Bnha Critical - Blog Posts

Anybody Else Disappointed With How Hawk’s Been Written Lately?

(Exclaimer: I still really like MHA & Hawks)

WARNING RECENT MANGA SPOILERS Personally, ever since he killed Twice, Hawk’s character has slowly gone downhill.

It started when there weren’t any moments where Hawk’s feelings on killing Twice weren’t shown. I know he didn’t want to, but seeing Hawks feel the guilt would coincide well with the hero society’s corruption.

Another thing that would’ve been interesting is Hawk’s having mixed feelings on Endeavor after learning about how the latter treated his children. For a long time, Hawks saw Endeavor as a role model like Midoriya and Bakugo with All Might, so I think learning that his hero isn’t so different from his own father would be good character development. Hawks would feel confused on how he should feel about Endeavor for a bit, but will learn to see Endeavor as human after seeing him wanting to atone for what he did. It would be good for the plot too since it’s a parallel to how civilians heavily admire and rely on the heroes while forgetting that they aren’t perfect people.

I don’t like Hawk’s ending. Instead of becoming the new HC president, I would’ve preferred Hawks taking a break from the hero life and learn to live as Keigo Takami. Hawks lived most of life training to be a hero and a tool for the Hero Commission. He deserves to step back. Also, with the Chapter 429 leaks, I didn’t like Hawks new idea with the hero rankings. It doesn’t change the core issues with hero society. I’m going to be hopeful that the last chapter will show positive changes.

Something else I didn’t like was Hawks saying he abandoned his family and should’ve helped. That couldn’t be further from the truth. His parents abused him and his mom abandoned him to the hero commission. Hawks was just a kid. It was also in bad taste when Hawks commended Shoto for forgiving Endeavor when Hawks couldn’t with his parents. This makes it seem like not forgiving your abuser is a bad thing, which it’s not. The main point of moving on with your trauma is to heal from it, not forgive your abuser. If Hawks couldn’t forgive his parents, that’s okay.

I still really like Hawks, but I feel like he wasn’t written to his full potential.

I find funny how the anime constantly makes Shigaraki look like Lou Ferrigno in terms of muscles, in some cases his head looks like it doesn't belong to his own body:

But then you have Horikoshi drawing him like this...

Like sure, the muscles are still there but he's not this giant hulk with biceps the size of his head.

Even the manga in the first war arc doesn't have him looked like the anime does:

And I remember even the wiki copes with the idea that the surgery was supposed to give him extra muscles, but that was never stated officially and in any case his natural muscles came from the training in MVA.

Idk what's this obssesion the anime has for making all male characters buff as hell, even Dabi when canonically he's also a pipsqueak.

i don't like the growing opinion that people are being 'too hard' on deku for his failing to save shigaraki.

i've seen quite a few people complaining that a lot of the bnha-critical crowd are being too mean to deku for getting tomura killed, arguing that it isn't really his fault, and that hes a 16 year old child soldier who's been failed by almost every adult in his life, why should we be putting all of this on his shoulders? hes just a kid after all?

and the truth is, they're right. deku IS a 16 year old boy whos had the fate of the world thrust on his shoulders. but the story itself just plainly refuses to acknowledge this.

the narrative doesn't acknowledge how fucked up having a school that trains literal children how to be combo cop-celebrities is. it only tentatively acknowledges the fact that a universe having combo cop-celebrities is fucked up, and even then the only people who ever point this out are antagonists, who are portrayed and treated in-universe as untrustworthy. the narrative doesn't care how fucked up dekus circumstances are. the narrative treats deku like hes a fucking messiah here to touch the hearts of the evil depressed villains with his magical empathetic heart of gold before they get blown up or just sent to fucking superhell for daring to challenge the status quote.

deku isn't a person. he's barely even a fucking character at this point. he's a plot device, and a mouth piece for the objectively shitty themes bnha is trying to spout. the themes that tell you that if you're mistreated by society and want to do something about it, you're a villain. that disrupting the status quote and refusing to repent to some random teenage boy spouting empty platitudes at you means you deserve to get sent to fucking superhell. the themes that portray people fighting for civil change as mass murdering supervillains. the themes that look the audience dead in the eye and can call deku the greatest hero to ever live.

deku, who barely spared a second thought to lady nagant telling him the truth about the hero commission. who spouts meaningless platitudes about heroism and morality at nagant, and aoyama, and toga and shigaraki, when even the thought that he should question the world around him comes up. who's constantly talked about as this truly kind, empathetic person, but hasn't spared an empathetic thought to literally anyone who is classified as a villain. who listened to every authority figure around him except the ones who asked him to question his worldview. who saw la bravas tears, shigarakis various breakdowns, himikos plead for understanding, chisakis catatonic state, lady nagants truth, and barley batted a fucking eye. deku, who killed tomura shigaraki.

people don't criticize deku for failing shigaraki because they just hate deku. people criticize deku because of what he represents. because hes a mouthpiece for the atrocious morals and themes of this ideologically rotten manga. because any character he had was chopped up to bits in favor of the incomplete husk we have now. people criticize deku because hes the main character of my hero academia. theres nothing more damning then that.

Horikoshi recently revealed that Endeavor was supposed to die during the PLF war and that honestly validates something I've been feeling but couldn't quite articulate: "Horikoshi doesn't know who the central Todoroki is" (or he does, but he changed it halfway through to the worse option)

Endeavor dying would have been AMAZING if Shoto were the central character in the Todoroki subplot. The main reason this is so is that Endeavor would be out of the way. Shoto would have full reigns on how he wants to handle Touya (the "final villain" of the Todoroki subplot), and the rest of the family can play a role in this as a supporting cast.

However, Shoto is NOT the central character in the Todoroki subplot. Or, at least, he used to be, but he's not anymore. He's not allowed to have a final fight with Touya because Touya needs to still confront Endeavor. Regardless of how that fight ends, whether it's Shoto saving his brother or knocking him out, Shoto isn't allowed to end the conflict until Touya and Endeavor interact.

At the start of the series, it was really obvious that Shoto was the central figure (and was our pov character) for his family drama. During the sports festival, HE'S the one who shared the backstory. The flashbacks are framed around what HE saw. HE is the one taking a step forward to fix his family, and it starts with reconciling with his mom. At this point, Endeavor is what I'll call "the instigator". He is the cause for the family drama, and though we may not know Touya at this point, Endeavor has already released the future final boss of the subplot into the world.

In the Pro Hero arc, Endeavor becomes his own central figure as a pov character into the world of pros. He then overlaps with the Todoroki subplot by wanting to atone and remove himself from the role of the instigator. The thing is, he can't. What was done cannot be undone, and the most he can do at this point is try to make things better for his family moving forward. At this point, he and Shoto can coexist as central figures because the final boss has not yet been introduced.

The second Touya confirmed his identity, either Endeavor or Shoto had to stop being the central figure. Having Touya need to fight two heroes before being able to come to any end just feels sloppy, and since Shoto was given the first fight, it makes him seem like the less important figure. Even Touya doesn't care! He spends a good chunk of the fight talking about how he'd rather fight Endeavor. This makes Endeavor into the central figure as he is now the one to end the fight. HE'S the one the final boss has been waiting for, not Shoto.

The thing is, this started as Shoto's story, so it would have made sense for it to end as Shoto's story as well. Even if it meant killing Endeavor to force Shoto to be the ONLY central figure (probably to Touya's dismay) it would have allowed Shoto the space he needed to lead the ending he deserved, rather than be pushed to a side character.

TL;DR Endeavor surviving forced Shoto into the role of a supporting character in a plot line that started as SHOTO'S plot line.

Endeavor is Batman without the compassion, a brutal drive for the mission in which everything can be fodder, he will alienate his family but have his compatriots follow him without question.

Hell Touya got fucking Jason Todd-ed.

and you know for a fact that Shouto had his own moment like Dick Grayson in Young Justice, I do not believe that guy took the rankings still being a thing lightly.

What could have been the MHA's own Sorta BatFam got burned so hard from one man's sheer drive to achieve his own selfish goal, that it actually became a version of it, resentful children, a traumatised wife, and overstepped boundaries like he was going up the stairs five at a time, all of which culminates in them have lasting scars.

I am in no way saying what Touya did as Dabi was even remotely correct, but when you look at Enji as a person, he's horrific and it's genuinely understandable why his sons all fucking hate him.

Also jesus Touya has far to much in common with Jason.

Something I never particularly liked about Endeavor's atonement, is that he never gave or gave up anything he actually wanted.

Like Endeavor was always willing to risk his life and limb as a hero, so any life-threatening risks or bodily harm he receives is just part of the job he was always willing to do from the beginning.

Him building a house for his remaining family members, only he won't be there?

Endeavor never cared whether he lived with his family or not, all that mattered to him was creating the strongest hero in Shoto.

So he never showed any want to be with his family until Shoto was already on his way to being a great hero.

It was barely an afterthought to him that was never followed through on.

The ending only makes all this worse, because it looks like he replaced each member of his family that he lost with heroes, the people he really wanted to be around...

Fuyumi = Burnin, onima = Natsuo, Hawks = Touya

Shoto on the path to heroic success.

And Rei there too, I guess for some reason???

Just wheeling him around...

Do you feel similarly or different about all this?

DING DING DING We have a winner!

Endeavor never has to sacrifice anything, he never chooses his family over his precious number one spot. He only even remembered they existed after he got his Precious.

And something I noticed is he is full of shit, and believes his own shit.

Like he thinks that 'oh I'll make a house for all my family members to live in' (Which we never see happen, so once again empty bullshit as always). But he never asks them what they want, it is incredibly bold to assume they would all want to live together, or even be able to with their careers, and if the kids want to start their own families. We also know Shoto likes traditional Japanese flooring, but what about the rest of them, and does Endeavor even know that?

One thing I've never seen anyone call out is his manipulative gaslighting speech to Natsuo after being rescued from Ending. He says that he didn't save Natsuo because he didn't want to make like Natsuo feel like he has to forgive him, only to without hesitation force him into a hug. So fucking much for respecting Natsuo's autonomy.

And this ain't the first time this lazy coward has froze when his kids are in immediate danger, we see him standing safely outside the flames with his fire resistance while Touya who's weak to fire burned on the peak. With Endeavor of course claiming 'he did everything he could'.

