over time Sako and the others planned their last heist--the one to steal themselves into freedom.  If asked, Sako will tell a dozen different stories about how it went, but the truth is his memories are fuzzy, and the only thing he knows for sure is that he and Magne emerged from the Hedge alone.  

Sako’s a bit disjunctioned in time--many more years have passed in the real world than he spent in Faerie, and he spent a good many years in Faerie.  His fetch washed up in a nursing home in the meantime, riddled with palsy and Alzheimer’s, and though Sako is not by habit or preference a violent man, the sight of it filled him with a primal loathing.  And it’s so easy, in an overcrowded environment, to make a mistake with a dosage…  Sako still has a piece of the detritus left over, just to remind himself of how his story could have ended, and how determined he is to not let such a future come to pass.  

In his mask, Mr. Compress (well, he needed a new stage name) is a handsome, auburn-haired man in his forties who gestures constantly, frequently toying with a short white cane, and speaks in refined if somewhat dated language in a rich, theatrical voice.  He always dresses a bit more nicely than he needs to, preferring clothes with hidden pockets and long sleeves, and is rarely without a hat to flourish.  His mien mostly serves to heighten all of that--he becomes impossibly graceful and compelling, his voice catching the ear like a song, and his clothes are revealed to be Hedgespun, the feather in his hat belonging to no bird an ornithologist could name, the buttons on his coat and the stone accentuating his bolo tie shifting slowly in pattern and shade the longer you watch, and the cane almost certainly a low-level token of some kind.  The most eye-catching thing, though, is the mask--he wears a white mask that always seems to have a different pattern on it, though it never moves while you’re looking directly at it.  He doesn’t seem able to actually remove it all the way, though he can slide it around enough to eat or theatrically squint or blink his eyes (dark and bewitchingly expressive).  If it’s forcefully pulled off, it’s only to reveal another one beneath it--though he’ll complain that it stings and ask you to refrain.  

Court/Mantle: Autumn, the season of fear magic!  Mr. Compress didn’t come out of the Hedge with a particular Court affinity, but he was drawn towards Autumn like a compass needle finding true north.  He’s only a limited interest in fear (though his response to his fetch shows that he has his share of it), but he’s endlessly fascinated by the ins-and-outs of faerie magic.  Trinkets, tokens, pledge-craft--if it’s a clever trick, he’s interested.  His mantle shows as pops and starbursts of light, and frequently as a cool, trailing mist about his feet.  

Contracts: The only person in the group more focused than Toga.

        Separation I-IV.  Escape magic fit for Houdini himself.  If it looks like Compress is locked up or restrained, it’s almost only certainly because he’s allowing himself to be.  

        Forge I-III.  Sleight of hand is even more impressive when you’re using magic!  Extremely convenient for those times when he needs a passable ID or a house key he does not in fact own.

Magne

Quote: “Take it easy, honey.  I’ll handle it.”

Type: Metalflesh Elemental.  Magne was a criminal before she was a changeling, and it was in that capacity that she--like Mr. Compress--fell prey to an offer that should have been too good to be true.  The heist team needed a bit more muscle, is the thing; they were getting caught too often without a good combatant.  And so came Magne, given a sturdier body (that could, incidentally, meld through safe walls when necessary) through processes she only remembers in her nightmares.  An odd thing happened with her, though--what Magne felt the pull of in Faerie was less the element she became and more the stuff of Arcadia itself.  Where her Keeper expected her to become hard as steel, instead she embraced dream conjury; where she was instructed to protect the rest of her band, that protection took the form of healing as often as it did squaring up for a fight.  It’s hard to argue with the results, though--Magne is a fierce and stubborn defender of any group that wins her loyalty.  

Currently in a live-and-let live relationship with her fetch--she feels a bit sorry for the poor creature, and would rather see her find a way to break free of the image she was forged in and make her own path than kill her.  It’s painful to be around her, though, so while Magne’s willing to extend some help from a distance, she would rather the fetch keep her distance.  Time will tell if her fetch--who has her own desires and very much shares Magne’s willingness to bust some heads over them--is prepared to abide by this.  

