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transhawks · 1 year

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Man, the ReDestro thing was so stupid. Idk what they were thinking, a bunch of civilian can keep him distracted? What was even the point, no way the HPSC didn't know that guy was dangerous, but they really love doing their own thing sometimes like forcing YamaZawa to talk to Kurogiri "or else we'll call his family." And the internships "to prepare the kids for war!"

I'm sorry, there's just one thing I struggle to agree with, was it really their orders Hawks was acting on? I always read it as him making his own choice to kill Twice. Hori wrote it as Hawks coming to fear Jin's quirk on his own. "I knew you were who I had to look out for the most." Otherwise I feel like showing HPSC orders would've been an important scene? And Hawks isn't so stupid as to see an OP quirk and stand there "head empty, no thoughts" waiting for the HPSC to hold an important meeting and analyze data before telling him what to do. He can come to his own murdery conclusions. At most, they would've been like "either find a way out of this, or kill. We'll look the other way." Because according to Hori's sketch of the Chairwoman, she wasn't into giving death orders?

And Hawks didn't seem to know how Twice's quirk really worked since he was still analyzing it mid-battle, did he know for sure killing him would disperse all the clones? It's not like Twice himself could test that, since he IS the original, and he had never died before. He always believed that if the original him died, then his clone self might live on. That was part of his trauma right? That he already was dead and that "he" was a clone, so he avoided getting hurt in fear of disappearing. Hawks had no reason to believe differently from Twice. He will always live, even if the original dies. It's why he targeted the other two clones and maybe, pushed one off the balcony? Twice clone seems to imply he could've stuck around if it hadn't been for the fall damage. That's why, I don't think Hawks had to kill Twice as a "joint mission" with the HPSC and dissolving the ReDestro clone. Maybe the clone just dissolved from fight damage?

On the other thing though: I suppose it's possible, since Dabi does tell Deku something like, "but still, you gotta pity me right?" Like he's asking for sympathy.

Okay, so time to repeat what I've been saying about Hawks killing for years. I've explained this in asks over the years, but to figure out what happened you have to look at 298. previous answers on this topic can be found here: x

So, I do think there was orders. Is there a lot of irrefutable evidence? No, but I think there's also no concrete evidence there wasn't an order. And there's an in-between where Hawks was told to take out the biggest threat to the raid's success no matter what, and that was Jin by default.

This is a panel that tells us there was a Redestro in the Hospital throughout the lead up to the raid. Hawks has seen Redestro in Gunga, so he knows there's too.

I think they did know Redestro was dangerous. Hawks spent an entire month specifically gathering that information. I also think he had a good idea of how Jin's quirk works; remember, Jin was the most actual prolific villain of the League. Dude was on Japan's Most Wanted. Shigaraki, Dabi, they came out of air. Toga had been wanted for a year at most. Sako doesn't strike me as having a big profile, and neither did Magne despite her long criminal history. And well, Spinner was a Stain fan. The fact Hawks says he had a chill run down his spine when he heard Twice was back to his full abilities implies that he knew what Jin, pre-trauma was capable of. Twice was the actual celebrity of the League, but like...a very faded past his prime one.

Now, why would Hawks be actually saying things about Jin's quirk out loud? We know he analyzes, he did so with Dabi and AFO, but every action has a point, right? Why would he let Jin know he was seeing how he worked?

To intimidate him. To frighten him. Hawks was intentionally trying to frighten Jin. If he was actually analyzing him for his own benefit, he would have kept it internally, but no he was verbalizing it. You do that when you want a villain to understand you see through them. In that way, I think it's clear that Hawks had a good idea of how Jin's quirk worked pre-trauma and was more just trying unnerve Jin.

I disagree that Hawks didn't coordinate with the HPSC about the clones and Jin. I also think that like this wasn't a typical "death" order; the chairwoman really signed off on anything with this mission, and Hawks identified/had prior info about how large a threat Jin was.

The thing is, I think they wanted to cover their bases. Like they knew there was a Redestro clone, assumed it was in Gunga while the real one recovered, but either way, getting rid of Jin was the failsafe needed. Now, just because Jin didn't know his quirk doesn't mean people can't speculate - Jin had to be killed anyway because of his quirk (and again Japan's Most Wanted, he'd been watched for years) and because the authorities knew what he was capable of. The thing about unknown unknowns is you have to prepare for all eventualities and take them into account. So did they have evidence Jin clones could exist after he died? No, and they had no evidence to disprove it. But why leave that up to chance? Worst case scenario, they exist after he dies. Best case scenario, they melt when he dies. Why not try and shoot for the best objective and also prepare for the worst? If your goal is to keep this guy from fucking the raid up, taking him out immediately is a win no matter what.

And they were really trying to take out Redestro.