We also find out he harrassed Fuyumi into giving him Shoto's, his fucking masterpiece, number. Which he uses to text Shoto, in the middle of not just his workday, but fucking class hours! So much is wrong with this, this doesn't make him look good or show any atonement or redemption. What it does is make me think a lot less of both this excuse of a human being and his daughter (The start of her enabler arc). He's doubling down on past behaviour, quite stupidly I might add. And why the fuck did he need to get it from Fuyumi? Presumably, he's the one paying for the phone, he should just have the number from that!

Once again this man openly admits he only offered the work-study to Deku and Bakugou to manipulate Shoto. And constantly favors him when it comes to teaching. Understanding Deku's word vomit isn't difficult, even with him stupidly over-explaining it

What we don't see (or hear of) is him doing anything for or with Fuyumi, the only kid that wants anything to do with him (despite her character profile saying she resents him)

He is constantly given credit for shit he actively isn't doing!

But he and the narrative constantly throw him a pity party the second consequences are even hinted at. Not to mention he is also constantly rewarded for his (non-existent) efforts, Shoto chooses to work with him, Rei forgives him, Hawks, Burnin, Best Jeanist, etc are around to lick his boots clean and make sure he doesn't have to face any of those hinted at consequences. Boo fucking Hoo, the League (and specifically Dabi in this) deserved to win, and by the end, I was convinced that they would have been better for society

The Problem with the League of Villains

this is just me ranting after reading many people say that the lov deserved a better ending (i agree with them don't worry). most of that stuff has already been said but i'm bored and need something to write

so why is everyone disappointed?

by definition, an antagonist is someone that goes against the main character(s) and a villain is someone who does immoral and/or illegal things (wow, shocking)

so by definition, the league of villains is aptly named. shigaraki and dabi are mass murderers, toga is a killer too, and even if the others are 'less dangerous' they're all guilty of terorism and kidnapping a teenager.

not nice, right? then why would anyone would want them to have a good ending?

long story short: horikoshi made the league too sympathetic and relatable

when horikoshi has decided to make them funny, he's decided to make them likeable. that's not enough though. you can find a fictional villain funny and not root for them (for some reason the examples that comes to my mind are the disney villains. captain hook is hilarious but no one wants him to win)

the cause of everyone's disappointment is the relatable part. everyone in the league has gone through stuff viewers can relate. touya, shigaraki and toga have been abused; twice has mental health issues (and stuggling to get a job is relatable too lmao); spinner has been discriminated against... you get the idea

and even without knowing their backstory, most of the league's fights can be considered noble: they want to change society and make the world a better place. to take a more precise example, the league kidnapped bakugou because they thought he had gone through similar struggle as them

(this is mr compress talking in chapter 85) as far as i've seen, most of the fandom either think bakugou being chained and muzzled at the end of the sport festival was just comic relief or agree that it was fucked up

so yeah, you can't put a group of people rejected by society, who just want a better world and expect people to not like them

and that's why their ending is disappointing (the rest contains heavy spoilers of the last few chapters of mha)

they're all either in jail or six feet underground. we rationally could understand it, they're all criminals/villains so of course they wouldn't get a happy ending and face consequences for their actions. the only one who could have gotten away with it is shigaraki because of all the grooming/brainwashing he's gone through and maybe toga because she's a child

but if you relate to a character, you want them to get a happy ending. of course fans would want dabi to be at peace, but instead he's forced to spend his last moments being stared at by his abuser). of course fans would want shigaraki to be free from afo (but instead his only freedom was death). of course fans would want toga to be understood and cared for (but she never had that opportunity)

that's not very 'save to win' out of you horikoshi

maybe it's just a shortcut made by the fandom, but the league are seen more as victims of abuse than actual criminals. i mean, what's more important in dabi's story? the fact that he burned himself alive after overworking himself to get his abusive father's attention, or the fact that he's burned people alive? probably both, but there's more focus on the first element.

and obviously we would want abuse victims to get a happy ending

basically, their ending isn't coherent with what we've seen of them, and that's why people are disappointed

btw, the same logic applies to stain. some fans agree with stain's reasoning bc he's fighting against corruption. of course, his logic is stupid and he's delusional but he's introduced not long after we've discovered shouto's past. you can't say "one of the most popular heroes is abusing + all he wants is to get n°1 to satisfy his own ego" and then follow with "see that guy fighting against corruption? he's bad, don't do that"

the clever way to make sure no one would agree with stain would have been to make the heroes fight against injustice with good methods. i live for the fanfics in which izuku takes down the hpsc

okay i'm done ranting thanks for reading

Let's talk about Spacetoons Mineta...

Spacetoons is an arabic channel that semi-recently dubbed MHA. Some may call it "Arabic 4kids," but as someone who watched a substantial amount of shows in a 4Kids dub. (namely SonicX), that's not a fair comparison. The only 4 kids dub I actually enjoyed was that of "Kirby: Right back at ya"

Anyway, the BokuNometaAcademia sub brought to my attention the way that Mineta is written here. I have always hated how Hori used Mineta to live out his weird fantasies. The inclusion of Mineta's "comedy" turned a lot of people, me included off and honestly, why wouldn't it.

Spacetoons is more child-tuned so they did a lot of censorship, for example, look what they did to Momo

(They also greatly improved her character)

You may be asking, "What did they do with Mineta?" Valid question considering 70% of his character is horny jokes. Well, the completely removed the perv aspect and made him a loveable kid who wants to fight his insecurities and be great hero.....

I have always said it, Mineta holds some great potential. His moment during the USJ arc was a great stepping stone for some great character growth. The idea of a coward pushing to become a true hero is so different from the norm, but as we know, when it comes to MHA, potential don' get used.

From what I hear from spacetooneta, he is actually really likeable. He is so different from Canoneta that people mistaken him for a girl. The scenes where he is being pervy are either edited out completely or altered convincingly.

They changed the scene from season 3's filler episode so that the context is as follows:

Kaminari and Mineta want to goof off at the pool

Mineta has overheard that the girls have booked the pool too

They convince Izuku to come w/them so that they can get there before the girls

Izuku invites Tenya and the others and Tenya makes them train instead of goofing off

The girls are here, goofing off while they have to train

The most nuts part is that viewers of that dub absolutely LOVE HIM. He suprassed Bakugou in popularity even. This shows that Hori could have made one of the most loveable characters in Shounen. Think about it, his design is already cute, just slap a cute personality on and everyone would love him. But no, he had to be a creepy perv.

Canon Mineta sucks man

I just felt like the ending was quite harsh and a bit unforgiving for all the build-up during the series. And it hit a bit too close to home along with the fact that almost nothing changes. And I thought the series would be about change and stuff.

But I can totally understand where you come from. They were broken people who had sad pasts, but they did harm. The past can explain why they are like that, but it can not excuse their actions.

But yeah, Enji dying would be a W

So I have a question for you as a Mha critical and probably a person that knows the Manga better than me. Because I woke up at 3am and I had a thought dinging around my head like the DVD logo.

Could there be a redemption for Dabi if he got to kill/defeat Endeavor?

That question started a train of thoughts that I would like to share and be judged upon by the critical community, either deeming me a feverish lunatic or a genius.

As far as I know myself, most of the anger or hate Dabi carries in him is directed towards false heroes or, better said, one false hero. Endeavor. He has an especially big hate for his father for not deeming his worthy, disgarding him later, and getting Shoto. We see that he wanted to apologize to his family when he woke up in the orphanage, this whole thing works based on that a bit. That he hates Endavor the most but hates his family less.

Basically, the idea would be that he got to fight his abuser and ended up winning. (Ideally killing him because I feel like that man would deserve it to be killed by the one he regarded useless. Very funny) and like after the fight, he, of course, is exhausted. It has also let go of some anger and hate. Storing anger and also not letting yourself feel feelings is bad and makes you unstable and easier to misinterpret feelings. So a huge portion of anger would be out leaving room for satisfaction and perhaps some mania like happiness.

Then some good heroes could swoop in and catch him. Not kill him because they are good heroes and want to save people and not kill them. And there would be a little0 fight, but ultimately, Dabi would be caught. I am not sure whether he would put up much of a fight anyway because the main reason he became the way he was is gone.

And them they could like put a quirk stopping bracelet on him and all and put him in a prison/mental health institute. Because he still has killed people and needs to stand up for that but then again Endeavor as a shit bag. And there he would get therapy and also his family would visit. And that is important.

First would be Natsuo because I feel like he would have the least hate towards his brother for killing their father, and he also had the closest bond to him prior to him being obducted and stuffed into the orphanage. So they would meet, and due to their shared hate, Natsuo might even give him credits for killing the man they both hate. Something like "Good job, Toya, I am glad that man is gone. He has ruined our family," and so on along with a heartfelt apology. The next would probably be Fuyumi because she is one hell of a pacifist and people pleaser (from what I remember), and she would want to play happy family again. And so she goes to him and apologizes and all that. She wouldn't give him praise for killing Endeavor.

I feel like only Natsuo and maybe maybe Shoto (very short and very much a "huh, guess you did it" type of praise would be given. [I don't know whether Rei would come before or after Fuyumi because she probably feels obligated to mourn for her husband and do fumeral shit, no matter how shitty he was. So she probably wouldn't be the first to show up even if she misses her eldest]

So now his healing journey comes because he managed to bring down the biggest hate in him and let that anger out. Of course, it could also happen that once the Pandora box is open, he directs his anger at everything and his hate because he never learned how to deal with emotions in a healthy way. And if you let your anger control too often and too much, you get issues and can no longer deal with the anger correctly. Something something about our brain being stupid and choosing the "easy" but wrong way.

And maybe a few years he would be let go and a given house arrest. There, we would be able to learn again to properly interact with his world again. Family stuff.

