Latest Posts by luvmon3t - Page 3

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work husband

hiiii first off i love ur art so much i always look forward to seeing it on my tl or on here!!!! secondly i think ur dabihawks is soo hot and they make a lot of sense from an aesthetic pov for me but they don't compel me much outside of that so if i can ask, what's your interpretation of why u ship them? or like narratively what compels you to like them as a ship?

this is so long i'm so embarrasssed, but i tried to gather my thoughts a bit :)

first things first: a lot of fans say that horikoshi wasted dabihawks' potential but tbh i've appreciated that horikoshi has kept most of it between the lines for us to figure out, i think that mode fits reflects their dynamic (and the endeavor - dabi - hawks triangle) well.

Also I know you asked what I find appealing about the ship, not all of these interpretations are about romance/shipping; some are just about their general dynamic. as I keep saying, the yaoi is only secondary to their overall weirdness, that’s more appealing to me tbh.

the obvious canon dynamic: Dabi and Hawks are (filial) foils: they represent 2 opposing outcomes of what happens when endeavor/enji (we have to differenciate) basically shapes your life. they're two sides of the same coin that symbolizes endeavor's 2 sides: enji, that father who fails vs. endeavor, the hero who succeeds. I don't think I need to elaborate on this, but yeah it's pretty overt in the manga that they’re filial foils, the fact that they’re the same ages makes it even more obvious like they’re equal opposites and I love that sm.

my ship interpretation of their overall dynamic: dabi and Hawks can get under each other’s skin in a way that no one can; there is so much irritation but also uncomfortable intimacy, because how come this guy who barely knows me knows where it hurts the most??

I think dabi is easily irritated by hawks because – as mentioned above – hawks is the complete opposite of dabi, I just know hawks’ charming (& sleazy) hero persona would piss him offff, but that’s only surface level annoyance, once dabi starts digging, connects the dots, and realizes that hawks is weirdly attached to his colleague aka dabi’s dad? And that his dad basically saved hawks from his abusive dad?? and that endeavor set off hawks’s career as the youngest hero to enter to top 3??? That hawks basically has everything that was promised to dabi??? CUTE THE CAMERAS!!!!! the irony is NOT lost on dabi!!!!!!!!!!!! One thing I love about dabi is his resentment towards those who make him painfully aware of his failures in life, I think resentment, jealousy, grief for what could have been are so interesting to explore, especially for a 23yo character like you rlly lose your mind at that age.

But as easily as hawks irritates dabi, dabi can get on hawks’ nerves and hit him where it hurts like no one else, precisely because they’re inextricably tied to each other through endeavor. So dabi is ver intimate with hawks’ flaws & issues and likes to probe and poke……. I made a whole post about this, but I think the todorokis’ closure would’ve been less disappointing if dabihawks got to face each other one last time; this time with everyone present. Dabi could have reminded hawks that  -- while he’s the one withering away in an oxygen chamber & hawks climbed up the career ladder and gets to work with endeavor – hawks is caged in a far more constricting way; he didn’t learn shit from twice’s death and that’s gonna haunt him, dabi would also say out loud what hawks is ignoring, namely that endeavor hasn’t chosen hawks once over his son (much to be said here let’s not digress oaughh). So hawks can have fun running after his father forever and secretly yearning paternal attention & validation. Dabi might be on the verge of death, but he got to reflect, let go, and change at least; Hawks’ character is SO stuck & and I think dabi should remind him of that <3 hawks should have nightmares sometimes <3 this is yaoi to me <3

This one isn’t about romance, but dabihawks are also so interesting to me because I think  their relationship is kind of similar to dabi’s relationship with shoto: imo, hawks parallels dabi in a way that is analogous to the parallelism between dabi and shoto. As I said before, hawks and shoto both represent a life that was supposed to be dabi’s, but another parallel I see is that hawks and dabi are so similar and had the potential to connect (both as normal kids but also as damaged adults), but life is unfair and they never and on the other.

There’s a real tragedy in dabi’s isolation (endeavor forcibly isolating his children from each other is repeatedly mentioned), and I think that this can be extended to hawks as well, which is why there’s a LOT of fan work of them befriending each other as children 😊 but I think that in a more radical approach to the story, dabihawks could’ve also connected as damaged adults but let’s not get into that.

Tl;dr: they’re parallel lines that cannot reach each other or cross paths but there are enough hints to make you feel like they could find each other in a kinder universe…………… KILL ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok now my yaoi interpretation of that: I think the dynamic that I’ve described in the point above lends itself really well to a vast array of outcomes they’re such a dynamic duo. I love the cute aus that are just about dbhx falling in love, but I also LOVE the doomed yaoi, there’s something beautiful about dabihawks doing their thing despite all the odds and the pride and the repulsion (let’s not get into that,,,,,,,,,,,). I love when their intimacy is permeated by an anticipation of betrayal like the quirks stay ON during sex, the breakup text is DRAFTED in their notes app, the IP address is always READY to get leaked, they have each other’s moms on SPEED dial to snitch on the other………………………… they’re not meant to be but they WILL fuck nasty ( and have surprisingly intimate moments) yup

attachment styles /yaoiimplied: I think dabi is an avoidant and hawks an anxiously attached partner. Which means that dabi is hyper independent and scared of emotional intimacy to the point of self-sabotage (he WILL create problems out of thin air and lash out at hawks when their weird situationship starts getting too comfortable). Which means that hawks is terrified of rejection (his parents left him & his clings so much to endeavor & he forces himself into the Todoroki family) and fears that he could lose whatever he and dabi have so he clings, which is so so scary to dabi. I see a lot of headcanons about dabi being possessive but I don’t agree at all; I think the second dabi feels like hawks might fall for sb else (they do cheat on each other I thin), he’s just gonna give lmaooo, dabi is NOT a fighter!!!!!!!!!!! His obsession is exclusive to his beef with his father!! He will NOT beg and fight for hawks’ love!!! Idk I like how their trauma gave them very different attachment patterns <3

names as another layer of intimacy (cute): this is in the manga so I don’t feel the need to elaborate on this, but there’s sth SO intimate about dabi and hawks both letting go of their birth names and those being such a big mystery for such a long time, both to the readership & characters. The fact that dabi finds out hawks’ name and CALLS him by his name during a fight ugh I love the juxtaposition of intimacy and violence. They probably use their 1st names during nice moments also keigo and touya are really cute names but I digress…..

names as another layer of intimacy (bad): while the paragraph above present this as rather cute and intimate, I think there’s also violence and a hierarchy at play when you use somebody’s deadname (I think we can call it that idk). Not only is there the juxtaposition of violence and intimacy when dabi uses hawks’ name, I think there’s also sth. deeply disrespectful about hawks using dabi’s given name like WHO are you to call him toya!!!!!!!!!!!! And the answer to that is that hawks uses it because endeavor uses it, which is so insane but whatever let’s not go there………….

also hotwings is such a good ship name sorry i was sold on that alone..............

sorry this whole page is yaoi to me, this fight is sexual in general well whatever let's move ON!!!!

Abjection: the aforementioned mutual irritation with each other that results from their uncomfortable & unwanted proximity feels so abject to meeeeeeeee

idk they have perfect yaoi equilibrium to me

the color symbolism :)

This looks like when u try to bring your bf to a metalcore concert and he doesn’t like the experience very much krkrkrkr  anyway happy dabidance day y'all.

You know what

It would have been so good if the quirks, that alienated the LOV to the point their only option was becoming villains, would have saved them in the end. The quirks that were their "downfall" turning out to be blessings... it would have been so satisfying.

Toga's quirk producing blood. Throw in some its made in her heart out of "love".

The reconstruction side of the decay quirk not being lost and putting Tenko right back together

Spinner shedding the nomu-fication.