Magne in mask looks much as she does in canon, though she can afford nicer clothes.  Her preference for butch presentation is unchanged, but the jeans are designer and the shirts elaborate silk prints.  She has a collection of fetching sunglasses for any occasion.  Her mien is a gleaming ochre bronze, flesh hard and smooth, her hair (a bit darker in color than the rest of her) always a bit stiff but, on the other hand, difficult to muss.  Her body is in all ways a more chiselled, more perfected version of the body she went into Arcadia with, which Magne has mixed but overall relieved feelings about.  The flesh-to-metal transition her Keeper forced on her was bad enough; whyever would she trust the Others with gender affirmation?

Court/Mantle: Spring, season of desire growth. Magne’s desire is to never be held down by any sort of repression or expectation forced on her by others (the Others in particular), and this pride drew her strongly to the Antler Crown.  While she doesn’t exhibit the flowing, graceful beauty so prized in women of the Emerald Court, her passion for self-expression and her unstinting support of those fumbling their way towards the same has certainly won her her share of admirers.  Magne’s mantle takes the form of fresh-scented air and pleasant breezes.  She doesn’t leave flowers where she walks, but you can sometimes find ivy where her hands have been.  

        Contracts: 

        Dream I-III.  By leaps and bounds the most talented dream-weaver in the motley, Magne’s oneiromancy is light-hearted and nonjudgmental while her oneiromachy is formidable.  Everyone in the motley can soothe one another’s nightmares, but Magne is the best at it.  She usually has at least one or two dream-task pledges active with mortals, too, so she rarely struggles to keep her glamour reserves--or her wallet--full.  

        Elements (Metal) I.  Magne’s retained only the minimum level of connection with the metal she was forged from; in truth, her body is less important to her than what she does with it.

        Eternal Spring I-III.  Easing fatigue, curing wounds, and even bringing in         a gentle rain--Magne’s deeply in touch with the rejuvenative aspects of her Court.

BONUS TIDBITS:

Shigaraki experienced more deaths in Faerie than any other member of his motley.  After all, you might know the cheat code for unlimited lives, but that doesn’t mean you never die.  And it did feel like death, every time.  Of course, sometimes failure just meant Sensei shaking his head and Being Disappointed.  That still felt a bit like dying too, though.

Over the course of her durance, Toga had more than one knife fight with a cyber hero adventurer hunting through the city’s underbelly looking for a power core.  Also, changeling!Toga is much less murderous than canon!Toga because if she were as murderous as canon!Toga, Clarity loss would rapidly render her unplayable.  

Spinner was pulled into the motley over a planned playdate heist to see how well Shigaraki and Toga could work as a unit with Mr. Compress and Magne.  Being very familiar with heist stories by that time, Sako and Magne decided the group needed one more guy to provide muscle, and as it happened, Shigaraki and Toga lived next door to just such a one.

I have not decided on whether the Todoroki family are a mundane equivalent of the way we see them in canon, all deeply damaged by Endeavor’s ceaseless drive to fulfill his goals by way of his children, or whether they’re actually pretty normal and well-adjusted with the exception of Enji’s one dark secret.  Either way, Natsuo is the only one who has any inkling that there was anything “off” about Touya’s death/disappearance.    He has no inkling of the truth, obviously, but he always felt that Enji didn't react quite the right way to Touya's death, or thought Enji was behaving suspiciously on the night Touya vanished.  

The League’s basic motley pact includes the dreaming pledge, so they frequently take mental voyages into one another’s dreamscapes to clear out the nightmares and indulge in silly, impossible-in-reality lucid dreaming adventures.  The exception is Dabi, who would rather have nightmares than people in his head.  

Mr. Compress doesn’t jokingly call himself an old man anymore because he’s too traumatized by finding out what he’d actually be like in old age.  

Shigaraki, while beginning the story in a fairly ambivalent, uncertain place, eventually finds his way towards a goal of helping to free loyalists--from their hopeless circumstances, from their learned helplessness, from their starstruck adoration.  He finds this goal over the course of his late-game encounters with Kurogiri, Gigantomachia, and Re-Destro, and it is through helping them that he’s finally able to begin to process his own feelings of attachment and affection towards his Keeper.  It may well be that the fetch of Shimura Tenko is Shigaraki’s final boss.