Now comes the fun part to me, we know that there is some sort of celebrity culture with the heroes. And if I know one thing from tabloid, then that the people crave drama. They want the dirty laundery of the gerona, they want the sex-scandals and the abuse allegations and the drug rumors. So I feel like he would get a side gig as a journalist for those tabloids under a different name. Exposing false heroes and writing articles about their abuse with photo evidence and video evidence. And he would be smart about it because he has the big brain energy. (This is mostly my personal thinking. This can be as wrong to canon as it is)

I think the Toga redemption is the easiest because she already has a great bond with a hero, aka Uravity. And Ochaco wants to save her as well. So she probably would go to a mental hospital as well [idk about jail because she was underage and all when she committed most crimes, but I feel like she would get just a few years]. There, Ochaco would visit her and talk about the hero stuff she does and Jada Jada they become really good friends, and Ochaco helps to bail her out so that she can live a more normal life. And like if she needs blood, they can just go to a blood bank and get some. So yeah, it's a pretty easy redemption if she manages to survive.

Next is Tomura. My thoughts are that he is basically non-redemption material until the fact that AFO admits to controlling everything in his life and that he never had his own choice. That he had always been a pawn/NPC/replaceable.

For his redemption to work, he first needs to survive, which means the hero Deku should be Izuku, like aka saving everyone no matter what. Which I would love for him to do since he would turn into the ultimate hero for that, and he derves that title.

This also only works if Tomura plays the main part in defeating his abuser aka Quirk Satan. Izuku can help him defeat AFO, but he needs to deal the final blow himself in an act of rebellion and freedom. His very first own choice.

After that battle, he first needs to go to the hospital but then jail along with a therapist. I feel like he would need a whole circle or therapist to hold hands and dance around him like a fire tower for him to get rid of all the years under Quirk Satan.

But it could be easier by 2 things, in my opinion. His connection it the League. He may not have been the best leader and a shitty one at worst, but I feel like he would still be somewhat happy to see them again. Because they are basically the only people that had been around him beside Quirk Satan. So the first would obviously be Spinner. And they would play some L.O.V. together and all. I don't know who will be next, but I feel like if he and Dabi would meet again under these circumstances, that man could give him some advice. I feel like Dabi knows a bit since he burnt down Toga's home to help her. But they could parallel one another yet again.

The second, in my opinion most important part, is a change in mind/ideology/goals. We know he is nihilistic, so I thought he could go through the same journey as me. Because nihilism almost killed both of us, he now needs to adapt a new life philosophy: Absurdism (it worked for me, and I feel like it could work for him as well) Basically: life has no meaning but so what? That only means you can life as free as you want and do everything you want. Your actions won't matter in the long run of the universe? So what, you are free to do whatever you want and to live happy because in the long run of the universe it doesn't matter.

So the first choice, aka Killing Quirk Satan, would lead up to other choices that are his first choices he makes that will be his alone to take. Maybe his Master never allowed him to play competitive games, so now he plays them as much as he wants. Or his Master never allowed him to cry, so now he finally does (it was weird anyway to know Tomura doesn't cry at all even if his name means mourning).

Of course, he is going to be in jail for quite a while since he doesn't have any family to bail him out of anywhere to go to get house arrest. But maybe Izuku visits him as well as he is Izuku's villain after all.

My personal utopia would be them sitting at a table and eating good food again while each talk about the non villany stuff they achieved. Dabi about how he exposed false heroes and Spinner wanting to join the newspaper, which is now serious. [Maybe either could work in politics as well but mostly Spinner to help remove the corrupt system and bring diversity and remove stigmata] and Toga could rant about her newest college crush and how she finally finished her education. Compress could talk about a magic show he has planned, and Tomura could talk about all the free choices he made aka, stuff AFO never allowed him to do and how good he is at taking care of himself. [Because AFO definitely neglected him to make him weaker to his manipulation and all]

So, Mha criticals, am I cooking, or has the fever cooked every viable thought in my brain?

It’s honestly a slippery slope when it comes to this discussion. In my personal opinion, I don’t think that Dabi would be capable of redemption because he still caused harm to people that didn’t have anything to do with his main goal.

He killed many innocent civilians, went after UA, caused intense harm to children, dragged Toga back into the war and roped Shoto into stuff that didn’t concern him. Same with Toga, Twice, Shigaraki and etc. They’ve had sad lives but they still did massive damage and harm to people around them. Which is why I can’t help but give a side eye whenever the fandom says they’re in the right.

Personally, I think that keeping the villains not redeemed teaches a lesson that not everyone gets a happy ending and that in order for society to change, we need to face the harsh realities of the villains’ stories.

But I’m all for Enji dying, that would’ve been amazing.

Idk, fellow critics, what do you think

Tbh, I started MHA because I thought it would be inspirational and shit. There is this powerless guy who gets powers from his idol and wants to save everyone. I thought since he knew how cruel society could be, since he experienced it himself, we'd get some great plot twists and conversations with villains. Especially after we got their backstories. But then, for Izuku, the supposed hero of all and everyone, to just go "Nvm, we need to kill them all," was quite shocking to me.

Even more when nothing happened after Endeavor was exposed and after the Lady Nagant thing. Or so much more, he is so close to these villains and their living reality from time to time that it really makes me question how he can still be in support of the heroes and the agencies as much as he is. Like he knows the truth about Tenko but stays quiet, nobody will ever truly know how much of a victim he was.

I expected at least something from Izuku, who is the hero of all. But I should have seen all this bullshit coming when the Eri arc with the festival happened. Like yeah, sure, one dance and a smile helped a girl get over the years of experimentation and drama instantly.

I used to roll my eyes at the "Eri will rewind Tomura to kill him and get Tenko back to save everyone" theory but now I feel like it would have been 10 times better than the actual ending we got. I am just very disappointed at the Manga, especially the conclusion and how rushed the ending felt. I also hate it how tmsome parts of the community treated the villain and the MVA arc, like please stop acting like bratty toddlers who have never heard of empathy and can only hate for once.

"But Dabi wanted to kill Shoto as a kid. He was soo selfish and cruel. He is a sociopath!" He was a fucking kid, kids a petty and need to learn their emotional intelligence from their parents. And since Enji has the emotional intelligence of a brick or course something messed up happened. Toya just wanted his father's attention and the man to be proud of him. And sociopathy is taught and is just another proof of the fact that Endeavor is a horrible person.

"But...but he changed! He is a good father now! He wants to fix his family!" Fix the family by killing the one that exposed him? Fix the family by being an overbearing father to Shoto? Fix the family by literally convincing them that Toya is the only problem and that they need to gang up to kill him? And even if he changed he needs to pay for his fucking crimes.

"But Dabi is evil!" Dabi is literally the product of his father's abusive and neglecting behavior toward his family. Of course, the child of an abuser is messed up in the head! Oh look, the sky is blue. Oh, what a fucking discovery.

And that is just Dabi and Endeavor. I don't even want to start with Tomura and AFO. That is the peak abuser and victim thing where the victim gets not acknowledged and is literally told "Your abuser was bad and all, but you ARE his victim. So why didn't you fight back when you were 5? You should have known better," like please. People!

I love Mha and it has truly great villains and a good idea. It could have been the most awesome story about changing society and stopping the stigmatization of minorities and victims of abuse and villains. It could have been an inspiration on how to better the world. Izuku could have been a goat for redeeming the villains and opening the people's eyes. He could have started a revolution. It could have been wonderful.

But looks like his legs are not stable enough, and now I can't even take him or Hori seriously.

Random 14 year-olds write better endings to MHA than Horikoshi himself. How do you fuck up your "dream series where all my wishes come true" so badly.

Also, sorry for all this yapping, I need to put my anger and disappointment somewhere.

So When Did Things Start Going Down Hill

I don't mean everything is shit after this, but things looking back started getting (steadily) worse starting with. Check bottom for more indept view on each option

A) at first I wasn't going to include this one as it happened before most of what I considered shit started happening, but with how much it blatantly favours this lazy-ass child abuser, how could I not include it. And of course, it shows so much evidence that he hasn't changed at all, like only even offering to teach Midoriya and Bakugo to manipulate his favourite victim Shoto

B) when it first happened I was devastated but expected this to lead to greater change to the hero system and society. But no, just a meaningless footnote to the heroes epic battle

C) literally no one questions how a top hero was just so eager to kill someone, or buy a wife, breed her, abuse & neglect his kids to the point one of them was believed dead. Only citizens whining about how Dabi is bad for them

D) here's this apparently big shot hero from the States we've never heard of before and immediately dies. If they wanted to keep Shigaraki from having too many powers they could of just chalked it up to the heroes interupting the process

E) the Todoroki family all blames themselves, this isn't to go into the complexity of abusive households, but to absolve Endeavor's responsibility and guilt. Despite the fact that as the one who created and was in control of this situation, he should be held accountable for theirs as well. The only backlash for his shit is framed as ohh poor Endeavor, he didn't mean for the child he threw away to create consequences, and now people are being mean to them

F) what was the point of this arc? Deku barely asks a villain three questions before giving up. He learns the HPSC had Lady Nagant acting as a secret assassin against any undesireables for them, covered up her arrest and got a replacement assassin (Hawks who has at least one confirmed extra jurdical murder under his belt). Witnesses an innocent woman get attacked for her appearance and was turned away from multiple shelters for said appearance. Deku: Hero Society is the Best, Nothing needs to change, because not every single apple in this basket is rotten to the core! Looking back he just looks worse for this

G) so this child, who due to his parents mistake was blackmailed under great threat & risk, into giving information to the blackmailer, deserves to be chained up and forced to take further risk by the heroes. Remember Endeavor never faces any consequences, nor does Hawks, but this child, Yuga, gets treated like this.

H) once again what was the point? How does Edgeshot know he can do this? How does he know how to do this? Why is he a top hero who has never interacted with Bakugo before this, sacrifices his appearing to be unharmed self, for a random hero student in the middle of a war? Oh and Edgeshot is revealed to be alive at the end of the manga, because Heroes have no consequences and live in magical fairytail land. Again what was the fucking point!