Phoenix quirk for Touya (that one's far fetched but whatever)

This is kind of out of nowhere for my blog and I feel like I'm going against both canon and fanon when I say this, but having mostly caught up with how My Hero Academia tried to wrap things up in its ending, I think Decay should've been Shigaraki's original quirk. A lot of the fandom likes the idea that Tomura was born quirkless until AFO got to him, since it parallels so well with Izuku. I do think that's a cool idea, but it's not my favorite theory for reasons I'll get into later. Unfortunately for most of us, it's been confirmed that he was born with a quirk, it just doesn't matter what it was because AFO took it and later gave him Decay. From what I can tell, that's not a particularly well-liked explanation since it puts AFO in the position of 'mastermind who organized literally everything bad that happened' which I imagine most people find lame. But consider this: even if Tomura was quirkless originally, wouldn't that leave AFO in the same place? I love the League of Villains a lot and consider them to be horribly tragic characters, but I think Tomura's situation in particular would've been more tragic if the whole thing was just one awful coincidence. Even if his bio family weren't who they were, Decay would've showed up eventually and almost certainly would cause a lot of problems. And I also think it would've been a whole lot more fucked up if AFO just picked him up on a whim because it was convenient, and learning about the kid's relation to his nemesis afterwards was what gave him the idea for his own legacy plan. When I think of tragedies, I usually look at them from the lens of "was there anything else that could've been done?" With Decay as Shigaraki's original quirk, no, there really wasn't. Alas, it is ultimately a story of good triumphing over evil, so there needed to be some bitch behind everything and AFO is that bitch. They needed an ultimate villain to blame instead of acknowledging the faults of their own system, and all of the bad guys connected to him needed to be dealt with in order to 'fix' everything. I wish the story as a whole could've been handled with a little more respect and nuance, but I guess I'll settle for self-indulgent fanfiction instead.

I am amazed

That the Todoroki family is as functional and well put together as it is, I really am. This isn't me going, 'they shouldn't want him back!', btw... though I do still think that, for the record. It's more that they go through all that, and at the end of the day only Dabi goes on to not be a productive citizen.

I'm... not really going anywhere with this, it's just... their dad is an abusive asshole, yeah, that's the baseline. He's rich, sure whatever. The important bit is, I think, is that he's a hero, and you have to remember that in that MHA context: a hero, in MHA, is more than just a celebrity, more than just a public servant. The only way I can really put it is like this; in MHA, a hero is expected to hold up the sky, and so is treated as such.

In a society fracturing under the weight of overreaching government restrictions, escalating societal pressures, civil rights movements that are starting to bloom into terrorist organizations for the sheer lack of progress being made, heroes are the glue holding it all together. They are that big, that important, that beloved.

And the Todorokis were raised by, and abused by, one such hero. But he's not just a hero, oh no: he's not some down on his luck no-name barely scraping by, or struggling to manage his job, he's Endeavor, the Number Two Hero. He's second only to All Might, which might as well mean he's first among all humans. His face and image is on toys and posters, his name known to every man, woman and child in Japan, and probably by substantial amounts on other continents as well. In short, I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that he, and the other top heroes, are pillars of society.

That is the man that abused them, that is the man that ruined their lives: a man who symbolizes the very society they live in.

I'll say it again: the fact that only Dabi snapped, and went on to reject their father and everything he stands for, astounds me. After driving their mother into a psychotic break, to the point she spends the rest of her life locked away, after driving their brother into suicide, everything he does to them and they just... go onto being normal people.

In my imagination, Fuyumi is... the leader of a motorcycle gang. Why? I don't know; I don't even think one could possibly exist in a society where law enforcement can come down out of the sky and casually flip an eighteen wheeler, but... still, that's my mental image for her. I think it's the sheer level of repression she has going on being released in cathartic violence and wild rampage.

Natsuo, meanwhile, I picture having a normal job, a normal life, but being just... super subversive under the surface. Maybe he hacks hero's bank accounts, maybe he joins some crazed revolutionary organization (MHA has enough of them), or is some guerilla reporter devoted to exposing heroic corruption or something; I'm not sure which, but him having that level of secrecy in his rebellion when he's outwardly the most straightforward about his anger amuses me.

For Rei? At some point, Endeavour comes to visit her, and she's the one to give him that scar on his eye.

As a treat.

And as for Shoto? In a timeline without Midoriya correction... well. I always imagined he'd go to school and become a hero, as expected. Endeavour tries to force him into his agency, but he refuses, goes his own way, does everything he can to avoid the man, even if it damages his career prospects, but above all else he refuses to bow, refuses to bend even an inch to his father.

But Endeavour refuses to leave his prized creation alone.

And then, one day, he just... snaps. Goes full Sephiroth, in fact. He snaps, kills his father before he even knows what's happening, and just kinda... wanders off, to accidently his way into becoming a feared villain, either still not emoting at all, or again like Sephiroth (or his brother), just going full in on the crazy.

And for bonus points? The last straw that drives him over the edge? Endeavour's eye getting scarred, Endeavour looking more like him, both of them marked by Rei's hand; that last, unwanted, connection to the man he hates most, laced with some of his deepest, most unresolved trauma.

So in light of the absolute fuckery that's been Chapter 407, I want to talk about All For One, because I don't think I've ever really talked about him.

I don't mind that he's evil for evil's sake, I don't mind that his ultimate goal is to take OFA so that he can take over the world and make everyone reliant on him or whatever. I don't mind that he nearly took over Japan back in the day. But like everything else Horikoshi touches, AFO had potential that was ultimately squandered away.

I hate how he was literally pure evil IN FUCKING UTERO, I hate how he was barely even utilized (outside of Kamino Ward, which that was fucking awesome) before he tries wrestling control of Shigaraki to be the main villain again. I hate how even though he allegedly has hundreds upon hundreds of Quirks, he spams the same 3-4 ones, and I hate how for supposedly smart and devious he is, we never see him utilizing UA's bad PR or his traitor to his advantage.

It's kind of weird to say this, but I both miss AFO, and feel sorry for him. I know he's been in the story a lot, but... it feels like AFO, the real one, fucking died at Kaminio, and his idiot corpse has just been running around since with Hori's hand up his ass.

Before Kamino, AFO was evil, yes, and and we didn't know about him, but he felt like a real person; an asshole, but he was something you could imagine a super-powered mob boss could end up being.

Since then, though? He's just been becoming more and more... shallow. It's like Hori was hinting at these dark, mysterious depths of ancient man, and then he pulled the curtain and showed us a fucking puddle. And now? All the mystery, all the backstory?

'BeCaUSe i'M EEEEEEEVVVILLLL'. Unironically, it seems to be his only motivation anymore. He does bad things because he's evil; he doesn't actually want to take over the world, that's just something he's doing because taking over the world is evil. Money? Power? Ultimately worthless, nothing more than tools for the purposes... of EVIL!

So... here's the question: why is he evil?

Because he was evil when he was an adult. Why was he evil as an adult? Because he was evil as a kid, apparently, instead of anything more interesting like him slowly being radicalized by Quirk Discrimination. Why was he evil as a kid? Because he was born evil, instead of anything more interesting like a terrible family, or because a police officer hurt him and traumatized him for life. Why was he evil when he was born?

??????

Because he was born of evil genetics, maybe; I wouldn't put it past Hori to make him unironically Quirk Satan or something. The thing is, that's not how human beings work; even an actual sociopath isn't going to be born this gibberingly, one-dimensionally evil. Worse yet, it's fucking boring to have a human being this basic; at this point why aren't they fighting a robot, or monster or something? It'd have the same level of motivation, and it'd feel more interesting than this.

Even ignoring how stupid he's become post-Kamino (which is a related but different point, best summed up by post-Kamino AFO is basiclly running around with his pants on his head, constantly getting one upped by the heroes, the kids, and basiclly random strangers by now), AFO was at his most interesting, not only when he was competent, but when he felt like a person; there's a reason DFO is so popular, and it's not just because it drags Izuku into it, but because it humanizes AFO, gives him real, human motivations to make us interested in his character.

The worst part of it? There's been so many chances to make him more than this caricature of a human being; by making him care for Shigaraki (or for Dr. Plot Device, or even Kurogiri, his loyal minion, before he was Eraserhead's seemingly somewhat retconned 'human interest' (which was barely a thing), or even just for Gigantomachia, who is basiclly a giant, super-violent dog, who he could have cared about like he was just a giant dog), or for him caring for his brother.

I mean, shit. In all honesty, I could make the 'biting baby' thing work, even. Ideally, it'd need some set up beforehand, but you know how Himiko is (the only one we've ever seen) with desires from her Quirk? Do something similar to how Yhwach in Bleach was on AFO, with that kind of logic, with him needing something, at this fundamental level, to be functional, that he's almost addicted to stealing Quirks, that AFO as a Quirk only works as a Quirk because somewhere in his magic DNA he's... unstable. That the very versatility that allows him to hold every Quirk is starving for the stability of a normal Quirk, so that even as a infant, he's instinctively trying feed himself something a normal human would never need.