I count 4 soldiers, Mera, the Chairwoman, and two heroes standing and two laying down, and three men in suits who I'm guessing are other HPSC mooks. 13 people. One man. One clone, even, and the clone was better at lasting than the real Redestro. I remember Caleb Cook really spelling this out. They bet wrong, but I also think they assumed that a clone would have been taken out by then. Hawks wasted too much time.

I keep saying, if we look at what happened from a very efficient (ruthless and utilitarian) and pro-Hero point of view, the biggest mistake Hawks made was not killing Jin immediately, essentially not being fast enough. He took too long, hesitated too much, even saved Jin from flames, giving Dabi ammunition against him and time for Jin to try and escape.

So, no, I do think Hawks had orders to kill Jin regardless. Jin was a huge threat to the Heroes (since no one wanted to talk to him and even the guy who believed he could be reasoned with was still ready to kill him).

Also, I think Horikoshi's intentional panel here gives enough evidence to Hawks following a set of orders:

I know this is Nagant speculating, but given the blood stains, and just it being heavy on the mind after the whole conference, it was clear this was a very loaded sort of panel. The implication is Hawks has killed under orders before, even if we know he was raised in a different manner to Nagant and might not have been a butcher like she was. And I think the recent chapters prove it - he doesn't hesitate to kill AFO, or try to, it's his initial action. He has experience cleaning up murder scenes and dead bodies! Why, exactly, would someone so well-versed in dealing with death due to his organization, not be ordered to kill Jin?

Now, I can also say there might have been another complication. We don't know the extent of the communication of the HPSC and Hawks. We don't know whether they asked him who the biggest threat, based on his observations, and he said Jin. He could have identified him as a target for them and then they said take him out. The order could have also been just "take out the biggest threat" and not speak about Jin specifically, if you really want to push it.

But that's not as important as Hawks making that choice.

He kept trying to not kill him. I think there might be a lot of different interpretations of this, but I'm really on the side that Hawks was going against what the HPSC by reaching out to Jin like this. That's what makes all of this a choice. Hawks might have been ordered to kill him, to make the battle run smoother at least, but he felt confident to extend a hand to Jin, that he could get his way and get Jin rehabilitated. It sounded like he might have not even gone a stint in Tartarus and that Hawks would manage his affairs (maybe looking after him in Jail, or wherever, and whatever after).

Despite all this, Hawks killed him. Hawks made that choice. If anything I think this makes this aspect weightier. Hawks was ordered to kill Jin, or killing JIn was essentially the smartest course of action, and he actively went against that - and then killed him anyway.

Hawks going against all of hero society's "logic", offering a villain a hand, and then killing him anyway, the most important part of this. I believe he was ordered to kill him. But killing Jin, according to how things should have been, was the smartest action. The best case scenario in the Redestro clone situation hinged on it. Leaving room for Twice to help would have been catastrophic for the heroes. So, even then, I think it doesn't really take away of how much that was Keigo's choice by pointing out that Keigo "should" have killed Jin immediately.

Also, we know rehabilitating villains is unusual. The way Gentle and La Brava are treated is because they essentially turned themselves in and were essentially pranksters. The cops tell them they can turn their lives around, of course, but already Jin had a permanent record from an accident because Japan doesn't have the concept of no-fault accidents. From an accident. I think Aoyama is the clearest example of harsh the heroes could be with actual villains seeking salvation or rehabilitation. This is how they're treating a kid essentially blackmailed and forced into things when he was a baby. I honestly suspect Hawks would have had to blackmail the HPSC and play every card he could for Jin not to be shut in one of the darkest holes in Tartarus.

On his 'choices', I also think Hawks having a choice in whether to kill Jin or not, it could be Hawks uses the fact the HPSC controlled him as an excuse. It bolsters Hawks's own victimhood - by that i mean, I think Hawks has bought into his own caged bird mythos harder than anyone else. He uses as it a weapon to manipulate others and a way to deflect responsibility and also not have to really think about his own actions. Sure, I do think Hawks's life was run by the HPSC, but i think they groomed him into thinking that cage was sealed shut when it was not. And that allows him to absolve himself of his actions late at night. Maybe that will change by the end of BNHA, I hope so, but I'm sure Keigo has been able to sleep because he has let himself believe he's someone who has had little choices in his life.

In the end, I think our difference of opinion, even more so on whether there were concrete orders or not, is whether the HPSC would have wanted Bubaigawara alive regardless. I can't imagine why they would. Maybe it's because I have a very cynical view of them, but even if there were no explicit orders to kill him (which I think there were), I also don't see the idea that they would have told Hawks not to when killing was on the table. Jin's assassination was a callous and ruthless decision in the end from a man who essentially didn't want to try out other solutions when it came to thick and thin. Jin's death could have either been a bonus or a mandate.