I) This was originally going to be two points, Oh poor Endeavor, victim blaming part 2 and the hospital battle. But I ran out of options and Endeavor doesn't need another personal option. So we got the whole Todofam blaming Dabi/Touya this time, and Endeavor being a whiney responsibility dodging coward again. Then we see the heroes knew that the villains were going to go after Kurogiri, kept him in a hospital. We see that the people aren't going after doctors or patients just trying to get to Kurogiri, get demonized for it. We have victim blamer/ pick-me Tentacole say that their kids will be attacked for this (already happening), and that it's up to them/ him to inspire the violent quirkests to not constantly attack, assualt, and otherwise discriminate against them, no need for the quirkists to be given any responsibility or consequences for their own actions. Oh and Spinner has major brain damage because how else was Tentacole supposed to win this arguement. Bonus points for Hawks calling for Toga to be murdered, doubling right back down on his previous murder

J) in this already overcrowded 3rd act lets make sure all these background characters get a scene! And despite the fact it took years for Deku to get a powersuit in the epilogue, All Might just randomly gets one, no build up or anything. AFO's backstory is left in the past so no one has to consider anything

K) I had hope going into this, but at every turn they kept on making it worse. Deku only tries punching and attacking, rather than make any attempts to actually talk unlike what Shigaraki has been doing since his introduction. Is randomly able to enter Shigaraki's head, doesn't have to see just how fucked Hero Society is as it gets cut short by moral scapegoat AFO coming in and revealing he orcastrated everything! Oh and he flat out kills Shigaraki. Living up to his name and not his goal. Deku that could my ass

Sorry if this comes off as super negative but I've been wondering this for a while, and well I'm pissed at the ending. Here's some people I want to hear the opinions of:

@moodyvoid @nagitosstolenhand @codenamesazanka @shortstrawberryshake @darkonekrisrewrite @nothingofinterest @itsnothingofinterest @villainsandvictimsalliance

Feel free to @ more people

hey! I came across your post about how horikoshi pretty much vindicated/validated the way different factions of the bnha fandom sexualize the teen characters, but I'm not sure if it'd be okay for me to rb. I ship characters from this manga because I like to explore the potential duos and relationship dynamics we could have gotten -my fav being a non-canon mlm pairing, but my blog is sfw. I do not ship bkdk or tgchk, either. So yeah, just making sure if you'd be okay with me interacting, given the disclaimer you wrote at the beginning of that post.

Awee yay my second ask, and now suddenly I feel famous lol!

Thanks for reaching out and acknowledging by boundaries. To answer your question you’re free to reblog my post regardless of who you ship. You don’t seem to violate any of my personal boundaries afterall. Don’t let me dictate who you can or cannot ship especially if it makes you happy and you seem self aware.

If you were a bkdk fan in particular I don’t think I’d have an issue with it, just as long as you A. acknowledge the ship itself is inherently toxic, B. not a proshipper, C. you’re okay with ppl disliking it (does not count if they’re attacking you directly and you’re innocent), and D. you condemn the toxic shippers.

That’s rare to come across, and to anyone else who’s reading this…particularly bkdk stans, if you do not tick all the requirements then that means the shoe fits and I want nothing to do with yall.

Fyi I’m not really a shipper in general, just someone who prefers written analysis of plots, arcs and sometimes pre-established couples that actually work. Once in a while there are one or two ships I’d obsess over, but even then I’m a tunnel vision type of fan so you won’t see me glazing every fancontent of them, I’m just here picking and choosing before going back to my small curated cave.

I hope I don’t come across as snobby or this stuck up “I’m better than you lust driven obsessed shipers” type of fan. I’m sorry if I do, sometimes my wording can come across as blunt or odd….But on the other hand I don’t find myself gravitating to shippers because the census create unnecessary discourses from their rose tinted glasses and they’re just not someone I’d turn to have a proper discussion with. They’re often delusional and feed of breadcrumbs, and its even worse when they’re a fujoshi shipper who ship (pale skinned) men but I’m getting too ahead of myself.

Once again you’re free to ship whoever you like if it makes you happy, I can’t stop you and you shouldn’t let me stop you. But I’m thankful you’ve reached out for clarification!

So what broke you on MHA? Was there a turning point for you?

OMG MY FIRST ASK!? Never thought I’d see the day someone would use my ask button to the point I completely forgot its existence. But thank you!

Now to answer your question….hm. It’s been such a while since I’ve actually immersed myself with MHA, but let me give you a little backstory of how I got into it.

Around 2019 I believe, or maybe late 2018. I was 16yrs old and a friend of mine recommended it. I was immediately hooked, and that’s saying something because usually it’s hard for me to get into a show without loosing interest. I’m talking about hyperfixtating and obsession, not a one time thing or immediate drop.

My first favourite character? Fukimage Tokoyami. Then it was swapped for Hero Killer: Stain. Then I considered favouring Spinner before it was officially last swapped for Hitoshi Shinsou.

Pinpoint of when I began to lose interest? Sometime after the sports festival arc. It was still there, but my main driving force was because of Shinsou. Like I previously mentioned its been a while since I’ve actually immersed myself with MHA so I apologise I can’t give a detailed analysis of why this episode was the nail in the coffin.

Even when I first started watching the series I could already see the flaws and was highly critical, but I bared through it in hopes it couldve gotten better.

Also, I’m someone who’s a tunnel vision fan. Not the bias type fan, but I hardly interact with the fandom unless its to look at certain fanart or fanfiction or they’re likeminded people.

Imagine my surprise and disbelief when I decided to go out of my bubble and see everyone worship the ground b*kugo walked on. Honestly for a moment I thought I was going insane or was being too harsh on him, until I decided to download tumblr and found the critical tags

Sidenote I once did have a tumblr account that was active in the 2019-21 mha critical accounts before I decided to delete it.

Then I dropped it around late 2020- early 2021. Just didn’t feel like torturing myself with a show that disrespects its characters, and the overall census of the fandom lacking critical thinking skills. And also 16yr old me was just salty Horikoshi wasnt paying attention to Hitoshi but I digress that doesnt count lol.

Then sometime around 2023-24 the final war arc began gaining attraction. At first I ignored it cause I was just a tired hater, but then I just kept on seeing it everywhere and decided you know what let me check it out and see how far Horikoshi fell off.

And boy was that arc a cluster fuck within itself. Too many things going on at once. This arc and that arc and that character and this one and that. I was just hating the entire time.

But it was only after the dust settled, the episodes were animated and the manga finally finished did I decide to rise from the ashes and rejoin the tags under a new account that I originally used for Demon Slayer fan content.

While I can’t give you a dissect analysis on an episode or a character because that would require me to go back and watch the episode and truthfully I don’t wanna torture myself again…I can lay out the things that I never liked about MHA.

In no particular order

•The world-building. Not utilized in the grand scheme of things, and it being focused on Japan is not an excuse. This is not your average story where only a certain group of people hold powers and those powers are God like. These are your everyday people, born or not born with a Quirk thats unique and tailored to them. So many opportunities, gone and wasted.

•Addressing controversial topics (Lack of better word). Horikoshi would highlight it….and then forget it the next day. An opportunity to touch the darker side of Quirk society, or have a talk about the philosophy of it.

•Too many characters. You want to have a large cast fine, but if you’re going to do that please understand your limits and what you can handle. If you know you can’t write for every single characters then establish that, make it known that x character is a one off character, a side character or a plot device etc- As long as they all help contribute to the story in some way instead of leaving them to rott then suddenly remembering they exist and you try to make them have this important arc as if I should care when you never even bothered to make us care for them.

Or just reduce the cast, simple as that. Seriously, 20 entire classmates? Horikoshi, please take a page out of Danganronpa when it comes to handling a large cast. (Fyi: Im also critical of Danganronpa but I know when to give credit when due)

To be fair Horikoshi couldnt even handle his main characters properly.

•Tell don’t show. This is quite common in the Anime Industry, and for what reason I have no idea. Never liked this type of narrative storytelling, but I’m able to suck it up just as long as you know how to make it work. Horikoshi just did the most with it, and especially with too many flashback scene it just turned me off if anything.

•Lack of consequences. It took me a very long time for me to tolerate asshole characters turned good, and you can thank bakugo for that. Before I always had my foot on their neck everytime, and you could not convince me to even shed fake tears for them. Bakugo is coddled by both writers and his insufferable fans, so their love for him only fuled my dislike for him.

But aside from bully archetype characters there’s also plot type of consequences, and I can see Horikoshi lacks the nuances to delve or stick to the door he opened. The supposed high stakes are illusions, and that is best seen with the war arc. Like you knew all the heros and students were going to survive, except maybe like 1 or 2 no one should honestly cares about yet apparently everyone held a pity party for midnight lol.

•The disrespect of the Female Cast. Horikoshi had the perfect opportunity to address the sexism the female cast wouldve faced. He barely brushed it and he was only using his jerk off right hand to create these characters designs and story. He’s a disgusting pervert

•Favouritsm. Horikoshi favours Aizawa, Hitoshi, Mineta and Bakugo. 2 of them are confirmed to be his self inserts and that speaks for everything in itself.

• I may add more bullets in the future when I remember my other reasons as to why I dislike MHA. But this is about it really.

Thanks for the ask, and my first one! Honoured to answer your question.

I have a theory when it comes to the emasculation & sexualisation of Izuku and rampant sexualisation of the underaged characters in MHA, and why fans and outsiders see it as such.

Before you continue reading I just want to let you know this is not a safe space for proshitters & self identified fujoshis (you know who you are. If the shoe doesn’t fit then you can interact). If you are a proshipper or a self identified fujoshis then its best for both our sakes you block me. If I find you in my likes or mentions I will hide your comment and block you.

I’m also not a fan of toga x oochako, and Im saying this because I mentioned it briefly but its not the worst ship for me to block you (bkdk will always take that spot).

Anyways here’s a rundown list based on what I’ve observed [Mentions of Homophobia, Misogyny & Sexualisation of underaged characters down below. Read at your own risk]:

1.1 Horikoshi’s bias: Any watcher with critical thinking skills are able to see Horikoshi has a clear bias towards characters like bakugo, aizawa, shinso and mineta and he confirmed it himself. From the beginning to the very end of the manga Horikoshi has failed to respect Midoriya’s autonomy as a character, and any time we ever got close to introspection its immediately shut out in favour of the same popular characters over and over again.

1.2:Horikoshi has repeatedly sexualised his underaged characters and seems to show no guilt or remorse over such actions, even in his confessions. This was no accident, and any attempt to address this in a critical light in the manga was a failure, just like all the controversial topics he tried to address in the series (mutant arc -I personally don’t like how others see it as a racism allegory as a Black person, but thats another topic for another day-, eugenic marriage, trafficking etc.)

It also doesn’t help Japan has a rampant pedophilia & SA problem, and the reason you don’t see it on the news is because of shame culture + language barrier + their good PR Team. Anybody who tries to tell you it doesn’t exist are all liars, and anybody who tries to justify it with it being part of their culture is a racist.