There's this whole, interesting dynamic this would introduce, a real nature/nurture-y kind of thing, that would put a whole new spin on his character; he's this seemingly pointlessly evil person because his needs, combined with the only real role model he had for someone in his situation, the demon kings he's seen in manga, and a society that rejected him, both as someone with a Quirk by the normal humans, and as someone who could take away their Quirks by the Quirked, turning him into this because that's all he's ever known.

And here's the thing? This idea? Hori could still try to do that. He could try to turns table us with this sudden development, and try to make a real boy out of AFO. But I don't think he's going to; I really don't think he'll do that. Worse, even if he does try that, he'll just double down on AFO being 'born evil' instead of anything with any real depth to it. Do you know why I think that?

Because in all honesty, AFO isn't a real character anymore; he hasn't been for awhile now. All he is is a plot device, the duck tape Hori's been putting on everywhere to try and hold the story together against all the plot holes and logic failures that have been built up from years of bad, biased and rushed writing. More and more, he's become the reason for everything, the cause of every problem Hori can't be bothered to think through, every villain he didn't want to actually have to explain.

The Readers/The Characters: Why did X happen? What caused that? How does Y feel abou- Hori: AFO did it. I ain't gotta explain shit.

And that's the real reason he's so stupid, BTW, the reason he never uses any other Quirk, or applies any creativity in combat (or anywhere else), and why he keeps losing... it's for the plot. Because the thing is? AFO is fucking overpowered.

Let me tell you something I've never seen anyone else acknowledge: All Might never should have won. He overpowered AFO, sure, but we saw from their fight that he barely did that; didn't crush the puny caster AFO once he got past the lasers, his one super Quirk barely out-performed AFO's stacked Quirks in direct combat. Which, yeah, sure I can see that....

But. Why did AFO fight fair, just power against power, blow vs blow? Why didn't he, like, release poison gas as they fought? All Might is strong, but he still has flesh, blood, lungs; he's still very vulnerable to all kinds of softer Quirks. Where was the touch activated Quirk, like that kid from the License Exam, would have turned All Might into a meatball, or taffy, or whatever? Where was the voice activated Quirk that would have stunned All Might for a critical moment?

Hell. Why didn't AFO cheat? Why did he fight All Might, like an honorable person, when he realised the man was possibly a threat to him, instead of just... assassinating him, like a crime lord (or demon king)? Go to his home (or Might Tower, or wherever), drug his food, put something in his water, hell, just launch a surprise attack from point blank range? We know he tried for Eraserhead's Quirk once, before... apparently just giving up and never trying again; why didn't he try again, get it, and use that?

And beyond even all those problem, I don't see a reason for OFA to have survived long enough to get to All Might in the first place!

I mean, seriously: we know that every user fought AFO, viciously, to point where it caused their early deaths (except the one that basiclly started to Snap himself out of existence). We know OFA was only slowly building up in power, and the early versions especially didn't do much at all, and the Quirks all of them had where never top of the line because they were literally just a random person nearby when the Holder before them died.

So. Riddle me this: why, when a bunch of honestly mid-tier people tried, again and again, to kill AFO, who was overwhelmingly stronger than them, who had access to more tools, powers and money than they did; why, when all these factors were stacked against them, did they survive to the point where they could even pass OFA on? How did they survive blows strong enough to destroy buildings, laser blasts, all these powerful Quirks and techniques that AFO uses casually that most heroes would have been instantly killed by, if not flat out destroyed.

I mean... fuck, there's a decent chance AFO knew they had OFA in them, which he wanted (for whatever reason; sentimentality clearly isn't a emotion he's allowed to have, and early OFA wouldn't have been worth the effort for him to go through all of this to try and acquire it), which means instead of just killing them, he would have captured them, taken them back to his base, and then tortured them until they gave him OFA, just so they would finally be allowed to die and not hurt anymore? While I'm at this, why didn't he just kill any pedestrians around after he killed whatever OFA Holder he was fighting; it's not like morals are going to stop him, are they?

Fundamentally, MHA is built off the premise that AFO, terrifying criminal genius with countless Quirks, strong enough that he makes people by him hallucinate out of terror, is so pants shittingly stupid that he spent almost a hundred years basiclly punching himself in the face rather than just winning fights that were ludicrously stacked in his favor again and again and again; I mean, hell, he could still be an utter moron, and as long as he just got lucky once, just once, the giant, unending sequence of coincidences and logic breaking victories that allowed All Might to get his Quirk never would have happened.

None of this, of course, is even mentioning everything happening in the Final Arc, like AFO's obvious weakness to allow him to be finally beat forever appearing out of nowhere, in him having Remnants (even though AFO took eight users to to power it up enough to get to the point that AFO was apparently always at, and us having no reason to think this was a thing before now, much less all the absolute nightmare fuel questions that raises about the Nomu, and all the Quirks that AFO's doctor had stored away), and Eri's Quirk actively accelerating to heal him, thus limiting his life span (or the fact it's even working like that in the first place), even though it's a time Quirk, not a healing Quirk, and it doesn't fucking care about how wounded he is.

So, why did it happen? Why is it still happening?

Because he's a plot device. Because he exists, not as an active character with his own agenda, but as an adjustable target for the heroes to fight against, again and again and again, and if he won, the story would be over. Fundamentally, Hori made AFO too strong, too smart, too well connected, too perfect to every truly lose in this setting, and instead of trying to fix that, in any real way, impose some kind of realistic limitations or drawbacks in his wildly over-powered Quirk, or just kill him off so he wasn't a factor anymore, he just... made the man stupid.

I find Endeavor giving up on Toya once he found out that his son's quirk (Blueflame) was self-destructive to be, not only out-of-character, but incredibly stupid.

Endeavor is loaded, he bought Rei. Why not buy Toya special support gear costume with cooling? Aoyama's belt, Mirio's suit, and f*cking Mecha Might basically suggest that support gear can do anything as long as the plot demands it.

Besides that, has Endeavor literally never heard of endurance training? That's literally the only type of training Class 1A does most of the time. Just have Rei on standby if anything goes wrong. It's not like being a human cooler would be the most degrading thing she's suffered.

It's like the first time Aizawa criticized Deku for injuring himself with One for All. Did they try thinking of solutions before trying to get them to give up ?

Also, it's kind of messed that Toya's inability fulfill Endeavor's goals is because Rei, the bought mother. It could've easily been Endeavor's fault, like his intense training at a young age ruined Toya's developing body.

OK, you see, the thing is you're thinking about this logically. Like, Endeavor has been many things, but 'rational' isn't one of them. Deeply toxic and twisted, on the other hand?

You need to think like someone desperate to prove themselves, filled with about eight superiority and inferiority complexes, and yet so resigned to his own inferiority that he ended up needing to make someone else to do it for him. The fact that Toya hurt himself? It meant he was weak. That's it. He was weak for being unable to use his powers safely.

And the second he was weak, he was no longer useful, because he could no longer beat All Might.

(Nevermind, of course, that there was nothing he could do to make someone able to beat All Might, because All Might and All For One are both setting breaking hacks that single handedly break the balance of power. Even a super Shoto with the blue flames of Dabi and, like, absolute zero ice, perfectly balanced and able to withstand his own power, would get casually bitchslapped by All Might. That's how overwhelmingly broken he is.)

Beyond that, it's worth pointing out that, 1, Mecha Might is, again, setting breaking bullshit, even in the bullshit casually tinkertech setting that is MHA, and that 2, while Quirk training is a thing (presumably that's how Dabi was able to be as high functioning as he was with his... well, entire everything, that he grinded with his Quirk until he was able to work beyond the pain), there are limits without Awakenings... and let's be honest, Awakenings are just how Hori tried to explain people's various power ups to try and keep them relevent in the ever increasing clusterfuck of his story. No amount of training would make it so that Toya would not burn himself; training like that increases limits, but it doesn't change how the Quirk works.

There's basiclly no reason, in setting, for someone not to suit themselves entirely in support tech to be a purely tech driven hero, beyond institutional culture that is built around people's Quirks. I can't even say it's expensive, because hell, Mei just pulls them out on the regular, and there's every reason to think she was making them even before she actually got into UA, instead of somehow learning to make them within a week or two of getting into school.

The fact that support tech is so damn underused is almost criminal, especially for people with more limited abilities; can you imagine if Kirashima, with his hardening, was given some kind of ranged tool? An air blast or something?