That being said, I don't think Jin's death is done being discussed in the manga. You could be right. I could be right. We can both be wrong. I can only hope for now that I've made my case.

#asks #takami keigo #meta #my meta #hawks

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fluffykitteninabox · 1 year

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Sorry If I'm rude.

¿Why do you think the narrative treats endeavor as a good person deep down?

In my opinion If that were true then I don't think hori would made Endeavor go to AFO instead of going with Shouto and Touya,drawing Endeavor as a demonic shadow that destroyed his family and also looks like some sort of demon that's not even human in Dabi's backstory and have both Shouto and AFO saying how Endeavor is fleeing from his responsability.

Hi anon 🌻🌻🌻

Don't worry, you're not being rude at all 😊

Thank you for the ask, have some sparkles ✨✨✨

I half agree with you in a way. I actually think Endeavor's characterisation is really contradictory throughout the manga.

A "complete monster" half the time and "just a flawed human" the other half. I think that's why the fandom is so divided about him. You either love him or hate him, there's no in between.

Warning: me rambling again sorry, possible spelling mistakes, me dunking on Hawks a little bit, excessive use of italics

As you said there's the parts where he's literally drawn to look like a demon which are mostly from Shouto and Touya's perspectives of their backstories.

But there's also parts like

The hospital scene where we see him crying

Him leaving food at Touya's shrine

Even comedic scenes like him constantly texting Shouto who's ignoring him

These are all scenes where we see him in a neutral/positive light.

In those scenes he's more the dad who's trying to reconnect with his children because he was absent during their childhood.

And If it were just that then I would love to see his redemption arc. But being an absent father is the least bad thing he did in this case.

When he's crying and saying he feels bad about what he did it feels hypocritical to me, but my understanding is that the scene is still trying to make us sympathise with him.

To me this reads as "the public is wrong to put that responsibility on Endeavor"

As if it isn't actually his responsibility to make the public feel safe not just as the current number one, but as a hero in general. Something which he failed to do.

The fact that people have lost faith in the hero system is first and foremost society's fault, but it only happened because Endeavor was exposed as the worst of what said hero system had to offer.

He represents the exact opposite of what a number one hero should be, so the public has every right to criticise him. He doesn't deserve his position and in my opinion he should have lost it right after the first war.

But instead we get this random doctor saying he's rooting for him. This line has no purpose. It's not there to show us there's still people willing to support Endeavor, because we're going to see that with actually relevant characters just a couple of chapters later.

Sure we get Natsuo and Rei basically telling him to stop whining because he's not the victim here but that doesn't change the fact that the scene of him crying is there to at the very least get us to pity him.

We get three panels of him apologising and wiping his tears. Plus a close up of him looking even more sad and pathetic and talking about how his heart can't handle the guilt he's feeling, while 4 of his victims are standing in the room listening to him.

Then Best abuse apologist Jeanist and Hawks Keigo victim blamer Takami walk in and declare they're going to provide their full support to Endeavor.

Because obviously that's the person who needs support the most right now am I right?!

The public giving him a chance to prove himself and Hawks immediately assuming that Enji must be different now and deciding to help him don't make sense to me. Because Enji only started changing a few months before this. He was still the "irredeemable monster" right up until Kamino basically. The public and Hawks don't know that either. Why couldn't Hawks just as easily assume the exact opposite? Why does the public give him the benefit of the doubt after what they just learned? Because he gave a speech in a fancy suit and bowed once?? We see one person criticising him heavily during the speech/broadcast but they are focusing on the wrong thing in my opinion.

The public is portrayed as asking Endeavor and the heroes in general to ignore the accusations and even lie and pretend said accusations aren't true, and focus on defeating the villains. That's not holding the heroes accountable for their actions, that's ignoring half of the problem.

So even if we see people being disappointed with Endeavor, it mostly has to do with his performance as a hero, and not the fact that he shouldn't be a hero in the first place. He gets criticised for the wrong reasons. So I don't count that as him getting a taste of karma. Dabi's dance had the potential to bring said karma, but in my opinion it didn't. Basically me being disappointed about how the story went.

And while yes, characters like AFO are calling him out on his hypocrisy (hate that I have to agree with that bastard!) but the way I see it, the narrative is still coddling him.

He is currently supposedly finally facing Touya, but Touya had to go there himself and force him to do that. But it's still framed as a good character development moment for him, even though he didn't actively make any decision.

Endeavor is a reaction type character when instead he should be an active character.