2.From a dudebros perspective: We all know dudebros are obsessed with masculinity and powerscaling, but in some cases they are fine with fictional male characters crying, even male characters who don’t fit the traditional masculine role. But Midoriya isn’t the traditional masculine role character and he cries alot. Along the way they mustve subconsciously picked up the writers mistreatment of Midoriya, and so to them it’s like why should they respect a character who acts like a crybabying bitch?

And then they see how “close” bakugo & midoriya are. Dudebros as a collective are homophobic, so at first they would deny it, but then slowly but surely theyd pick up on how weird it is for midoriya and bakugo to be this obsessed with each other. Pair that up with the delusional fujoshis who seem to be fucking *everywhere* they’re going to call Midoriya a gay bitch for being steamrolled by “the goat” Bakugo.

Then there’s the sexualisation part. No words are needed to be said. Dudebros as a collective have little to no morals, especially the misogynistic. They don’t care if the character is 14yr old they’re going to wank their dick off to it regardless and thats the unfortunate truth.

But I feel the other reason why they feel so comfortable wanking off freely is because Horikoshi basically gave them the greenlight to do so. He shamelessly sexualised his characters without attempting to address it in a critical light.

3.From a fandom gay (especially fujoshis) perspective: It’s inevitable that the fandom gays will always find a way to ship 2 male characters, even if the creator clearly states their relationship is platonic, that’s just how it is for the better or worse.

To some credit, I can see why the fujoshis are obsessed with bkdk to the point of it being the #1 ship in MHA (never to the point of peak delusional though). Horikoshi doesn’t know when to put Bakugo to the side for once, or make Bakugo have his own arc without Midoriya being tied into it. It also doesn’t help Horikoshi mishandled Midoriya’s bullied past so the fujoshis are going to either dismiss that entirely or stupidly justify it in the worst way possible. Everyday its parallel this rival that.

I also personally believe Horikoshi baited BKDK content for some extra cash because he realised thats what the fans are into and also realised how stupid it is to trick them, like dangling a carrot infront of a donkey but that’s just my conspiracy theory.

If its one thing fujoshis love is pushing heteronormative roles onto their “gay” favourites and having internalised misogyny, morals be damned. Midoriya is seen as emotional, Bakugo is seen as aggressive. What does that equal to them? Top & Bottom, Alpha & Omega, Dominant & Submissive.

Fujoshis & Proshitters arent going away anytime soon, but because Horikoshi did nothing to shoo away the allegations until the very end of the chapter the fujoshis felt very entitled to act out. If you call them out you’re homophobic, but they would have zero problem dragging Oochako by the mud for daring to get in the way of the ship, and when that arc of her & Toga came out these same ppl who also tried to say Oochako is a love interest repackeged her into being Toga’s love interest under the guise of “girl power & lets go lesbians”.

(Personally as a Lesbian Feminist I am offended by this take but once again I digress)

Once again Horikoshi sexualised his underaged female cast, and while the fandom gays try to play the moral highground holding Horikoshi accountable I personally believe are just as hypocritical. The proshippers mustve subconsciously seen the sexualisation as a greenlight to go full haywire.

~~

TLDR; Horikoshi’s ass writing gave the watchers the greenlight to disrespect Midoriya as this bitch. A crybaby ass bitch from the dudebros and a crybaby bottom bitch from the fujoshis point of view. An ultimate bitch.

These fans will always exist but this reputation is the most prominent I’ve ever seen. In my humble opinion no fandom can ever be compared to MHA and its sheer audacity. Horikoshi & his overall fans don’t actually like Midorya and it’s disheartening to watch.

Oh goodness gracious

Tumblr please understand that just because I post critics of bnha does not mean I want to see posts about the show UNLESS its about slandering them.

I switch to For You for one second thinking I was going to get a fresh feed of media I genuinely care about. But no its flooded with shows I’ve slandered being praised one way or another.

Quite frankly idgaf about the general census fandoms portrayal about the show. Not the inside jokes, fanart, fanfic, headcanons, fanon portrayal, ships or controversial discourses surrounding themes like (allegations for) marginalised identities & oppression because who are we kidding thinking Horikoshi did a great job at it when he himself never even faced such things.

For example there’s no point of me caring about ships like togachoko when the canon itself couldn’t even handle it right. Because from what I could tell it didn’t know if it wanted to be portrayed as positive or toxic. Don’t care about its fandom discourses like if Oochako is suffering from comphet, if Oochako deserved Toga from Izuku, if Oochako’s bisexual, if this and thats the fourth.

And I’m saying this as a (Asexual) Lesbian who does genuinely care about representation. Same thing can be said for other aspects but I don’t want to get too ahead of myself and possibly alienate myself.

If you genuinely believe Horikoshi did a good job at portraying lesbians like that then 🤷‍♀️ All I’m saying is theres no point emotionally exhausting yourself in those fandom discourse if the creator themselves has shown time again to fumble even their own canon representation. You honestly deserve better than that.

Heck, I don’t even want to see fanart /fanon from my supposed favourite character Hitoshi Shinsou. Only canon screencap/manga panels and slander off him. Miserable fucker is not even getting a smile from me.

And I also do not care to emotionally invest myself with the canon anymore. Cba to care about the vigilante, movies, sideplots or whatever. Don’t want to actively see that unless its just canon posting without any bias comments.

The only thing I want to see from the mha tags is criticism, slander, and better reimagines.

Yes ik I sound miserable. No I would not go out of my way to deliberately shit in the fandoms tags and ruin it for everyone. Yes I get some ppl are emotionally invested in this series. No I don’t want to see any positive praises on my feed especially if its bias driven.

I’ve got to start actively cultivating my feed. I didn’t want to block bnha / mha tags because thats just doing too much. But now you leave me no choice Tumblr

((Tbh this can be said for other shows I once used to be a fan of that I’ve grown to hate. i.e Miraculous, Doctor Who))

Back again posting once in a full blue moon.

I’ll admit I am a fan of Hitoshi Shinsou. Always had been since the age of 16 (moreso crush; I shipped my OC with him), and now 5 years later after the series has ended my interest in mha has decided to resurface for whatever reason.

And I’m deciding why not reprise my OC and make a story of her journey with Hitoshi being the Deuteragonist + Love interest.

Obviously my crush on him is long dead, but for the story I’m making for my OC, think of it like a pay off for old time sake. Healing my inner teenager who was so critical of MHA that I ended up hating it and forgetting about it 2 years after I fell inlove with. Tbh I still don’t like MHA but I’m getting ahead of myself.

The following statement can be applied to any characters I favour:

I’ve always been okay with people hating on characters I favour, to the point I go out of my way to read critical rants of them. Sometimes I would find myself disagreeing, only if it’s from a narrative standpoint.

Take Muzan Kibutsuji from Demon Slayer for example. He is a character created to be hated, and heck even I was his biggest hater from the get-go before I eventually favoured him for reasons. When I see everyone slandering him I’d find myself joining in. Watching Muzans stans unironically babying him (especially on tiktok) annoys me to the point I reply to them with some reality check comments.

And where I’d disagree are the parts where fans, or rather outsiders, talk about how Muzan is an anti-climatic coward villain with weak powers who’d get nerfed by [insert overpowered villain].

It’s not exactly critical if that was the author’s intention all along. The episodes spell it out for you that Muzan is written to be an anticlimactic narcissistic coward, and compared to some villains I don’t think its fair to underestimate his powers.

What I’m trying to say is, reading critical rants of Hitoshi as a fan is refreshing for multitude reasons.

Again like I previously mentioned I’m okay with people hating on characters I favour, and when I read critical points of them it helps me keep an open mind and not allow my emotions develop a (parasocial) bias with them.

More importantly in my future fic it helps me keep my characterisation of him as canon as possible; he will be going through a character growth arc, and it will involve the story holding his asshole tendency’s accountable but giving him room to improve and grow. He will not lose his fundamentals and do this whole 180, he will still be a smug ass at times.

Secondly I’m not a fan of the dadzawa relationship in canon and fanon, and especially not a fan of how I last remembered the fandom portraying him as this kicked puppy that was trampled on in the past and follows midoriya / denki / neito around with heart eyes or is this attractive edgelord whos into 2020 grunge aesthetic and listens to soundcloud emo trap music. That will not be happening in my fic, he can kiss his pseudo-dad goodbye because he will be the one to help report him in the end (spoilers).

And I’m not saying this out of stingyness or thinking Im this hitoshi-bible enthusiast, but I genuinely do not get the appeal of shinsou x midoriya / denki / neito / bakugo.

Whos bright idea was it to ship shinsou with bakugo? Thats a recipe for disaster, theyll end up physically and mentally abusing each other what a horrible pairing.

I see Midoriya needing to be shipped with someone with a sweet caring heart who doesn’t dump their traumatic luggage on him (Oochako, no offense to midoriya x todoroki fans). Midoriya doesn’t need to deal with a smug winger who doesn’t know how to friend.

Denki doesn’t seem like the type of person Hitoshi would willingly befriend, especially because of his association with mineta (hitoshi canonically believes mineta should be expelled, read the link). The way how I see Hitoshis friendship with Denki is close approximately slight co-hersion. You’re friends because youre classmates, hes a friendly nice dude and you feel a little coerced, and its not like you’re in the right place to judge because you don’t know what its like to have friends and people will see you as a charity case.

If the two were not in close proximity Hitoshi wouldve avoided denki like the plague. Canon and fanon will not fool me otherwise.

And with Neito, aside from their quirk discrimination what exactly do they have in common? Ill leave that to your imagination but what I can think of as someone who is a genuine fan of Neito and side characters generally speaking is…nothing.

I understand there’s not much to work to go with his canon character but unless you’re able to give a reasonable in universe explanation as to why you want to portray him as such, 99% it just falls flat because of how blown out of proportion his portrayal gets. You can just tell the fanon version is done from an emotional bias point.

And if youre atleast able to admit that then fair enough, but the mha fandom does this thing where they like to cosplay as media intellects. Its sad to watch.

And if it’s one thing I find myself disagreeing with few of the critical rants about him (no hate or shade) is that how he seems to be completely remorseless of the actions he did. Or being completely self centred.