You're also ignoring all his complexes in implying that, 1, Rei could do anything, when literally she only exists to be a breeder, and I don't think he's ever shown imagining her able to do... anything helpful.

And, most importantly, 2: Endeavor always blames everyone but himself. Always. Even in the 'canon' (I have opinions on the sheer level of retcon there) version of events, with how soft that is on Endeavor, Endeavor sets up Toya to have a psychotic break. He isolates him, orients his entire life around one thing (surpassing All Might) and then takes away the very foundation he built his life on, before basiclly ignoring him and never trying to fix him afterwords; of course the kid is messed up! Yet, all this time, he looks back, and all he can think is, 'I couldn't stop him! Toya was so driven, Toya wouldn't stop hurting himself, Toya wouldn't listen to me!'

Toya, Toya, Toya. Everything wrong with Dabi's story was blamed on Toya, even though he was an actual child and Endeavor was the one with all the control in the family; his recollection of things was so warped you could see how it contracted with literally everyone's experience of events... Of course he was going to blame Rei over himself! Rei is the person he bought, and he's the top hero, rich and famous! Nothing is ever his fault!

(Also, I have opinions on Aizawa, and they're overwhelmingly negative. The fact that Aizawa wanted to ditch Izuku first thing is a result of his overwhelming biases and prejudices..... exactly like Endeavor. MHA has this thing of making massively biased authority figures that are obviously so and then going through fire to protect them from their own actions.)

I feel like having Toga and Dabi be serial killers was a bad idea because it serves no purpose in the story.

The LOV consists of serial killers, thieves, and minorities. And they're treated the same, no internal disputes about ethics.

Agreed.

I've talked about this before, but I really hate what Horikoshi did with Toga and Dabi. They joined the LOV because of Stain, but for some reason that's never addressed. Dabi even mentioned hating "false heroes" which, going on the theory that he was Touya, implied that he hated how Endeavor was revered despite the way he treated his family.

But no, he sees nothing wrong with Endeavor beating Rei, neglecting Natsu and Fuyumi, and bashing Shoto. It turns out he just wanted Endeavor's attention😒

And with Toga... Horikoshi just leaned way too far into making her a yandere archetype. I liked what she said to Izuku when she was posing as Camie because it sounded like she was trying to see what kind of hero he was. Early Toga was a lot more intelligent and insightful.

But all that was scrapped to make her a creepy predator with no substance.

When it comes to character assassination, Dabi and Toga really got some of the worst of it. Especially in the end. One died, the other is being forced to see his abuser to "make amends"

The lack of emotional connection between Midoriya and Shigaraki jeopardized the 'Save the Villain' trope.

In the last season of 'My Hero Academia', we come face to face with the trope of 'Save the Villain', having a certain hero have a certain villain they can relate to. In Deku's case, that's Shigaraki. The two of them have a lot in common, as we see through out the show, but in the beginning, their main one is that one is the sucessor of the greatest hero and the other, the sucessor of the greatest villain. After time passes we see more and more similarities, some subtle, others not. All of that leads to the last season where Midoriya decides he's going to save Shigaraki (somehow) and tries to get him to stop.

Now, this is the thing, that line of "I want to save that little boy" felt cheap to me. Let me explain: That line is supposed to be impactful, it's supposed to mean something coming out of Izuku's lips; however, it doesn't. It doesn't, because it lacks emotional depth. -> It lacks emotional depth, because we didn't have scenes that showed why Midoriya would like to save Shigaraki (specifically), what made him connect to him.

We have no scenes of the two of them just talking, either about beliefs or any topic that they could other relate to each other. The only scene that comes close to that (and it's pretty much the only scene where they're not trying to punch each other) is the mall scene. And even that scene goes nowhere, it is just so that Shigaraki can blame All Might again. It could be a scene where the two of them discuss more and it could be the start of their connection, which doesn't include One for All or All for One. This beginning could grow by having them have more moments, expanding their relationship. It also would be good for later in the story when Midoriya tries to save Tenko, because then it would have a solid base that had grown into that point.

So, when you have the last chapters of Midoriya trying to save Shigaraki, it feels empty, because why would the main antagonist accept the offer? It's like having a random stranger ask you to trust them, why would you? you don't know them. They have no connection, no deep conversations and their relationship has been very poorly written. (also, how is beating the crap out of Shigaraki going to save him?) Not to mention, that in order for Midoriya to create a bond with Shigaraki, he'd need to understand his side; which seems impossible, since Izuku is never allowed to have "bad", ugly feelings or be anything more than the 'good boy that loves heroes and never critices hero society'. (this whole topic deserves a whole post on it's own).

Therefore, to have a 'Villain gets saved by the Hero' trope, it needs to have a reason why the villain would trust the hero, an emotional connection that would make the hero want to save the villain and a well developed relationship. All of which, BNHA didn't have, which is why it's no surprise that trope flopped with our main hero and villain.

hey have you ever made a post about what changes you would make to bnha to make the story more cohesive and less *gestures vaguely*

Hi @trulyisawesome 👋,

Great question! Please be aware that there's some spoilers below and that some of what I have to say may be an unpopular opinion.

It is also rather disjointed as this became a bit of a rant / brainstorm.

So here's a list of what changes I would make to MHA.

Give Bakugou proper consequences - such as having Aizawa expel him right away as soon as he makes to attack Midoriya. It would highlight the message straight away that bullies and abusers can't be heroes as well as the fact that power isn't everything.

Change Izuku's hero name to Dekiru - not Deku. I know some people like the reclaimation of this insult but I'm not one of them. Having Bakugou's insulting nickname meaning 'worthless' be instead changed to Dekiru meaning 'you can do it' fits more with Izuku's character. How he is an underdog who despite the odds never stopped trying with his dream.

Make Shigaraki Tomura the 'rival' as well as the 'villain' of the story. Think about it. What are rivals in these Shonens meant to do? To challenge the Protagonist and inspire them to become stronger. Bakugou in canon just tears Midoriya down relentlessly calling him "Deku" and calling the OFA holders "worthless nobodies" there's nothing inspiring about that. However - Shigaraki. He definitely could challenge Midoriya (both in views and power) and inspire him to become stronger. He's also shown to think of Midoriya constantly (separate to AFO's influence which is huge) so Midoriya could easily challenge (both views wise and in terms of power) and inspire him. Plus more interactions between these two would have done them wonders.

I would have Midoriya be the one to be kidnapped by the League rather than Bakugou. With Shiggy constantly thinking of him I believed this would happen, that Shig would try and fail to recruit Midoriya upon finding out he's a 'late bloomer'. It would also make a contrast between that moment and Izuku trying to save Shigaraki later because at that point they've both reached out to each other. And the whole narrative of 'saving Shigaraki' feels less forced.

Build up Shigaraki either as the main villain taking up AFO's villianous legacy like how Izuku is taking AM's heroic legacy or build up his redeemability by having him question what he was taught by his 'Sensei.' Either of these routes would be better than the inner child that is crying B.S. It neatly sidesteps all of the fact that Shigaraki canonically does not feel remorse or wish to change for any of deaths he caused. It is poor writing to try to redeem a character by throwing a pity party for them because they have suffered rather than addressing 'Do they want to be saved? Do they want to do better and change?' With Shigaraki, he wants to be saved from All for One but does he want to change or feel regret? Canonically, no. He uses Nomu's with no guilt. He kills people with no guilt. All he wants is destruction.

Don't redeem Endeavor - here's the thing. When Hori went down this route several things went wrong. Shoto lost his relevance as a main character and it became 'the Endeavor Show.' So instead, I would explore Shoto's POV growing separate from his Dad as well as reconnecting with both his siblings and his mum again as well as exploring their autonomous POV's. In canon, Hori scapegoated both Dabi and Rei to shift blame off of him which was a mess and muddles the messaging. Endeavor is meant to the symbol of the corrupt heroics 'redeeming him' undermines that.

Make Stain have a point. A controversial opinion but Stain in theory does have a point because there corrupt heroes (*cough* Endeavor *cough*) however the heroes Stain is shown to hurt do seem to be those he should like I.e Tensei Iida (who in the Spin Off Vigilantes is shown to be a good hero.) Give Stain targets that make sense I.e make a hero who is being corrupt, doing bad and being bad and have Stain hurt them. At the moment he just appears to hunt those that aren't All Might and dont emulate him.