For his redemption to feel earned he needs to actively do things to make that happen. But instead he actually avoids making decisions until he's forced to. He says he wants to change but it looks more like he's waiting for the change to happen automatically somehow. His "redemption arc" starts with him trying to basically insert himself back into the family dynamic as if nothing ever happened and he hasn't been abusing and neglecting them for the past... more than a decade, until Natsuo calls him out on it. All of his development happens internally, we see his thought process in detail. The first active thing he does is making a new house for his family to live separately from him. Which is... fine, but throwing money at his problems isn't really a good solution

And he's currently only half being held accountable. Again he didn't lose his job over this somehow. The narrative focuses on how he's going to make it up to his family which he's not doing a good job at anyway, and there's no talk about how he really shouldn't have a position of power like the number one hero spot.

I'm not saying we shouldn't focus on his relationship with his family. Obviously the whole point of his character is that he focuses too little on his family and too much on heroics. But him still having his position as a hero after all of what happened seems wrong to me. There's two ways to fix this

He gets fired after the first war. The public demanding that a person like Endeavor shouldn't have a job as a hero makes more sense than them demanding he doubles down and focuses on being a hero. This decision is like chaining his character arc and dragging him backwards.

Or he quits being a hero at the end of the manga to focus on his family, which is what I'm hoping will happen. If he stays a hero at the end of the story I will consider this officially the most botched character arc I have ever witnessed ever! And that's saying something because Hawks exist!

The second option would make him a more active character like I said he should be, but at the end of the story that doesn't really matter.

I hope I explained it well

Basically I just think it's inconsistent writing and Horikoshi deciding midway through the story that he wants to redeem him, because with his early characterisation it's obvious that this wasn't planned.

#thank you again for the ask #have some sparkles ✨✨✨#anti endeavor #tagging this just in case #the hawks slander is with affection #the bastard jeanist slander not so much #cute question mark anon

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barbiegirldream · 4 months

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Same Dabi anon as before, and I do want to give him some benefit of the doubt based on the (awesome) discussion here: in the manga it’s a lot more clear just how badly going all-out with his quirk damages his body. Fans were able to track the spread of his scarring after each of him major fights by looking at the detail of the manga panels. I think him being less helpful to the league has a lot to do with that, because if he gave his 100% to every mission he would’ve been dead long before the Touya reveal. He still jumps in when it matters most, like when he helped them rock Overhaul’s shit and fight Geten. I’m not a ‘league of villains is one big happy family uwu’ kind of fan but I do think that Dabi’s relationship with them has more complexity beyond not caring at all, and that he’s an unreliable narrator about his own feelings sometimes. (Being a weekly manga reader helps a lot though, his character is really subtle and deceptive!)

i think tbh that the intensity of Dabi's revenge in the fights makes all his actions beforehand seem insanely different. Like Dabi goes from a chill lowkey member of the lov who fucks off lets a spy in for fun. and then his reveal video is like ahhh woah is me and my family. and then flashbacks and outloud and he's like literally everything is about me and i'm completely fucking insane and i'm going to explode my family and myself and literally nothing and no one else matters. seems so contrasting to how he behaves when in between these big fights. And I thought maybe there was a personality divide between Dabi and Touya. That Dabi was the only way he kept going kept a lid on it and Touya is when he blows up.

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shadowed-dancer · 2 years

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Thoughts on Episode 114 (S6 E1)

Badass bunny, best bros, and a season starting. Let’s talk about it

I may try and do these little thought summaries every Saturday, mostly so I can remember and look back later. I’ll try to do it earlier next time so my first impressions are still fresh

Spoiler free because I don’t mention specific moments or future events but like… if you know the manga you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about

The op and ed are so cool. I was honestly a little nervous with the op at first (when it just showed the title I was like “umm what is this?”) but as soon as I saw Deku and understood what was happening I was so hyped. The whole comic style was so cool, and there’s something very fun and meta about this being the arc manga (comic) readers were most excited for, and then showing some key moments like a comic book

I do feel the song is a little too… happy for what’s coming up, and part of me feels a sense of tonal dissonance hearing this upbeat song with footage of… a certain character on the attack. Like… that’s not a badass moment of “look how cool this guy is,” it’s a serious scene. It’s not a big deal, like I said, it just feels weird seeing that with this music. But it’s a great op overall and I love it so much

The ed actually made me misty eyed. Something about that shot of Tomura with the billowing cape is so calming. Big flashbacks to Sesshomaru in that one ed, big nostalgia hit

Also the shot of young Deku and Tenko… bro I feel so vindicated for Season 5

Also the Toga and Twice shot… and Uraraka turning around… and the UA teachers… and Dabi… and the SONG ITSELF… yeah you get it, the whole ed was amazing. I think it’s officially my favourite

As for the episode itself, I’m honestly impressed how well paced it was. 3 chapters AND some added filler? And yet nothing (that I could remember) was cut? Between this and the op and ed it makes me wonder what the hell was happening with Season 5