#bnha #shigaraki tomura #toga himiko #bubaigawara jin #iguchi shuuichi #dabi #sako atsuhiro #bnha magne #bnha spinner #mr. compress #league of villains #changeling: the league #changeling: the lost #my writing

[dekusleftsock]

Okay, dabi theory time. Idk where I heard this so just bear with me in the possibility that the next chapter is NOT about toga vs ochako, but instead about dabi vs shoto (I’ll be using first names bc it bothers me when I’m using his last name when they’re all todoroki so just don’t mind that)

I think the only possible reason that this next chapter COULD be about them is in the case that the Phoenix theory is true. We haven’t been discussing the possibility of it for a while in mha, mostly because dabi just hasn’t been the main focus. Even when I read the chapter, I thought “it can’t be done like that, right?” I thought that horikoshi was going to drag it out more… and then he didn’t. It just seemed odd. The only narrative purpose it had was to boost the endeavor vs afo fight and all the other fights too.

It just overall seemed too easy. Too simple. All the other fights had some major thing happen with death. Endeavor might’ve died or is close to death, Katsuki did actually die, and toga vs ochako just hasn’t had enough time to have that sort of thing happen. Plus, while I do believe the fight with shigafo vs bkdk is going to happen LAST, togachako has to come right before it or be happening during the fight. Kind of like it switches back and forth in the battle with parallels. Quite obviously, the reason why this series isn’t ending in like 2 months or something is bc horikoshi is going to drag out that bkdk fight till the very last minute, plus a few goodbye chapters. The endeavor fight isn’t nearly over quite obviously, and the dabi fight felt too simple.

So, where does that leave them? Dabi vs shoto. Obviously it can’t JUST BE “shoto got control of a very cool move that completely takes out dabi”, so if dabi is now incapacitated.. what could happen? There isn’t any ofa mumbo jumbo happening like in Katsuki’s case and he also isn’t dead but how could he come back from that?

Simple. The phoenix quirk theory. Up until now, we’ve never actually gotten a name for dabis quirk. It’s also an established concept in the mha world that sometimes, your quirk could seem one way, but because of new information on it you can also update your quirk, like how deku did. I’m not gonna go over all of the phoenix quirk evidence, many more people have both more evidence, and have explained it better than me.

Either way, the phoenix quirk theory is this: the reason why dabis quirk is like hell flame but stronger and he has less resistance to it is because it works like a Phoenix. Phoenixes in folklore are flaming birds that are immortal, it’s often times used as an allegory for immortality and life after death. Usually in Greek and Egyptian lore. (Since it has a lot of associations with Greek folklore, I almost feel like it would add to bkdk being the story of Achilles but that’s for another day lol. Horikoshi’s secret obsession with Greek mythology would be amazing)

It’s also used for rebirth. Often times, Phoenixes are used in media for the “phoenix” to lose all of its memories once it dies, so the trade off for its immortality is the loss of its memory. Sometimes, like in Pokémons case, Phoenixes just go in molten hot volcanoes in order to heal when they are injured.

So, I think the way horikoshi is going to drag out dabi vs shoto’s fight is going to be by making dabi experience a “rebirth” through his quirk, which will make him lose a lot of memories. He will still have an unexplainable hatred for shoto, which will cause them to fight, but may ultimately be the only way shoto saves his brother like he wants to. This rebirth may also be foreshadowing Katsuki experiencing the same thing. There are again, many theories on here talking about this, so please go read them! Help you feel a lot better about this whole thing. It’s okay and normal to mourn a character, our brains often can’t separate real life and fictional people. To us they are just as real as the people you live with. And if you also don’t feel anything, that’s okay too! Don’t beat yourself up for feeling or not feeling anything. You can’t control how you feel.

I do have one belief that I’m gonna stick with for this next chapter. And it’s disappointing, but ultimately will be the best move horikoshi can make narratively if he wants to drag Katsuki’s death out. Which he most definitely does. Ntm if he doesn’t switch it now there just won’t be a better time. So, my newest predictions in battle order:

Dabi vs shoto

Endeavor vs afo

Toga vs uraraka

Shigafo vs bkdk

I’d love to hear anyone else’s thoughts so don’t be afraid to correct anything or just simply spout new ideas!!