Show Heroes / The Hero commission being corrupt more. Sure we have 'the optimist and murderer' Hawks as an example, Nagant who is in a few chapters but this corruption is meant to be a systemic issue. How the HPSC ruled and how the heroes have to bow to them is never fully explored I hate that (I actually wouldn't mind these guys being the actual bad guys of the series and the villians being the ones speaking out against them.)

I would establish Nagant as a character earlier. I would have Izuku be a fan of hers and I would have Hawks be mentored by her to support her place in the story and the impact of what happens to her by showing established characters effected by her and care for her. Since canonically it feels like Hori dropped her in the story out of nowhere.

Don't make Geten a Himura or reveal this earlier. Again. What was the point of this revelation? I could have seen this and been more open to it if it were revealed in the MVA arc. I would either have Geten rant maniacally about the purity and strength of the Himura Ice perhaps to parallel Endeavor's lust for power while Dabi stares at him shocked or not go down this route at all. Since now, it feels out of place and shoe horned in out of nowhere. And the incest stuff... I get that this sort of thing would happen in a world of quirks but what does it add? Rei is now canonically a product of incest - and what does that do? Narratively wise it nothing at all except give Rei's situation a whole other layer of ICK.

I would not give Dabi ice. What was the point of that revealation? His whole suffering comes down to the fact that he wasn't born perfect. That through Endeavor's quirk marriage he was born with a quirk that didn't suit his body and constantly harmed himself with his fire. Yet even so Touya used and continued to train his fire because Endeavor built up his sense of self as only his successor / how good he was with his fire then tore that away. Giving Dabi ice as a reaction to his near death state does what narratively? Shows Endeavor should have kept hurting / training Dabi when his quirk starts to hurt him? The whole point of Dabi's story should have been that he shouldn't have to be born "perfect" to be worthy of love yet the narrative robs him of that.

I would also either erase Dabi's kill count entirely or I would have it so that he accidentally killed those in the orphanage with his escape. And counted them in his 30 kills. This move I feel like would make him more sympathetic. It feels like Hori gave Dabi a kill count of random civilians to undermine him / his point against Endeav. Having him blame himself for the deaths of those in the orphanage (and them be a majority of his 30 kills) helps his redeemability because it proves despite his words that he still feels things and is in fact emotionally repressing things due to trauma.

Build up Toga Himiko as a sympathetic villian from the get go instead of a "Blood Yandere" or just make her a full irredeemable villian. With Toga from the start I would give her internal conflict about killing others, give her guilt about taking lives to feed her addiction to blood, make her try not to take lives /her killings accidental before she loses more and more of herself to the thirst for blood which then Ochaco could 'save' her from by reminding her what she wants is genuine connection/ help. Or I'd have her be a full unrepentant villian that needs to be stopped.

Explore the full consequences of Twice's death on the League and proper rammifications for Hawks. Or Don't kill Twice - redeem him instead. I like Twice, I feel like he's one of the best and most sympathetic villains Hori has ever written. Therefore I am miffed that canonically the League's feelings (outside Toga's) haven't been explored on Twice's death when they all, even Shig and Dabi, seemed to be fond of him at least. I am also annoyed that Hawks isn't even looked down on for this decision and didn't lose anything. No one is sideyeing him for deliberately stabbing a mentally ill man in the back? He gets his wings back despite Dabi burning them off? Or instead of killing Twice I'd have him be captured by Hawks instead and receive therapy.

Explore the process of the creation of an intelligent Nomu. I would either make Shirakumo 'alive' somehow being making Kurogiri an alter of him which the Doctor tortured out of him then brainwashed. OR I would explore Kurogiri's internal thoughts realising that he is a sentient corpse and exploring a full identity crisis for him, still wanting to be a hero and reconnect with his old friends but also wishing to save Shigaraki from AFO. That would be more powerful than what we got.

Give Nedzu, Momo and all the intelligent characters back their brains. Hori doesn't write intelligent characters well, everyone does what he wants them to do for the sake of plot. I would have them tackle the problem and put their characters first when they think things through and make the plot bend to them rather than vice versa.

Make AFO a proper threatening villain and a consistent threat or replace him as the main big bad. - Not sure how to elaborate but some of AFO's decisions in the recent arcs have been laughably stupid to the point of extreme annoyance. So I would either write him off after Kamino or keep him a consistent threat.

I would also explore Dr Giraki / Ujiko as a big bad alongside AFO and the horror of the Nomu condition. These are puppeteered corpses! People's dead bodies! And yet the heroes even upon knowing this are still kicking them around like volleyballs. There's no attempt to save the High ends even after realising Kurogiri's condition. So I would change that. I would have the heroes want to treat these creatures with respect. And only kill as a last resort.

Make Nedzu an actual character. Nedzu has a very interesting premise, a creature, who hates humans, with a very high IQ in charge of a school. Why is this? Because Hori said so in canon. I would actually explore why - does he actually want control and influence over how some of the most powerful heroes will turn out like - I think yes. So I would explore his morally grey tendencies and flesh him out.

Allow all the 1A girls to be both useful and intelligent. Momo especially has an OP quirk, an OP intelligent stat yet Hori never allows her to be as useful or intelligent as she should be. Jiro, Hagakure and Froppy also have OP quirks - yet they are under utilised and unexplored in what capabilities they could do.

Make Aizawa less of a bad teacher and more of a hardass with a heart of gold. (This will be an unpopular opinion.) I am firm in the belief that Aizawa's methods are deeply flawed and canonically he is not a good homeroom teacher at all. I would remove his 'expulsion record' (doing that would literally ruin lives even with the retcon of it only being on paper because that black mark would stay there.) I would change it instead so he moves the classes he deems to have no potential to Gen Ed so that there is no black mark nonsense and the students with potential could earn their way back into the course via the sports festival. I would change the "logical ruse" nonsense which would only breed trust issues in his students IRL to him being straight forward with the goals but having the activities have secret targets too (like the whole concept of hero points in the entrance exam.) I would also erase him falling asleep all the time because that doesn't support the notion that he cares about these kids. These changes would lead to him being a better teacher and would make more sense canonically as his teaching methods are meant to come from his trauma around Oboro's death.

I would either erase Aizawa's mentorship with Shinsou entirely or I would have Shinsou get further into the sports festival and earn his way into 1A that way. Canonically we see Eraser help and mentor Shinsou more than his own students (even the ones who actually need help!) So I would change this by removing the mentorship entirely or having Shinsou join 1A having earnt a spot via the sports festival and having Aizawa help him catch up with everyone else.

Shinsou. I would have him actually be treated as a villain in his backstory. I know we are all used to fanon Shinsou but canon Shinsou isn't abused. Isn't even really bullied bar from a rather justified wariness of 'that quirk is great for a hero. Just don't use it on me, ok?' Which doesn't inspire sympathy if anything it makes you wonder if Shinsou had believed he could coast into the hero course on his powerful quirk and is bitter that he couldn't do that. So I would have him be literally called a villain (literally have his quirks similarities to that of the villain Dictator be called out), I would also have him train outside his quirk to make him more sympathetic. Izuku did with his analysis. Shinsou canonically didn't train at all.

Tone down or Erase Mineta's perversions. I get this is a shonen so there is nearly always a character like this however with Mineta's 'comedy' Hori always goes too far and makes him appear like a budding sexual predator (thankfully he seems to be growing out of this in the later arcs but still.) I'd turn it into him trying and failing to flirt rather than groping people.

Have Midnight only make saucy comments to her peers - this I don't feel like needs further elaboration but the fact that Midnight had said she was turned on by things the students did (even though it's a persona) felt ick to me especially as this character is meant to be a teacher. I would explore her deeper as a character and juxapose her off duty 'more reserved' character vs the hero 'saucy' persona. And have her warn the girls about sexualisation in the hero industry 'women need to use their bodies / sex appeal to get ahead.' Which this new generation of heroes could change that.

I would either not kill Midnight at all or give her a heroic and impactful death. I hated how Midnight died off screen by a meaningless mook, only to be mentioned once again by Mic for Aizawa to shut him up about it. I hated how from here her relevance in the teacher OG friendship group essentially ended as Hori shifted focus hard to KurOboro. I hated how the impact of her death on the students that found her wasn't explored. Midnight died grievously injured and on her knees, Hori didn't bother to even give her a death scene. I would either not kill her at all or have her sacrifice herself heroically to save her students and fully explore the impact of this on everyone.