Hawks and Twice are getting along so well! Wow! Such friends. Much brotherhood

They added a little frame of Dabi sitting in a chair. If you know you know

Wash got 4 whole frames. I was legitimately so excited. I was expecting only 2 so when I saw those other ones I had the biggest smile on my face

Everyone was animated so nicely

This is so random, but I love that scene with the Todoroki siblings. In the manga that scene is a single panel of Fuyumi coming home and Natsuo greeting her (with no dialogue), which is fine in of itself but later in the arc we see Fuyumi and Natsuo at school. It’s a minor detail that most readers probably wouldn’t notice, but that fact that someone decided to fix this and have them head out for their day means someone in the writing room was actually paying attention to the small details, and that gives me a lot of hope going forward

That being said…

They added some dialogue like “team Endeavor will do this while team Edgeshot will do that” and while I like the explanation, I wish they’d included the fact that there are also attacks happening at bases all over the country, not just these two locations. Like they could have mentioned that these are the most important zones, but they didn’t mention the others at all. It makes the scale of this operation seem so much smaller than it is, and I’m nervous anime-onlies will think it’s literally just these two

The lighting in the doctor’s lab is so pretty. I can’t wait for next episode because I want to see a whole fight scene with that purple glow

I haven’t seen anyone mention it yet so I will. I think the new commercial break screens are cool as hell and I can’t wait to see different characters get them each week. I know a whole bunch of characters got art during the build up to this season, so let’s see it put to use!

Rip Johnny. Forever in our hearts, you will be missed

Overall? Despite a few minor nitpicks I thought this was a great episode. It was a wonderful way to start such a highly anticipated arc, and I’m so excited to see the rest of this season play out

#bnha #bnha season 6

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class1akids · 2 years

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BNHA 337 - Thoughts

OK, so this chapter is actually more decent than it seemed from the leaks.

We start with Dabi still pouting that AFO called him “friendless”,

but AFO is undaunted and talks about how disposable Aoyama is, while comparing him to a cheap, broken lighter. Ouch. That’s vicious - both using that analogy in front of Dabi and the how it pans over to Shigaraki writhing in pain - it’s chilling honestly.

Then we go back to the Forest, where Aoyama and Deku are still crying, and the parents try to run away (Also, we get the clarification that it wasn’t even Aoyama who wanted a quirk, but the rich asshole Aoyama parents thought they could buy an “upgrade” for their kid to make him less different, and honestly, fuck them!!!! Hereby they get a nomination to worst parents of BNHA contest. It’s a stacked field.)

Aoyama gets desperate and talks about how Deku was quirkless too (wait, I think Deku didn’t overhear that part before, so this is like a lightbulb moment) - but then before we could see his reaction, also Danger Sense goes off (and the panelling here is really cool)

Hagakure gets her moment to shine - literally as she throws herself in between the boys because she can reflect light, so actually, Aoyama and Deku don’t have to try to hurt each other. She gets a face and full-body reveal as a present.

Pan over to the school - and the adults are there, Nezu, All Might, Present Mic, Tsukauchi (who gets hotter with every passing day of post-war sleeplessness). So Aoyama apparently isn’t about to explode like Nagant, yadi-yada-yada.

The highlight of this chapter is Class A’s and All Might’s reaction.

They are so devastated. Todoroki and Kaminari are like, hell, we are going nowhere. Mina is looking like a nervous wreck again. That girl is so broken - Hori, give her some focus please. (Remember when she taught Aoyama to dance??) Ojirou for once is asking the clever questions and Kirishima is still in the Denial stage of grief.

Kacchan remains calm (I knew it!) and he also remind us that “hey, Deku and Aoyama are narrative foils if you haven’t noticed this from all the previous panels”. Thanks Kacchan!

Aoyama papa explains that they were the ones receiving the orders and Aoyama didn’t actually know that much, and AFO was gonna kill them and Aoyama is just like - I am a total villain. The evilest of evil.

[It’s a bit hamfisted, we get it:

he had no choice ✔ ,

he was dragged into this against his will ✔

he’s trying to protect his parents ✔

he feels deep remorse ✔

All boxes checked. Villain saving can be activated.]

Deku then steps up and reminds Aoyama that he did try to save Kacchan and Tokoyami in the forest (demonstrated his goodness?✔ ) and wrote an entire SOS in cheese (wants to be saved ✔ ). He even finds an angle to blame himself for not understanding Aoyama’s message.

The part I don’t like is the totally not parallel case of Nagant (who knew exactly who AFO was, and willingly took a quirk from him and all her past sins of you know being a black ops assassin) is held up as a positive example. It’s forced. It’s unnecessary.

Anyways, Deku extends a hand to a tied-down Aoyama [ Will he take it, I wonder?] (muhaha) - and Kacchan is already thinking how it can be used to their advantage!