I’m only saying this because I just found out on his wiki synopsis he was shown to feel guilty over calling Oijiro a monkey or brainwashing him. (https://myheroacademia.fandom.com/wiki/My_Hero_Academia:_School_Briefs_IV)

And a summary of his further thoughts (https://notebook-13.tumblr.com/post/629545863925137408/oooo-what-do-the-light-novels-sayshow-about/amp)

Personally I see Hitoshi as someone who has a tunnel vision worldview, has an asshole skin with some insecurities on the inside. A little nudge of kindness and someone to challenge him he’ll soon come around to change, albiet slowly.

I’m able to empathise with where he’s coming from, as in how his canon character wouldve come to be like the whole primary & secondary influence and whatnot.

Yeah he’s a winger who threw a little tantrum who used his quirk with not so good intentions, and I won’t deny any of that. But unlike *some* characters it’s not like he really felt like he had any choice during that time, but it looks like his apparent guilt was there to chew him up. He cannot be compared to someone like bakugo whatsoever.

As for Aizawa I do see where everyones coming from, but the difference is Aizawa is a seasoned adult while Hitoshi is an unseasoned teenager. Tbh Hitoshi deserved a better mentor who wasn’t training him out of projected feelings covered up by logic, but that could be said for every other character.

And where MHA fails in having characters challenge him, my story will be there to pick up the pieces.

I rarely post in these tags but tell me why those orange green heart broccoli explosion emoji combo whiners are trying to infiltrate the bnha critical tags just because their mid ship wasn’t confirmed official.

What actually made you believe bakugo and midoriya was ever going to get together? Like I need you to be serious for a second. Did it seriously take you this long, 8 entire damn years for you to finally get your wakeup call???

Like gtfo out of the tags with your delusional ao3 “”queerbaiting”” ass. I’m trying to see well informed written analysis and learn from Horikoshis mistakes on how not to fail as a writing enthusiast.

Go create your own tags or something like anyone gives a damn about your inherent power imbalance ship.

i don't like the growing opinion that people are being 'too hard' on deku for his failing to save shigaraki.

i've seen quite a few people complaining that a lot of the bnha-critical crowd are being too mean to deku for getting tomura killed, arguing that it isn't really his fault, and that hes a 16 year old child soldier who's been failed by almost every adult in his life, why should we be putting all of this on his shoulders? hes just a kid after all?

and the truth is, they're right. deku IS a 16 year old boy whos had the fate of the world thrust on his shoulders. but the story itself just plainly refuses to acknowledge this.

the narrative doesn't acknowledge how fucked up having a school that trains literal children how to be combo cop-celebrities is. it only tentatively acknowledges the fact that a universe having combo cop-celebrities is fucked up, and even then the only people who ever point this out are antagonists, who are portrayed and treated in-universe as untrustworthy. the narrative doesn't care how fucked up dekus circumstances are. the narrative treats deku like hes a fucking messiah here to touch the hearts of the evil depressed villains with his magical empathetic heart of gold before they get blown up or just sent to fucking superhell for daring to challenge the status quote.

deku isn't a person. he's barely even a fucking character at this point. he's a plot device, and a mouth piece for the objectively shitty themes bnha is trying to spout. the themes that tell you that if you're mistreated by society and want to do something about it, you're a villain. that disrupting the status quote and refusing to repent to some random teenage boy spouting empty platitudes at you means you deserve to get sent to fucking superhell. the themes that portray people fighting for civil change as mass murdering supervillains. the themes that look the audience dead in the eye and can call deku the greatest hero to ever live.

deku, who barely spared a second thought to lady nagant telling him the truth about the hero commission. who spouts meaningless platitudes about heroism and morality at nagant, and aoyama, and toga and shigaraki, when even the thought that he should question the world around him comes up. who's constantly talked about as this truly kind, empathetic person, but hasn't spared an empathetic thought to literally anyone who is classified as a villain. who listened to every authority figure around him except the ones who asked him to question his worldview. who saw la bravas tears, shigarakis various breakdowns, himikos plead for understanding, chisakis catatonic state, lady nagants truth, and barley batted a fucking eye. deku, who killed tomura shigaraki.

people don't criticize deku for failing shigaraki because they just hate deku. people criticize deku because of what he represents. because hes a mouthpiece for the atrocious morals and themes of this ideologically rotten manga. because any character he had was chopped up to bits in favor of the incomplete husk we have now. people criticize deku because hes the main character of my hero academia. theres nothing more damning then that.

Could you tell me your thoughts on Nine as a character? I rarely meet fans of his. If you would indulge me, How about a bit of a what if, where Nine replaces Shigaraki and Shigaraki is a footnote in Nine's story? IE, Tomura is a movie villain in this universe.

I can assure you it's the same for me 😅 Nine fans are a rare species, but here we are.

As for what I think about him as a character? Uf... where even start?

I really find him to be way more interesting and rich in themes than most people think.

On the sense most people seem to take him as a one note character whitout any interesting trait, and calling him incorrectly a "might makes right" guy which hey, is in part true but that's just the surface.

Another thing I don't agree with most people is that Nine ideology is a very basic "the survival of the finest and only the strong deserve to live".

That's not really true. There's multiple hints that reveal parts of his true nature, especially when we have his POV in his origin chapter:

It always istruck me how Nine claims that under his ideal world everyone should aim to make their own way to top by pure strength, but simultaneusly he steps to defend the people he sees as oppressed by an unfair society.

And while some people make the argument of "he only cares about the people with strong quirk", but think about this: how he even knows his friends for example were that strong even before meet them?

His story only show these persons at their lowest point on life, yet by pure instinct Nine decided help them and offer them a hand without really demand nothing in exchange.

When he rescued Chimera is particulary powerful because we know Nine gets ill by using his quirk, yet he had no problem on create a massive storm just to save Chimera from the people who intended to kill him for being an heteromorph.

I really think Nine uses his ideology as a sort of defense mechanism due the circunstances he lived through most of his life. Which is logical as he was an orphan abandoded at what seemed to be a public bathroom at birth, which is sick af.

And it also relates to this particular line of his chapter:

"Everything is already decided" while we saw him being a child alone and multiple ominous smiles.

It really gives me the feeling that Nine actually felt a lot of abandonement and insolation while growing giving him idea that only the strongest should rule over the world, but at the same it can't really take away his selfless nature.

The fact Nine knows he was being used by the doctor, yet the only thing he thinks about going through the process are his friends even correcting himself by say "is for create OUR ideal world" shows how much he actually values the people close to him, to what extremes he's willing to go for give them what he considers fair.

And it's so powerful how even with his body destroyed and crawling on the ground Nine still keeps moving by the sheer will to make real his dream world.

It's an interesting way in which he parallels Deku on how he fights even at the cost of sacrifice and destroy his body just for the people he loves.

Kinda ironic if you think about the fact Horikoshi make his way to try to portray Shigaraki as "a hero for villains" despite that idea doesn't fit him at all, when Nine was already an heroic villain who parallels Deku a way that is pretty organic and logical.

I said a lot of times how funny is that is a fraction of time Nine not only executes the same ideas and concepts the main stroy try to apply to Shigaraki, but he does it better.

Nine story is really the story of an underdog who starts from the very bottom, having a really tragic life that molded his vision of a flawed world that should be destroyed, yet he feels very human on the way he relates to people on the same situation and he will do everything for them.

Is what really sells Nine as a character for me. None of these things are stated trying to convince us they happen like with Shigaraki, with Nine this stuff just... happen. Is the most basic show don't tell.

I wonder were that subtle and smart storytelling went in the main story.

...

Oh also, as you asked about the what if scenario, I have a slightly different idea for an AU in which Nine position is inverted with Shigaraki.

But rather than make it a shallow rivalry (as the movie kinda implies they have) I was thinking: what it Nine intends to save Shigaraki instead?

As I said before, is part of Nine's nature to help people no one else would do.

If he found Tenko Shimura that day he will attempt to rescue him and protect him while living both in the streets as homeless orphans. Which is ironic because they're likely a very similar age, just with Nine being slighty older apparently.

And what if they both are later found by AFO and he has ideas for both of them?

AFO will still have his main plan to make one of them "the next me" like in canon, in this case Nine being the candidate because our potato weirdo projects himself and Yoichi into Nine thinking the child is what both would be together.

Problem is... Nine isn't a emotionally disturbed kid who can be manipulated by AFO bs, so obviously when he realizes what are the man true intentions Nine will rebel and fight back. Probably escaping, as he and AFO aren't really compatible at all.

It's ironic as AFO is actually what Nine tried to convince himself he is, but in reality AFO is a selfish lunatic who only uses everyone for his own sake. That would make Nine have a lot of introspection and realizes he doesn't want to follow AFO steps, and neither wants Tenko/Tomura to have that fate.

But as probably Nine could escape alongside Tenko, he becames the next big opportunity on AFO plans, being manipulated into something similar to canon or even worse.

While Nine will still fight and try to save the kid he helped that day, perhaps he will came to late and if something like the island incident happens but using Shigaraki as the villain there, he probably will die being a defining moment of Nine developement as a character.

...

Well that was a bit long.

I could write even more, but that would be me going crazy and making a long bible lol.

Hope you enjoy the what if scenario. It's a bit improvised because I didn't think about the details yet, just a very basic storyline structure.

Or just say Kai is another son born outside marriage, after all Chisaki looks more like a son of Kotaro than Shigaraki ever did.

Hell Kai IS the perfect son for Kotaro.

They would make a hell of a father & son duo and Kai will actually make Kotaro feel proud of being a dad.

I hope they get together in their next life or something like that.

... Wouldn't it have been a lot less convoluted to just make Tenko a biological relative of Overhaul's with a very similar quirk? Like, through his mom or something?

I find funny how the anime constantly makes Shigaraki look like Lou Ferrigno in terms of muscles, in some cases his head looks like it doesn't belong to his own body:

But then you have Horikoshi drawing him like this...

Like sure, the muscles are still there but he's not this giant hulk with biceps the size of his head.

Even the manga in the first war arc doesn't have him looked like the anime does:

And I remember even the wiki copes with the idea that the surgery was supposed to give him extra muscles, but that was never stated officially and in any case his natural muscles came from the training in MVA.