Explore the UA teachers / how they teach outside of Aizawa and All Might. The series is meant to be 'my hero academia' - So where is the academia? I would have some of the other teachers teaching styles explored as well as the students learning things that come in useful for hero work other than fighting. I.e first aid, villain psychology, quirkless hand to hand fights - all things that would come in useful as a hero other than being good with their quirks. I would also explore these teachers more as characters because I'd love to know more about Vlad King, Mic, Midnight, Thirteen, Ectoplasm and Nedzu.

I would have Endeavor always remain second to All Might. Endeavor in my opinion never deserved the number one spot, he instead deserved to fall from grace after being outed as an abuser. I would have All Might after losing OFA go full 'Iron Man Might' and remind Izuku that he showed Toshi how great of a hero he was without a quirk so Toshi is now taking inspiration from him and showing the whole of Japan how power isn't just from Quirks. It would show AM and Izuku's mentorship and the bond between these characters nicely.

I would either erase Nighteye from the story entirely or change his personality entirely and have him bond with Izuku over being an AM fan too. This I'm not sure if it needs explanation but Nighteye being a bad friend to AM, a bad mentor to Izuku wasn't needed. Aside from his role in Mirio's life and saving Eri he wasn't needed in general- especially not to bring down Izuku's already critically low self esteem.

Eri is too OP - it's narrative breaking. If she can rewind things why hasn't she rewound All Might back to his prime health? Why hasn't she given Aizawa back his eye and leg? Why has Eri only gave Mirio back his quirk? Can she rewind the dead? These are all questions Hori has left dangling because he couldn't be bothered to think of them before he thoughtlessly slotted her into the narrative. I would give her hard limits to her Rewind (such as only being able to rewind a few years or one part of the body at a time) and the drug that Overhaul uses be her power plus trigger to enhance it.

I would leave Mirio quirkless and have him be an awesome hero without Permeation. It would do wonders for the narrative if after losing his quirk Mirio kept working toward being a hero anyway. It would be interesting for both Midoriya and Aoyama to react to this. And for Mirio to have a big brother relationship with Midoriya.

I would give Izuku a proper support group. (I feel like this will be an unpopular opinion.) Class 1A should have been perfect for this role however Hori having them unite with Bakugou against Izuku in the 1A vs Izuku mess, Hori never bothering to develop 1A's friendships most people in 1A don't feel like Midoriya's friends. So I would change that and have them be more of a found family.

I would narratively foreshadow Yuuga as the UA traitor. Yuuga being formerly Quirkless and the UA traitor came out of nowhere. So I would foreshadow it by having him bond with Izuku over "being a late bloomer." I would explore his hesitancy to make friends through this too so Izuku and he would unknowingly bond over a shared Quirkless past. I would also have AFO explode him like he did with Nagant upon finding out Yuuga's treachery. I wouldn't kill Yuuga but this act would make the stakes much more personal for Izuku.

I would narratively develop Midoriya's family. We know so much of the Todoroki's yet so little of the Midoriya's it's criminal. So I would develop both Midoriya Hisashi and Midoriya Inko as people and show the impact of their parenting on Izu. Show Izuku calling his Dad 'overseas' . As well as drop hints about DFO (because I do like that theory but Hori hasn't built up to that well.)

I would tell the stories of the OFA holders instead of having them be plot devices. We know so little of the OFA holders, their motivations, their personalities it's criminal. So I would develop them and tell their stories of what it was like to hold OFA in their time as well as explore First as an actual character. What was it like for each of the holders in their time? Who were each of the holders to each other, all mentees and mentors or best friends, partners? Were any of the holders 'bad' or 'redeemed villains' it looks like everyone was all good which is a waste!!

I would give All Might a proper support group. Think about the people who know his OFA secret, Midoriya, Gran Torino, Nana, Nighteye, Nedzu, Detective Tsukauchi and Recovery Girl. Out of these people; Nana has tragically died in front of All Might, Midoriya is his successor and a child in need of his support and the other four (everyone else except Detective Tsukauchi) supports All Might poorly. (Especially Gran who AM is shown to be afraid of to the point of shaking!) Detective Tsukauchi is the only one who I think actually is shown supporting AM the most. So I would add more supportive characters to AM's circle (like Mic who is shown to be a very good, supportive friend and Inko who is Izuku's mum and is also shown to be a kind and supportive lady.)

I would keep the coherent clear problems in society such as Quirkless Discrimination and Mutant Discrimination shown throughout the story. Hori does a poor job with tackling his themes so I would show more how Quirkless (other than Izu and Aoyama are treated). I would also show Spinner taking offense when Dabi calls him "Lizard" as well as the Police chief taking offence when Shoto calls him a "Mutt." And have more instances like this.

I think this is all the ideas I have for now. Please let me know what you think.

Fixing MHA's Ending So It Follows Through With Its Core Themes (And It Basically Fixes Itself)

I don't like retconning at the best of times, but turning what started as essentially a Hope focused narrative into a "realistic" tragedy at the very last second is some wild work.

So I'm gonna do what I do best as a fic writer and fix it!!!!!

The Summary

So, I'm pretty sure all of us were on mostly the same page up until the very last panels of the Shigaraki fight (Having AFO being just "born evil" was probably the start of things not being great, but I'm willing to let that slide because it doesn't really effect the overall function of the story that much). Once that and the epilogue started is where I mostly saw people being like ????????? to a lot of choices, so I'm going to focus on those two sections only.

We're gonna be rewriting:

-The deaths of the Villains + Kurogiri (obvs)

-The overall post-War actions and reactions

-The continued existence of the Commission and the Hero Rankings

-Hawk's fate

-Spinner's fate

-A liiiiitle tweak to Chisaki's fate

-Slight tweaks to the Todorokis

-and finally What to DO with the Villains + Kurogiri now that they're alive

And we'll be starting with...

Toga

Now for a battle that was so beautiful, this really did end up completely falling apart.

I'm not gonna justify every single Villain Rescue I do, but Toga's really comes down to one simple reason for me:

Her bullies literally wanted her to die as atonement.

You don't...typically make your character's fate agree with their bullies or abusers (otherwise???? why are you explicitly portraying them as bullies and abusers to the audience if you want us to ultimately agree with them?????)

Throughout most of the story prior to this, Hori made it a staple in the show that dying for the cause, hurting yourself for the cause, martyring yourself or otherwise telling someone to kill themselves for the cause is a vile thing to do. So, it makes ZERO sense why he would suddenly retcon this at such a critical moment, especially since he already set the stage for it to be wrong in the first place.

(also does anyone also think it was weird/creepy that Hori LITERALLY has her do this with Twice and she very explicitly says "Don't be stupid I don't have to give all of my blood away"? No? Just me?)

Everything happens the same, she still thinks she's sacrificing herself, "If only, if only", blah blah blah

AND THEN...

Hawks

This is such low-hanging fruit plot-wise it actually feels offensive that it went nowhere

Nothing happens with Hawks. We all say it, fans and non-fans alike. He is wasted potential incarnate. His story is a circle and it so easily did not have to be that way because of one simple writing decision:

Hawks and Toga share a blood type.

Up until now, it really did seem like Hawks learned nothing from Jin's death. The first thing he says when he sees the clones is, "We have to kill them now!" But then, picture him still battered and broken from his fight with AFO, wingless, but there is still SOMETHING he can do to save someone's life.

And he puts the needle in his arm instead, and before she can question it, he tells her Jin would want her to live. He's not gonna make the same mistake twice.

(I also think it'd be nice if he said something like how lucky she is, to really go full circle with the Jin story, but I'm not trying dialogue here lol)

And that leads us to...

Shigaraki (and Kurogiri!)

This is a double feature because with the way I'm doing it, I can't save one without the other.

So, something that happens during this and is super anti-climactic and seemingly pointless is Midoriya losing his hands. He gets em back in like 2 seconds, because Eri gives him a surprise rewind almost immediately after. The actual point of it was just to show the brand new rule that physical damage that happens in the vestige world also happens in the real world, so that killing Shigaraki a few chapters later would still make sense.

We're gonna get rid of that rule entirely and just say that Midoriya does not lose his actual arms in the fight, and psychological damage in a ghost world does not reflect physically in reality (or idk. If you DO want that to happen, then just say the embers of the vestiges protected him one last time or something).

And because he doesn't lose his arms, Eri still has a surprise rewind to use.