Also bonus point for him thinking of Deku as “Deku”.

Looks like UA Traitor is being resolved in the next chapter and it will also give them an opportunity to try to set a trap for AFO. We’ll also see if AFO is an evil mastermind or a big idiot who never thought about the possibility of being double-crossed.

#class1a reads bnha #bnha 337 #bnha manga spoilers #bnha meta #aoyama yuuga #midoriya izuku #afo #dabi

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yellowbluemoonshine · 3 years

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Bnha 335; Opinions

I wanna talk about a few things that i found interesting.

First of all, this panel. When allmight talked about Shigaraki, Dabi, Toga, Afo. Afo doesnt look different than how its shown in this panel but Shigaraki, Dabi and Toga? They look extra crazy.

Compare this panel with later scenes. Dabi doesnt look ‘crazy smillng monster’ as heroes imagines, he just looks tired and done with everything. And even Toga, she looks far away from ‘happy blushing monster’ and Shigaraki is full of angry, struggling on ground, not look like an empty guy who doesnt have emotions.

Again and again, we sees heroes dehumanizing villains as possibles as they can, in their mind. Except Deku’s ‘he looked like he needed saving’ feelings, Shouto’’s ‘he is me’ scene and Uraraka’s realization of Toga’s suffering/crying, except those three, every other heroes seem to ready to destroy villains without second thought. Hopefully, we will get to somewhere with those three and others.

Another detail i found interesting is its like....we returned back to the start with Shigaraki. His hatred of Allmight came back, no surprise since he is with Afo again. He seems to stopped pushing Afo, after the battle with Allmight fangirl Star. But here’s the thing, Shigaraki probably learnt Twice’s death sicne he is awake with Toga and Spinner. Remember the overhaul arc or mva arc Shigaraki, his main focus would be revenge of Twice but nope, here’s all Shigaraki have is hatred of Allmight, just like usj arc Shigaraki. The fact that we didnt get much reaction (to Twice’s death) from Shigaraki is not a good sign. He desperately needs to separated from Afo.

So league’s sitution; Mr compress and Kurogiri are captured, Twice is dead, Dabi’s tired and focus on his revenge, Toga seems calm down, probably cause she finally returned back to her family but we probably will see her anger when she will fight against heroes again, Shigaraki is controlled by Afo again, Spinner seems to be the only one who is aware of somethings? Like the things with Afo and all so i expect something from him.

And here’s theory of future chapters. Since we probably get another fight between heroes and villains, i think Deku’s ‘i will save Shigaraki’ thoguths will be tested soon, we might even see Shigaraki’s killing Allmight since hatred came back so things can be brutal again but this time (unlike war arc, hopefully), i think we might see more realization and character development with hero students when they encounter with villains. I dont think saving villains part will happen soon and i hope author doesnt rush to story cause there are a lot of things that needs to happen.

And cant wait to learn traitor’s story.

#bnha 335 #mha 335 #mha theory #bnha analysis #shigaraki tomura #midoriya izuku #spinner #Dabi #toga himiko #afo #allmight #and allmight please shut up ooof #twice death

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linkspooky · 3 years

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Who is it who really needs saving?

is the question Dabi asked when Tokoyami came to rescue Hawks in the middle of the raid war arc. Dabi asks this question just after Hawks stabbed twice in the back with the justification that it would save people, despite the fact that Twice was also a victim too, and also someone in need of saving. Dabi’s question is especially poignant because it asks who is hero society invested in saving, a question that is repeated by Twice who believes Hero Society only saves the good victims, and Himiko as well who asks if Heroes save people, then was Twice not a person.

I bring this up because chapter 299/300 end on another parallel between Dabi and Hawks. Both of them have their backs being shown, however, Hawks is already healing due to the nature of his quirk, whereas the permanent burns on Dabi’s skin has already gotten worse. Hawks and Dabi also have opposite goals at this point, Hawks to support Endeavor, and Dabi’s ultimate goal is to bring him down. However, Rei’s words over Endeavor’s panel add another layer of complication to this. “Those regrets and guilt, the rest of those have borne that burden much more than you have.” Endeavor is suffering, but he’s not the one most in need of saving. I believe next chapter rightly, Rei is going to point out that the ones most in need of saving are the ones who suffered the most because of Endeavor’s actions. Endeavor was never the one in need of saving, and in need of redemption in the first place, rather it was Dabi.

1. Started From the Bottom Now We’re Even Lower

Hawks and Dabi are seeming opposites even from their origin points. Hawks was born in a poor household the son to a minor villain, Touya a rich household the son of the number two hero. Hawks family name basically means nothing to the point where the hero commission easily erased it, whereas Dabi’s family name has dominated his entire life. Touya from a young age was given everything he needed to become a hero and his father even encouraged him, while Hawks was on the run from the law and couldn’t even leave his small house without getting yelled at.