#midoriya izuku #mha deku #bkdk #bkdk brainrot #bakudeku #bakugou katsuki #bnha deku #mha analysis #deku midoriya #mha bakugou #togachako brainrot #togachako #togaocha #togaraka #toga himiko #toga #ochako #uraraka #uraraka ochako #ochako uraraka #mha dabi #dabi #dabi my hero academia #dabi is touya #touya todoroki #shoto todoroki #todoroki shoto #mha todoroki #bnha todoroki #dabi todoroki

[itsnothingofinterest]

So while we’re in this delay-induced downtime, just for fun, I’d like to make a few short term predictions for Hero Aca’s future; Namely I’d like to make some predictions about what I think the next 3-ish arcs will be after the Paranormal Liberation “War” arc.

(Small preface, I am making these predictions under the prediction that the current arc will end with at least 99.9% of the PLF getting away & society as a whole some form of devastated by this arc’s events. Both safe bets, I think.)

Anyway yeah, here’s my predictions on what I think the next 3 arcs will be; the prison break arc, the start of the 2nd year arc, and the 2nd Sports Festival arc.

The Prison Break Arc (early April, in-universe)

A long-expected arc, this is one that finally feels like everything’s in place for. The PLF finally have all their resources to fight against society, but the timing’s not right so they need to be productive between now & their real big attack (which we’ll get back to). But the villains do have a few personal issues to take care of, namely friends in need of rescuing and potato-heads in need of confronting. Also taking out a massive prison before major attack just seems like a smart move.

This arc’s got a lot going for it. First, people are thinking we could see PLF members (usually Dabi) getting captured and needing rescuing from Tartarus; and if that does happen, we could get some cool character interactions out of it.

But even without that, we’ll get reunions with Muscular, Moonfish, & especially Kurogiri. (Also maybe Mustard? It’s yet to be confirmed or denied if he’s in Tartarus, and one the one hand he’s a kid, but on the other we’re 5 for 5 for caught League members/associates going to Tartarus.) We’ve got the potential continuation of the Kurogiri/Shirakumo storyline. We’ve got Stain meeting some combination of Toga, Spinner, & Dabi. We’ve got Shigaraki meeting with AFO again, which could very likely end up rather ugly as he confronts him for his shenanigans, his weakness, & the actions of his vestige. I could honestly see Tomura vs AFO being the final boss fight of this arc.

But before all that, we also have the PLF fighting against Tartarus’ forces. It’s the perfect opportunity to see some action for PLF members that’ve been quiet this arc, like Trumpet or Redestro, and get to know some of the advisors better. And on the other hand we can see the defense systems in Tartarus, as well as meet new...well I’m not sure if they’d be classified as heroes, but I imagine the workers would be licensed to use their quirks. It’d be an interesting battle is what I’m saying.

The Start of 2nd Year Arc (late April, in-universe)

Honestly, I’m not sure what this arc would actually entail, but I do think it would be necessary before the next big arc. A chance to see what the start of the new school year brings, a chance to see how everyone is handling the events of the failed PLF raid, and one last chance to set up another dark horse or 2 for the next arc, like how Jirou, Aoyama, & Mina have gotten some importance in the last few student-focused arcs.

Also it would be the final piece to Shinso’s current arc, with him actually getting into a hero class, and hopefully a chance to start up a new arc. While we’re at it, we could get other new students too, like new 1st years or maybe even a transfer student so 1a & 1b continue having even student body counts.

But what this arc would actually be, I don’t have a clue about. It could be some simple new training exercise for 2nd years to start out the new years. Or it could be something in response to the villains’ rise, perhaps some new extreme exercise mandated by the Hero Commission or even the government itself. It could also be either a decent length or quite short, since not a lot really needs to happen.

As an aside before we move on, I’m not really sure if this would go before or after the Prison Break arc. I mean I say this would be late April and that one early, but they could easily set this arc over the break in order to reverse the order. The only important bits is they have have 2 arcs, one with the villains and one with the students, to see where everyone’s at.