But before we get to that, we actually have to save Shigaraki. So, here's the super complicated rescue rewrite I came up with. Ready?

Kicking AFO out of his brain and giving him back full control over his body simply does not kill him.

That's it!!!! That's really all that needed to happen!! It was a very conscious choice to make that kill him! It's actually more work and details to kill Shigaraki than it is to save him!! Hori already went out of his way to say that Nana's vestige protected him so that he wasn't completely swallowed by AFO, just so he could say goodbye before fading away anyway. What if, considering the fact that hatred of Nana is what damned him, love FROM Nana actually just plain ol saves him? Full stop? We come full circle. It would make it a fantastic mirror to the Todoroki fight and solidify the theme that love from your/a family, even a broken one, will save you!!

And then further in the background, Bakugou doesn't randomly kill (?????? Even after reading it again I'm still really confused about how Kurogiri dies. I think this is what happens?????) Kurogiri, and instead starts to lose control like they feared. But then, refusing to give up on him, Aizawa hits him with the now-available Rewind Juice and it finally, finally stabilizes his mind for good.

The day is saved.

And that just leaves...

Touya

Unfortunately my stupid husband can't stop trying to kill himself for 2 seconds despite my best efforts to convince him otherwise, so there's really nothing I can do about the extent of his injuries

However, there's LOTS I can do about the way we're treating said injuries! =D

First of all, because Touya is my favorite, I do wanna allow myself the space to briefly rant about how his entire situation was handled because brother. first of all. It's so incredibly obvious that he was supposed to die on the battlefield with his comrades. That man had no fuckin eyeballs by the end of that fight, bffr. And then it was like Hori remembered the thing about the noodles and was like 'oh shit I better at least wrap that up lol' so he brought him back--eyeballs and TEARDUCTS magically intact btw so naturally the audience with reading comprehension was like 'oh he's healing somehow I guess'--just to get that specific moment on the books (and maybe just to draw Touya in his Batman Who Laughs era because I mean he does look pretty sick in the tank) and then turned around and killed him again. With no explanation what the random functioning tearducts and magical regrowth of eyeballs was about.

Like...my guy, you ain't gotta do all that. Again, it's so much harder and more complicated to kill him than it is to keep him alive. Not to mention he was killed OFF-SCREEN. WE DON'T EVEN GET TO SEE ANY--IF ANY--CONVERSATIONS HE HAS WITH SHOUTO OR HIS FAMILY, WHICH WAS THE WHOLE POINT OF NOT KILLING HIM ON THE BATTLEFIELD. INSTEAD OF THE SEXY SHIRTLESS SERVING-FACE-AT-A-FUNERAL IMAGE OF TOUYA WE COULD'VE SEEN A FLASHBACK OF THEM TALKING AND HIM SMILING AND BEING HAPPY WITH THEM FOR WHATEVER TIME THEY HAD AND THAT STILL WOULD'VE BEEN MORE SATISFYING. Y'KNOW. BECAUSE THAT WAS THE WHOLE FUCKING POINT OF THE TODOROKI PLOTLINE?????????????VSSSBBNM,.;;PUSAAXXGHIIRWDFGG

But anyway.

Fixing Touya's death is really simple. We can do two things, actually.

Work with the deus-ex Ice Quirk a little bit, make the Phoenix Theory canon. Ice heals him, the tank is a giant fridge. Lo and behold, it would explain why he magically healed eyeballs and tearducts. It's an incredibly slow process, but eventually he'd heal enough to be out of the tank and in a normal hospital setting for the rest of his recovery. It also gives him a goal to pursue for the future, I.E learning how to control the new side of his powers and mayybeeee getting interested in studying Quirk Biology in the process 👀

He simply!!!!!! Doesn't die!!!!!!!!! Out of ALLLLLLL the MHA characters, I would 100% believe you if you told me that Touya Todoroki nevertheless persisted. That's like...his entire character. You don't even need to give me a reason. His entire character up until now has been 'the one that's somehow still alive' to the point that the fucking Dr. Eggman lookin ass mad scientist that brought him back to life in the first place (in WORSE condition) was like 'yeah no idea how he's still here that's scary'. I'm sorry, the entire fucking show I've had to see A. An old man without a face with a back alley ventilator system shoved directly into his stoma that's somehow fine and talking perfectly, and B. Another old man missing his ENTIRE digestive tract for years and is still up and walking around somehow with no G-tube or colostomy bag to be seen, so I think by the power of God and Anime, Touya could probably survive his injuries and it would be within the realm of believability for the show. In fact, it's LESS believable that he stayed alive through all that by spite alone and then when he finally gets offered love and acceptance, that determination and tenacity to stay alive suddenly goes out the window. If anything, it should've made him MORE determined to live.

Sorry I got carried away with that one. But there. Everyone is saved and the core themes are intact.

Now we just have...

The Overall Actions and Reactions Post-War

Gonna sum this up really quickly:

-The cameras never turned off. They're built for Quirk resistance because they're a fucking newscast in a Hero society if their technology broke every time there were heavy Quirk exchanges there would never be any fucking news. Making them conveniently lose footage so none of the civs can see the Villains humanity is just rubbing salt in the wound and serves no narrative purpose in line with pre-established themes. Everyone saw what was recorded, and it helped the Villains' cases for rehabilitation.

-We do not censor out this battle in future history books. Everyone is very familiar with the final fight and the events and circumstances leading up to it. It is not erased from public memory as soon as possible. In fact, it's frequently studied and referenced when making new policies to avoid making the same mistakes. Hori. Wtf.

-We do not reinstate the Hero Rankings in any way shape or form, and Shouto is the biggest voice in dismantling this system. Voila, this is now actually the story of how they all became the greatest Heroes, because they aren't ranked. They're all literally the greatest Heroes, and so will everyone after them.

-This IS actually portrayed in the epilogue, but yes, let's be LESS reliant on Heroes and police and MORE invested in the community!!!!!!! Even more so than what's portrayed!!!!! Take another bit from Spider-Man: Anyone can wear the mask!!!!!! Let's make a world where Heroes have too much time on their hands and not just make more of them, right????????? Remember that????????

-WE DO NOT REINSTATE THE COMMISSION. WE GOT RID OF THEM CORRUPT HOES FOR A REASON!!!!!! NO A CHANGE OF THE GUARD IS NOT ENOUGH TO FIX IT WE'RE NOT 7YRS OLD!!!!! HORI. WTF. The only thing I want them to be in charge of is licensing Heroes. I want these fuckers to be the DMV of the Hero world and that's IT!!!!!!!

Which brings us to...

Hawks' Fate

I don't even fuck with this man like that, but he did not deserve to become CEO of the organization that groomed and abused him since he was a child when all he wanted to do was chase tail and fuck off to a beach somewhere. Considering the fact that he also, like, killed people he shouldn't have, let him retire like Endeavor, please. We're done giving the old guard power and privilege, especially when they explicitly did not and do not want it (and when they did have it, they misused it). The only thing I want this man involved with is Toga's recovery alongside Uraraka. Specifically, I want him paying for it and anything else she might need. Fuck it, you know what, make HIM Endeavor's personal aide instead of Rei!!!! He gets to be a little simp and Endeavor gets a replacement son to fill Natsu's spot. Everyone wins.

(He does deserve that hairline tho. I ain't fixin that.)

So that leaves...

Spinner's Fate

I'm not changing much here, besides the fact that now Shiggy is alive and I think they should be ✨Roommates✨ eventually (and obviously he's gonna be much less riddled with survivor's guilt). I still think he should write that book, but I also think that with his multiple Quirks, he should team up with scientists to understand how Quirks work in the body (and maybe get some of them removed from his).

And next...

Chisaki's Fate

I just think this guy needs to be in the same place as the other Villains, at least for a fraction of the time. Why is he just...out. He was also in that daycare and could definitely use some help before we just let him loose in the streets because he said sorry (Can the League just say sorry then??????????).

I do think afterwards he should get involved with something chemistry related tho, cause those bullets of his came in clutch.

And on that note...

The Todorokis' Fates

And by Todorokis I mean two of them, specifically Rei lol

Yeah, she's not gonna be Endeavor's nurse for the rest of her life lol. That man has more money than God, he can hire an aide like everybody else. In fact, they're not even living together. Do you remember how earlier in the series, he gave them a new house? So they could live away from him and he would be in the old house by himself? I liked that plan. Let's go back to that plan. I'm not gonna go as far as to make them divorce, if they're together they're together, but I think separation is a necessary must at this point because if they MUST stay together, they should at least try dating for once???????? Girl was actually bought like maybe they figure out if they even still like each other at all, or ever did.