Idk what's this obssesion the anime has for making all male characters buff as hell, even Dabi when canonically he's also a pipsqueak.

I know! Nine in general would be an awesome villain for the main story, I'll die on that hill.

At the same time if AFO actually had eyes and was able to see Nine directly, he would have ended up in a vault Lmao. No way our dear demon lord let the perfect Yoichi clone to escape.

Horikoshi actually likes to imply a lot the idea of AFO projecting his obsession with Yoichi in different persons, like Shigaraki for example (even if in this case the parallel doesn't work quite well as with Nine). Or in a lesser degree with Dabi too.

We have panels like this as well:

And of course Nine and Shigaraki share their own set of visual parallels, which for a story standpoint makes sense as they're both in the same line of numerical experiments (another subplot totally wasted btw).

In general it feels like all this details and parallels were part of a bigger storyline that was cut short in the end, never reaching it's full potential (Shigaraki doesn't interact with Yoichi either for example).

So anyway we were robbed of having a big and interesting subplot with all the members of the Shigaraki family. Is a shame because it feels like AFO could have been a much more fully fleshed character.

MHA fans shouldn't ignore how beautiful Nine is.

Have you seen how gorgeous this man looks?

He should be bring into conversations about the most pretty male character more often.

Especially when Horikoshi draws him.

I don't think this need more explanation, Nine is something else.

The resemblance was subtle as a brick to the head:

Lol, but also Nine got a lot of traits from AFO as well. He's like their perfect mix.

Yet I can't help but wish the story actually did something with all this parallels between Nine and the shigabros. There's a lot of stuff implied but nothing really explored.

Nine is such a great character and his existence could've added a lot of the story of AFO and Yoichi.

MHA fans shouldn't ignore how beautiful Nine is.

Have you seen how gorgeous this man looks?

He should be bring into conversations about the most pretty male character more often.

Especially when Horikoshi draws him.

I don't think this need more explanation, Nine is something else.

I love this fan translation of Nine's origin chapter way more than the official. More specifically the first line of dialogue:

"Storms calm my heart" just sound much more powerful in context and express a lot more of Nine as a character, and how he find comfort on storms and by extension his own power.

In case you wonder how the official translation is, here's the same page just colored:

The 2nd part of the dialogue also sounds great in the official translation, in a sense the line is more raw than ambiguous. But that's not bad at all.

Whatever it is the official or fan translation, it's certainly amazing how much we can learn of Nine in just a single page of manga and how much Horikoshi was able to tell us about him in so less.

Oh boy, what could have been if Nine was a permanent part of the main story.

My reason for calling Overhaul the best Villain in the main series is because he's way more competent, driven and has a real threatening presence to him, compared to the other Villain Leaders.

AFO (Post Kamino) & Shigaraki aren't in his League.

They don't give off that feeling of dread. Shigaraki got AFO quirk to try and make him seem more imposing, but it wasn't enough since having a strong power isn't the only thing Overhaul had going for him.

AFO was decent until after his interrogation with All Might, where he became too comically evil for the sake of it (imo)

Re-Destro wasn't there for long but he did a ok job. The MLA did sell me as a competent group, considering the amount of money and connections they had. As well as their goal of free quirk use.

The only thing that was off was there belief of quirk supremacy, since the organisation's strength came from wealth and connections.

But other than that they were ok, it's too bad they were shoved to the side during the War.

Sorry for rambling

But yeah, that's my reason for Overhaul being the best Villain in MHA

Your reasoning for think that is almost the same as mine.

But also Overhaul ideals and objectives felt different and way more grounded in the sense it doesn't feel like he blames society for everything and his only answer is mindless destruction.

He actually persue change but in way that almost makes sense, and his mindset offers a very interesting perspective about quirks that this series always avoid to exploit. Like is funny how Horikoshi puts constant references to the doomsday theory being something very real, yet no one in verse tries to do something about it and any character who doesn't like quiks is treated as a crazy monster to invalidate their opinions.

Chisaki is also different to other villains in the sense that despite his life is pretty tragic he never gets victimized by the author, something I can appreciate because honestly the most annoying part about the LOV for example is how the story constantly pats them in the back and tries to pretend their are just victims when they passed that point long ago.

Kai on the other hand gets a treatment so harsh that makes me wonder if Horikoshi actually hates him with passion, because holy hell since his defeat Horikoshi really doesn't hold back on try to put him as miserable as possible and with no chance of improve his situation even a bit. It felt like a massive double standard when you see how much the LOV gets glazed.

Well... this kinda became a rant on my part, but I need to express it as Overhaul really deserved a way better treatment because in terms of villains he was the peak and MHA never had something similar again.

Canon possum is a joke but one thing I never forget is how decay IS powerful, sure a powerful quirk with an idiot is not a good thing in many fronts but...

Cinder (I'm loving him already) has to know a guy who can decay stuff with one touch even if he is an idiot.

Would cinder be worried about the quirk ?

Again, shig is an idiot and a bad leader and all that but one thing we can't deny is he knows how to fight.

So I think cinder would make a point to avoid him like the plague.

In canon Cider is the kind of person who knows he shouldn't bite off more than he can chew, since after all his plan during his debut was to steal during a very specific moment in which heroes aren't present, so is more reward without having to fight and less risk.

It was just a coincidence that A.M was there with Bakugou and Todoroki.

I guess his mentality also applies to fight dangerous villains, and the lov had some big names attached them. Their reputation probably was enough for Cider to not have his gang involved with such group of psychos.

But... I disagree on Shigaraki being a good fighter.

Maybe before all the bs power ups given by the doctor he at least knew how do surprise attacks and such, but Decay being such a one-dimensional quirk also means the user doesn't require a lot of skill to put it in use. It is basically just run towards the enemy and touch for instakill.

Which became even more braindead post awakening. Like even Overhaul has more room to be creative and need skill to put in use.

Decay is just a broken and boring quirk that requieres nothing to be effective. Crusty asshole somehow manages to be more plain than he already was at first, is like he evolves in reverse.

Looking at the characters pages in the Volume Rising extras, I notice an interesting detail about Slice's background.

Now I'm aware this is a rough translation by google, but it's interesting that Horikoshi explicitly describes Slice as being used by "men".

Which could also connect with this panel from Nine's origin backstory, in which Slice is seen lying on the floor of a destroyed apartment looking totally defeated and helpless.

As far I know this is the only time a female character (and a villain for that mattter) in the series is written with an explicit background about being used and possible exploited by mens, implying a context of misoginia.

Which also makes me wish we had more context about Slice relationship with Nine and the rest of the crew.

How she pass from not trust anyone to be fully concerned about her team? (All being mens).

There's a lot of potential to developed their relationship there.

But an important note: I don't see Slice devotion to Nine and his ideals as romantic, not at all like much people like to interpret just because she's a woman. I feel that kinda goes against her characterization, considering Nine probably was the first man she ever trust but unlike others he wasn’t a lover or anything, but a savior and a true friend/family.

Horikoshi also says on Slice character page that Nine asked her about her quirk first and he values the name of it over actual names (which btw adds to Nine's own characterization considering he doesn't have a real name). I like to think it might be one of the reasons of why Slice trust so much on Nine's vision for the world, as he probably give a new meaning to her life other than being a pretty face and help her to value her own power.

Hey I have a question. I never saw the movie nor I want to see it +Nine sounds cool as fuck but....bk is in the movie) my question here is......why shig killed Nine?

When that scene was reblogged on Twitter I had the impression it was smth like "nine was using his name and shig wasn't pleased" ...can't be that bc this makes sense. Too much sense.

So did shig just kill the guy bc yes?

Maybe afo or the Dr evil asked shig to do so... which is plausible but damn...what waste. And it cements once again shig as a npc.

I'll try to explain this the best I can, because tbh nothing about this situation makes sense to me even today. And some context of the movie as well.

The movie starts with a scene of the LOV transporting Nine while he was still on a medical capsule inside a truck. There's a reference to this situation in the manga when the doctor request Shigaraki to deliver "something" for him.

But here's a thing: neither the movie or the prequel chapter Horikoshi made explain where Nine was being delivered or what the doctor intended to do with him in case he arrived to destiny. It feel that missing context is important.

In any case, the heroes attack the truck trying to arrest the league. The truck is destroyed in the battle and this allows Nine to escape and go back with his team.

Then we got a couple of scenes were Shigaraki seem to be tracking Nine activities, also using Hawks to do the research job for them (it's worth mentioning the events of the movie are supposed to happen at some point after MVA).

And after all this... nothing really, the movie drops this subplot and Shigaraki only appears again in the end when he comes out of literally nowhere to kill Nine. Allow me to ask how they even know his exact location? The black goo teleportation quirk doesn't even work like that btw.

Just like you my first assumption was Garaki ordered him to do so, maybe because after the spectacle Nine did in the island the doctor decided to eliminate him for security reasons. But we never got any indication of this being the case, in fact there's a scene when Garaki explicitly tells Shigaraki to not touch "it" (Nine).

Things became more confusing because in MVA when Shigaraki gives Garaki one of his edgy speeches about destroying everything he hates, there's a small cameo of Nine among the things crusty boy hates.

On a side note: this is technically Nine's first ever appearance, even before the movie itself was released. A sort of foreshadow for what it coming.

But going back to the point: why Shigaraki hates Nine so much in the first place? We never got a clear reason for any of this, isn't like they ever interacted, the only time before the movie they have some kind of contact was the prequel chapter focused on Nine, and that was only Shigaraki looking at Nine through a window.

Also the final scene when crusty boy kills Nine for some reason makes it sounds the situation is very personal? Like if Shigaraki hold some grudge against Nine for some reason.

And the line "I agree, there only can be one king" doesn't make any sense because isn't like Shigaraki knew about Nine's ideology and his desire of rule the world. The writers makes it seem to be like they both interacted and had a long term rivalry for some reason, but that never happened.

Oh and it's extra hilarious how Shigaraki killing Nine for no reason directly contradicts this other little scene:

If crusty a**hole always intended to be "a hero for villains" (as the story seem to pretend) what about Nine then? Idk but for me killing a defendless man while he was crawling on the ground doesn't seem too heroic.

Let's not forget Nine was a real hero for villains without presume about it. He saved the life of Chimera, Slice and Mummy in a way Shigaraki wish to be able to do with the lov.