At first, Hawks was born with a quirk that both of his parents disapproved of as they constantly asked him what his wings were even for, and seemed disgusted by his mutation. While at the same time, Touya was born with a quirk that his father was happy with, a fire quirk even stronger than his own which Enji thought gave him enough of a potential that he didn’t need to worry about finding an ideal hybrid quirk. He could pass all his techniques onto his firstborn son who seemed eager to learn.

The only real similarity between both of them was that for both children, Endeavor was clearly their favorite hero. Touya was eager to please his father and train with him in order to inherit his hero techniques, and when Endeavor captured Hawks father, it convinced Hawks that heroes were real.

However, both of them experienced a sudden reversal of fate. This is where circumstances for both of them flipped. Touya’s quirk was in fact revealed to be a very harmful hybridization of his parents two quirks, he inherited his father’s flames but even hotter, while at the same time inheriting Rei’s sensitivity to fire which made th overheating flaw even worse on him causing his quirk to deliberately harm his body. Hawks however, is an ideali hybridization of both of his parents quirks. His mother Tomie has a quirk that creates eyeballs and seems ideal for searching, watching and locating things, while his father’s feather quirks on his arms that could sharpen into blades turned into wings on his back that were both capable of searching and detection like his mother’s eyeballs and sharpening into blades like his father’s.

At first it seems destined that Touya was ging to become a hero, while Hawks had no hope for him, but because of the nature of their quirks the opposite happened. When Hawks was young he was able to save a busload of people from crashing which got him recruited by the hero commission. While it’s implied that Touya kept trying to train on his own even after Endeavor stopped the training and abandoned him in favor of Shoto, and because of that Touya had his training accident at Sekoto peek and burned to death.

Dabi and Hawks are seeming opposites, but they’re actually quite similar if you think about it. Both of them grew up in abusive households that are intentionally paralleled, they have controlling and physically violent fathers, and mothers who are coded as mentally ill, Tomie was unfit to take care of a child, and Rei was eventually pushed to a breaking point where she was unable to anymore and then forcibly separated and institutionalized by her husband. Both, also experienced a separation from their mother, Rei was hospitalized around the time Toya finally died, and the Hero Commission promised Tomie support if she cut all ties from him. Both of them also dreamed of becoming heroes, and tried their best to, even Touya after his father rejected him kept training on their own.

The only difference between them is circumstances, Hawks was saved because he was born with a useful quirk, Touya despite his father being the number two hero was never saved.

2. We’re the Heroes, Who Don’t Do Anything

In fact it’s implied that Enji intentionally looked away and forced himself to forget Touya’s suffering. For instance, the first time Touya trains with Enji he’s shown wearing a sleeveless shirt. Every time after that, Touya has long jacket sleeves on. When he’s crying to Natsuo, when he’s pulling out his hair, and the last memory from before his death, every time Touya is shown hiding his arms. We also know that Dabi, has burns that go all the way up his arms which is exactly where his flames emerge from. It’s also the place where Touya burns himself when Enji remembers training with him for the first time.

It’s likely that Touya was walking around with burns up his arms from the training he was inflicting on himself, and Enji simply didn’t notice because his unreliable narrator status, he forgets everything he has done to other members of his family, or intentionally downplays the severity of it in order to avoid the guilt and consequences of his actions. Hence why he can say things like “I never meant to neglect you” to Natsuo, when we saw him call Natsuo and the others failures from Shoto’s perspective, because in Enji’s perspective he’s just a good father who went wrong somewhere along the line, whereas from Natsuo’s perspective he never really acted like a father towards him at all.

Enji only ever sees his own intentions, and not the impact his actions had on others. He only saw his heroic ambitions, and not the way he taught Touya that his only value was his quirk, and then completely tossed him aside as a failure and ignored all his suffering when Touya kept trying to get his attention. That he intentionally neglected Touya until either an accident or a suicide claimed his life.

Either way it’s a running theme that Endeavor hesitates when it comes to saving his own sons. Despite seeing himself as both a hero and a father, he completely fails in both roles to them.

He froze when it came time to save Natsuo from Ending, and the second time when Shoto was begging Endeavor for help against Dabi, Endeavor chose not to do a single thing. In fact the only thing that moved him was Deku’s pep talk that exclusively stoked his ego and called him a good mentor, which caused Endeavor to finally move into action.

Endeavor is a hero in name who has no interest in directly saving others, because his number one priority has always been to stand at the number one spot and feel like he’s accomplished something. He didn’t notice Touya was most likely continuing the training on his own, and was spiraling that badly until after Touya had died, and even after that happened he still continued the training with Shoto like nothing happened, even mentioning that Touya was a small mistake.