(Also, I have to laugh as a motorized wheelchair user that Hori drew her pushing Endeavor all happy and blissfully. Motorized wheelchairs are not meant to be pushed like that lol. They have push features for emergencies and small around-the-house distances of course, but uh, mine's 350 pounds without me in it. It's not usually anyone's first choice.)

But there is one more Todoroki I have a lot to talk about, so that finally brings us to...

What Do We Do With The Villains + Kurogiri Now That They're Alive???????????

We take everything from comic books except what would actually makes sense with the story lol

Surprise!!!!!! We're doing Arkham!!!!!! This is another low-hanging fruit thing that I'm almost a little offended that it wasn't implemented. Obviously Arkham has its problems in the Batman canon that we're gonna try to avoid, but I honestly think Batman villains and the core MHA Villains are pretty similar in their execution in that they are primarily mentally ill victims of society who have done very terrible things, but the audience (and Batman himself) is actively rooting for them to get better over just rotting in jail or being killed. Two-Faced has killed sooooo many people and has relapsed a ton, but I ultimately still want to see him get better because he was Batman's best friend once and a good man, and what happened to him was a tragedy. I think all the Villains deserve a space where they can humanely heal from their issues and gain support, while also being safely separated from society while they're still dangerous to themselves and others.

Oh, but Batman and his endless money bought Arkham. Who do we know who has access to trust fund money, an investment in the mentally ill, and the bonus of a medical background that could fund such a thing?

Ladies and Gentlemen, please put your hands together for...

Natsuo Todoroki!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My mans graduates from college and immediately uses his money as a doctor and his inheritance to open up Rindou Sanctuary, in honor of his mother Rei and named after her favorite flower (I don't think he'd want to give Enji the satisfaction of his last name attached to his greatest achievement). He's head doctor on site and the board, and visits Touya every shift once he's healed enough to be transferred to the facility. He is very invested in his brother's treatment and refuses to lose him again--at least not until they're proper old men.

It is publicly funded by donors and taxes alike, and Enji, naturally, is always the highest donor. Call it reparations.

And there you have it! That's how to fix the epilogue. It took longer to type than think about. I could care less about canon shipping, so y'all can keep that (or not). I'm just here to fix the structural problems that have no reason to be here at this point. As I said, once I redrew lines Hori already set up and just abandoned, it pretty much fixed itself.

Hope you enjoyed it and I hope it eases the grief a little!!!!! They're alive look I fixed it!!!!!! <3

(also feel free to use anything I said in here in your own fix-it fics!!!! Just tag me so I can read them 👀)

TW: ABUSE, CHILD ABUSE

“He wants to air this dirty laundry to the world does he…? Dabi, you fiend…you’ve been waiting for this moment…when they couldn’t prevent mass destruction…and faith in heroes is wavering.” - chapter 292

I truly, wholeheartedly, believe that MHA as a story upholds the myth of the perfect victim. I do not want to discuss if Horikoshi did that on purpose, or subconsciously because of inner bias – I find no meaning in doing so. For me the execution of an idea, in the grand scheme of the narrative, holds more value than the intention of the author. I’ve also had my fair share of people infantilizing Asian authors in the anime community for their poor writing decisions for one lifetime. It’s patronizing to both the author and the people reading it. Whether or not Horikoshi intended for his themes of abuse to paint the picture they did does not matter, because that’s how it reads as.

MHA puts victims of abuse in narrow boxes and softly dictates what’s an acceptable reaction to said abuse. Victims are continuously walking a tightrope between being deserving of compassion and sympathy and being unredeemable monsters who are too far gone and are only good for martyrdom after being put down.  

Eri fits the clean cut depiction of abuse victims that media usually gears towards. She is untouched by the cruelty around her - she preserves her innocence and kindness. She isn't assertive, but rather meek and passive. She doesn't fight back with force. And when offered help, she is receptive to it. That is not to say that Eri's depiction doesn't have a place in fiction, or that her portrayal can't be representative of the experiences of some - as we all deal with trauma and the inhumanity people throw at us differently. We see the same thing in the portrayal of Fuyumi, who shares many of the qualities discussed above. The same thing applies to her - i personally love the idea of all the siblings having different reaction to their childhood trauma and abuse. It shows that victims are not some type of monolith.

But the narrative treats the "forgiving" or "receptive to help/support" victims of abuse with more grace and with much more kindness. if you are willing to forgive, or the very least be quietly tolerant, the story grants you a happy ending. Forgiveness isn't a bad thing, it is an individual choice - but an abuse victim shouldn't have to do it for them to have a happy ending.

In a vacuum Eri and Fuyumi's character arcs and depictions of abuse are good but it becomes a problem when that's the only experience and type of victim we ever hold in high value or recognize as valid and deserving of compassion. Which the story reinforces.

Touya and Tenko's backstories aren't pretty nor comfortable or easy to sit through. Their responses to abuse aren't either. Reactive abuse is very much real.

Dabi’s Self Suicide

I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but Dabi is someone who has a tendency to make things about himself. In the League of Villains which is identifiably a group dynamic, Dabi takes every available opportunity to insist that he is alone, he is just along for the ride. A single man, with a single conviction, should be enough to change the world. He has a tendency to act like he’s the most important one here, he’s the one whose going to bring an end to hero society all on his own and yet at the same time he has no sense of identity. He has no self. He doens’t even have a name. Hawks asks him his name and he literally responds with [redacted]. I think this paradox of Dabi’s is at the core of figuring out who he is, and who he is not. 

Keep reading

That’s What Makes Us Heroes and Villains

All the way back in the aftermath of the Stain Arc, Dabi and Himiko were the first new recruits introduced for the League of Villains. The three of them together, Shigaraki, Dabi, and Himiko are a trio. Effectively the three main characters of the villain side of the story. They are all three of them, traumatized children who were thrown out by society, and are now fighting back against it. They’ve been pushed out further and further until all three of them came to the same conclusion: Heroes are in the way. 

Dabi: “There are no true Heroes.” 

Shigaraki: “You heroes hurt your own families just to help complete strangers.” 

Toga: “You heroes mess everything up.” 

All three of them are children screaming the same thing at the heroes, trying to get somebody to listen only to be ignored. Shigaraki, Dabi, Himiko were all driven to become villains because of hero society. They became villains because heroes existed in the first place. 

A meta on the villain trio under the cut. 

Keep reading

What up fam this has probably been said before but I can stop thinking about how uncomfortable Touya feels in his body post resurrection as Dabi.

Issues with his quick aside, I’m talking solely about his scar tissue. Scare tissue is tight, constricting, and for most of his body to be composed of scar tissue,,, is really unsettling if you think about it. 

Scar tissue is tough and snaps and honestly it’s kinda amazing that he wasn’t a bloody mess more often than not. To be stuck so physically by your own skin for so long, it’s depressing to think about.

Anyways fuck Endeavor.

ANATOMY LESSON: AN INSTALLATION, By Lev St. Valentine

Lev St. Valentine

[ BSD STORM BRINGER ]

"Such nice things like a heart don't suit me."

initially i added ‘there’s a tunnel under ocean boulevard’ by lana del rey to the touya playlist bc the ‘dont forget me’ part makes me actually ascend to the heavens like literally he became everything he was raised to hate everything he was raised to destroy he is dabi now begging only that they remember touya. remember me how i was not as this awful thing but as your big brother who loved you. please god don’t forget me. (and they do. they forget him. they accept his death without a second glance). but also just the entire song is this devastating beg for recognition this inability to be okay unless you’re loved ‘love me until i love myself’ each verse an observation of other people’s love and goodness and the desire to have it just once. to mean something just once. don’t forget me. tell me you like me. he drives me insane

for the love of god stop

family tree

very interesting to me that the big three of the current hero gen in mha - shouto, midoriya and bakugo - are often portrayed as also being the closest in a lot of fics bc it's like. you've got shouto's two best friends as a boy with a volatile personality fuelled by his blind ambition and desperation to be the best, and a boy whose quirk destroys his body. like if you combined two of shouto's best friends you'd get touya but we're just not supposed to redeem him. okay

Lev St. Valentine

lsv

lev st. valentine

Bad Dog Love (wip), lev st. Valentine