Honestly is funny to think all this one directional hate Shigaraki feels for Nine could be just crusty boy being jaleous, which won't be surprise considering Nine is superior to him in everyway possible.

But well, thinking about this on a perspective outside the story itself an explanation of why Nine was killed maybe is because Horikoshi just needed a reason to get rid of him, as his presence might be problematic for the course of the main story. I mean it would be a bit suspicious to have another AFO possible vessel who happens to be better than Shigaraki, and Nine is the only movie main villain to be permanently killed on screen, while all the others like Wolfram and Flect survived.

Anyway, all this festival of bs let a bitter taste in my mouth.

Needless to say, such a good villain like Nine surely deserved way better than he got.

Nine and Rody were the only movie characters in MHA that I really liked. Those two are very popular. However because they are movie characters they were never supposed to have any scenes or moments in the actual show. So there wasn't any impact that they made to the show as a whole or to the major characters despite having the potential to do so.

I mean that's something Horikoshi decides to do or not. Nothing really dictates that Nine, Rody or anyone else from the movies can't be part of the main story.

And Star and Stripes isn't technically a movie original character that Horikoshi retconned to be an important character featured in her own arc in the manga as well?

Or heck even Melissa Shield did have a little participation in the final war arc. Her presence is more subtle than SnS but she's implied to made the new gauntlets Deku use during the vigilante arc and later help to build "Iron Might" armor.

So yeah there's no written rule about movie characters not being allowed to be part of the main story, it is all Horikoshi election.

If he wanted he could do something with the others but he didn't, or he couldn't find a way to properly introduce them outside of cameos.

And what a waste honestly, there's so much potential in the original characters from the movies.

@mikeellee @kite2013

As you both notice, it's kind of funny how the interactions of Dr Garaki with both Nine and Shigaraki are such different in the way the scientist treats them (despite both are just lab rats in the end).

Because see how Garaki openly insults, disrespects and laughs of Shigaraki ideas in front of his supposed friends.

Garaki probably felt almost insulted for having to keep the game going just because AFO wants Shigaraki to have this illusion of free choice, when in reality he's just a kid which they still have in the palm of their hand.

Even after MVA when Garaki shows a bit more of tolerancy to Shigaraki for mantain the illusion, in the inside he still makes fun of him because obviously he's the only person to really know Shigaraki is just a vessel playing to be the super villain.

But then we have his interview with Nine...

Notice how the aptitude and demeanor of the doctor is completely the opposite of what we saw with Shigaraki.

Despite obviously he's offering Nine be part of a shady experiment, he acts strangely polite and even shows a bit of curiosity when Nine expose his motives to be part in the experiment.

But also, Garaki thinks Nine is a dangerous individual despite in theory he should be the one in control of the situation and unlike in Shigaraki's case, Nine is alone in front of the doctor.

The biggest difference on how Garaki view Nine and Shigaraki, is that in the first case he sees a real man with strong convictions and an indomitable will who could actually change the curse of the world if he's given the chance.

This is my headcanon, but I think Garaki saw in Nine's eyes the closet to AFO in spirit and convictions (and it's interesting how both of them have the same white/silver eyes, coincidende?).

But for Shigaraki?

He only sees a dumb kid who doesn't even understand the situation he's in. A more obvious puppet who can be used the way he likes.

Shigaraki never had any chance with Garaki.

Oh I forgot to mention, but it's also funny as hell how the doctor shows more respect to Dabi in their private conversations than he does with Shigaraki in the same situation.

This happens because just like Nine, Dabi was a dangerous person who can't be controled so easily by him. So at least it gives him a bit more of respect by the crazy doctor.

One thing that is now unfair to ask is...what is Nine's name? Look hori treated him as an afterthought but his lack of origins works better than the comical twnko's origins.

Yes his family was all killed thanks to him but ...I can't help to think that scene was too ridiculous.

We never saw anyone mentioned them again, not even shig. (He remembers them in MVA and we do see the disgusting human puppet hori flay around) But that's it.

So Nine...

Im not one of those people who think a new character needs to be related to a pre stabelished one. Nine doesn't need to be a Todoroki, Shimura or hell even a lost Midoriya (hahahahahahaha as if hori would care for this family)

But ....imagine if Nine was related to Oboro, somehow, wouldn't that be interesting?

Maybe, maybe not.

Oboro's character became a thing to turns Aizawa into a better character...and fails. Kuro was sacrificed for nothing.

The thing about Shigaraki/Tenko backstory is that it feels... a bit overdramatic?

Well we can say that about his whole character, but the part of his backstory in particular when he kills his family is so exagerated for the sake of shock value that it kinda feels comical.

Horikoshi tried a bit too hard on make MVA feel like the edgier and "different" arc of the series, but the contrast in so big that I can't take it seriously.

Especially when Hori already nailed a dark tone without being super explicit or over the top.

Take the simplicity of Eri's backstory for example:

No blood, no unnecessary violence, just two panels giving a basic idea of what happened to Eri's father and yet the image of those clothes lying on the floor is much more haunting and eerie than the enterity of Shigaraki backstory.

Why Horikoshi stop being subtle with his storytelling?

...

Anyway going back to Nine real name, or the lack of one, I think it's interesting how that aspect of his character adds to the underlying theme of how AFO and Garaki dehumanize people, especially the ones that are part of their experiments.

We know very well how AFO doesn't view other human being as persons but rather objects that belong to him. This starts with his very own twin brother, which name Yoichi means something like "my first possesion".

And just like Nine, number 6 from Vigilantes was a child which whole life was modeled by AFO. They both are just numbers without a real name.

In this case the idea is presented even more explicitly because Six was a child who suffered some kind of amnesia and couldn't even view himself as a normal human with a face.

He even died as a monster without ever know if he had an identity outside being the number 6.

It's funny how you mention the idea of Nine and Shirakumo being connected somehow, as isn't the first time I've hear that.

It's interesting notice how they share this common theme about sky and clouds as part of who they are (Nine's name also is supposedly a reference to the term "cloud nine") both Nine and Oboro are individuals willing to sacrifice their own lifes for others, and ironically both of them ended being experimented by Dr Garaki.

I even have the headcanon of Kurogiri being the "Number 7" in this line of experiments were Nine and Six belong, as sort of missing link between Six and the sentient nomus.

I probably should make a post later explaining better this idea.

And yes for Horikoshi, Shirakumo was just a diposable character to make Aizawa look cooler and more edgy.

While the author of Vigilantes clearly invested a lot of effort on making Oboro a real and memorable character which complements Aizawa rather than just being an accesory. But that topic deserves it's own post as well.

P.S: I have an idea of what real name we could give to Nine, but I keep it for me at least for the moment.

hello I recently and after going through it I would like to ask some questions if that’s ok of course and sorry if you perhaps got one of theses questions before

1.what is your general opinion on Shigaraki cause I’m curious as a shiggy fan and just curious in general what other people who don’t like him as much or just in general don’t like him think of him

2. How would you write/rewrite shigaraki just in general or if nine was the main villian and Shigaraki was like a secondary villian and or maybe him joining up with nine

3. What do you think would have happened if nine found tenko

sorry if this ask comes off as annoying or rude I’m just general curious hope you having a good/night

Hello!

It's ok, I would try to answer the question the best I can as english isn't my first lenguage so sorry if you find errors here and there. So let's go:

1_ This may sound strange as my constant comments and critiques about Shigaraki may make look like I hate him, but isn't really the case.

I think is more he's a frustrating character to me because while on paper his concept is fine, I feel his presence ends up being detrimental to the quality of the story because the mangaka didn't know how kept Shigaraki relevant and his solution was artificially increase his status sacrificing other more interesting characters with potential just to elevate Shigaraki, especially Nine and Overhaul.

2_ Honestly I never thought on an in deep rewrite of Shigaraki overall character.

But If I have to say something he did works as a early antagonist considering the initial states of MHA and while I'm not fan of having a singular main villain (because in my ideal story multiple major villains should fight for the power) I think Shigaraki and Nine surely can coexist in the same story. They can even influence each other in fact.

After all an important part of Shigaraki as a character is how he develops a sense camaraderie and tries to became a better leader (even if there's a lot of problems with the execution if that idea in canon).

But Nine already had those qualities since the beginning, he's a good leader who always cared about his teamates and tried his best to protect them. He was a hero for them basically.

So why not make Nine a figure which inspires Shigaraki rather than his rival and Tomura attemps to became a better version of himself while looking what makes Nine a beloved leader, while at the same it time creates a contrast with AFO who was the only prominent figure on his life before.

It would also be funny if AFO didn't see coming how his two attempts of "successors" would became closer allies rather than rivals and join forces, eventually opposing him. Nine would never follow AFO selfish ideals, and he probably will fight to free Shigaraki from his control.

3_ This one is interesting, because I don't think Nine and Shigaraki have a big age difference in the first place.

Despite Nine got a more adult vibe he probably is at best middle 20s, which would make him 4-5 years older than Shigaraki in terms of canon age.

So in a scenario where Nine found Tenko after what happened to his family that day they both will still be kids.

But despite Nine seem to only care about people with stronger quirks and you can think "why he would care about a random kid in the streets?" I actually think Nine has this unconsious instict to protect others in a vulnerable situation regardless of their actual power. After all how he could guess people like Slice and Mummy were strong but he helped them anyway?

That being said I think Nine would do exactly the same for Tenko if he found him that day, extending a hand to him (metaphorically at least lol) and both would escape together while trying to survive on the cruel world of the streets as two orphans without any place to go.

Think about it as Nine being the big bro who tries to protect Tenko the best he can, because he knows Tenko can be a really strong person and both could take on the world someday. Of course Nine won't try to fuel Tenko's trauma unlike AFO, perhaps he will attempt to heal him and Tenko will recover a bit of his own selfless and sweet self with time.

While they grown together as a found family they eventually will meet Chimera, Slice and Mummy like Nine did in canon.

Idk how their lives should continue from there, but pretty sure all them will still fight for create the ideal world Nine always wanted for all of them.

So that's it, I tried my best to answer each question but probably I could've added a lot more but didn't want to make this too long either.

Perhaps one day I will do more post with ideas about how I would like the story to be. It's very fun write about Nine and Shigaraki actually.

Thank you for ask and read!