The 2nd Sports Festival (early May, in-universe)

This will be the next big arc. The Sports festival; the one time of year when hundreds of heroes are known to gather in a single location, a massive cultural event to Japan, a chance to see how far everyone’s really grown since the last Sports Festival, & coincidentally taking place 4 months after Toga said Tomura was going to destroy everything in 4 months. Except the entire point of this theory (and I mean the entire theory) is that that’s not a coincidence and I’ve never believed it was.

So put simple, I’m excepting things to go all Chunin Exams this year, so it would be divided into 2 sections...actually 3 since we need to establish why this is happening at all.

And the reason it would happen at all after Jaku is simple; good PR. The hero commission & hero society as a whole is currently running on good PR and the faith of the people, and I’ve long expected the higher ups to get desperate if that faith were called into question. People can do stupid stuff to save face so of course they’re still holding this big event in the aftermath of a major villain victory and the ruined reputation of at least the top 2 heroes; it’ll show how...unwavering they are...or something. Oh but don’t worry, they’ll up security; I mean they’re not idiots.

But yeah, then there’s the tournament itself, which would have a lot going on. Everyone would be affected by the PLF raid in lots of potential ways; maybe some are wondering why they’re bothering with this while others see it as a way to reassure people or to get stronger. We’ll get to see everyone’s growth and have a proper tourney where we know everyone, instead of being introduced to a lot of people’s competence level for the first time. Deku will get to try again to show off to the world, and might even got the the finals this time.

I’m not sure if he’ll win though, a) because this would probably be Bakugou’s last opportunity to fight Deku with even the remotest chance to win, b) there should be a 3rd festival in the 3rd year and we’ve got to keep up progression, and c) who can even say there’ll be a winner if I’m expecting things to go all Chunin Exams?

And yeah, that leads to the start of the war-for-real, the big shake up likely to shape the entire rest of the school year, the big attack where things go all Chunin Exams. I’m honestly not sure what it would entail, actually, since there’s so many options to make this a big status quo-shaking moment for the PLF to peruse. Off the top of my head:

They could launch a big attack on UA, with hundreds to thousands of heroes gathered in an attempt to kill them all and end heroics by default. It’s certainly an effective way to get the students involved, to the point that if this wasn’t the plan, I wouldn’t be surprised if the PLF pretended it was anyway as a diversion. One way or another, I think the students have to be involved in this fight.

They could attack some key target, like the Hero Commission building or whatever base of government japan has. I mean if so many of the heroes are in one place, that must mean there’s not a lot anywhere else, which means a lot of places should be relatively unprotected...in theory. In practice, I wouldn’t be surprised if top heroes met the PLF at where ever they’re going.

Lastly, they could just attack lots of cities at once like they said they would. I’m not sure if this would really be the focus, since this being the big attack implies they want to do it all in one day, where this felt to me more like a long term plan when I heard it; but I’m leaving it on the table anyway. Maybe they will try to physically collapse society in one day, who knows?

One last prediction before we close out: if Endeavor is still alive by this point, instead of dying fighting Touya in the current arc, this arc will be where he dies. This will be to force All Might to the spotlight, both as people reminisce to when he was no.1, and as he intentionally goes out to try & keep faith in heroes alive. As a result, the target on his back that was removed with his retirement will return to him, and his safety will once again be a concern.

And that about sums it up; I think we’ll have a villain arc, a hero arc, and then the next big conflict arc where things get shaken up once again. And then whatever the aftermath of these arcs are, they’ll be what really shapes the status quo and be what separates the students’ 2nd year from the 1st.

That’s the really safe version of my prediction anyway, but I’m prepared to be wrong regardless. And even so, I’m excited to see where the story will go after Jaku.

#bnha #my stupid long term predictions #paranormal liberation front #PLF #shigaraki tomura #dabi #kurogiri #muscular #moonfish #mustard #bnha stain #toga himiko #spinner #all for one #bnha trumpet #redestro #tartarus #class 1a #class 1b #midoriya izuku #katsuki bakugou #hitoshi shinsou #hero public safety commission #endeavor #all might #hero society