When the wounds from Touya’s death were still fresh, it seemed like barely anything more than an afterthought to him. There are some people who even theorize that Enji only believed Touya was always alive because he had never truly faced the guilt of Touya’s death and his role in it, that it was a comfort to him to believe his son was still secretly alive out there.

The signs were obvious that Touya was spiraling, but he was neglected so much that Endeavor the number two hero who prides himself on most cases resolved didn’t notice what was going wrong with his son until he literally burned himself alive, and even then that wasn’t enough to stop him from mistreating his other son and forcing him into painful training.

Touya’s neglect is as much abuse as Shoto’s favoritism and training, that’s the point of the golden child / scapegoat dynamic, they are both being abused. Enji was the only parent in the household, and if his kid was burning himself, and injuring himself all the time and it got to the point where the child literally died because of a lack of adult supervision, Enji could be prosecuted for manslaughter in a court of law. There are cases where adults just, do absolutely nothing for their kids, and those kids sometimes die of neglect, starvation, because of their parents completely failing to take care of them. It’s just as sinister a form of abuse as physical abuse. In both cases a child’s needs aren’t being provided for by their parents.

Dabi is someone who could have been easily saved by his father paying attention to him, and should have been saved by the man who prides himself as the number two hero, but he was left to rot. This is a running theme with Endeavor, he’s a hero who continually fails to save his family.

Dabi’s situation is also a metaphor for hero society at large. Who are the types of people that Hero Society prefers to save? Those who are useful to it like Hawks. It intentionally turns a blind eye to cases like Touya, Tenko or Twice. If Touya did have burns on his arms from training but was able to cover them up just by wearing long sleeves, and Natsuo was the only one who knew then that goes even further to explain Dabi’s specific obsession with discrediting Endeavor.

If Dabi’s father had just acted like a hero, or acted like a father then he would have been saved. If Dabi’s father had noticed the person most in need of saving was right next to him, the incident where he burned to death never would have happened. Which is why Dabi’s grudge is specifically against heroes who do not act like heroes. Heroes who, cannot save anyone because they are too self involved to perform the duty of saving. He shares Stain’s obsession with ideologically pure heroes, that only heroes who put saving others selflessly over everything else should be allowed to exist and the rest are pretenders to the title.

Notice how Dabi pulls on the scars on his face when begging the people to think about this, about who should really be allowed to call themselves heroes.

Dabi’s entire arc revolves around this question. Who are the real victims? Who are the ones that really need to be saved? Dabi is a character of mystery and subversion who is constantly hiding his real feelings.

Dabi is commented on being heartless about Twice’s death, but his actions contradict his words. Dabi goes out of his way trying to avenge Twice even after it’s already too late to save him, even burning up his own body to do so. He tried so hard we see literally there are new scars growing on his back the next time we see him Post-War Arc.

I’d also like to bring up that while Hawks accuses Dabi of feeling nothing about Twice’s death, Hawks is the one who killed him, and who after the fact shows no regret in his actions because he’s completely justified it to himself. He even remembers Twice like he’s some kind of old friend he took inspiration from, and not a person he manipulated into trusting him then killed. My point is it’s a reversal, Hawks is set up as the one who cares about Twice as a friend, but really was only using him. Dabi claims he was only using him, but he’s the one who showed an actual emotional reaction to Twice’s death and made an effort to save him.

If I were to say this is one more point of foiling between Dabi and Hawks. They both don’t see themselves as victims and because of that they deny the victimhood of the other.

Dabi accuses Hawks of becoming a murderer because his father was a murderer. Hawks when he learns the truth about Enji, takes Enji’s side over Dabi’s, believing Endeavor being the true victim in need of help in that situation. This is because Dabi and Hawks both deny their own victimhood, and they project that on each other. Dabi denies his victimhood and pretends to be the villain instead, he’s the villain who is going to take down Endeavor and therefore he’s not suffering. Hawks denies his own victimhood and his abusive past and pretends to be a hero, he’s helping Endeavor become a better hero, so therefore all the abuse Endeavor committed is in the past so therefore he doesn’t have to think about it. Both deny themselves and therefore deny any similarity in one another.

They’re also two people fatally wrapped up in their own circumstances they turn a blind eye to the suffering of others. Dabi assumes that Shoto is “good” and therefore, must have been raised with love and had it better than him and was raised with love. Whereas Hawks assumes that Twice is “good”, and therefore worthy of saving because he helps other people. In both cases, neither Dabi nor Hawks really understand Shoto or Twice, they’re just judging them by their own projected standards. Dabi only understands his childhood as Touya desperately trying to work for Enji’s attention, so Shoto who had Enji’s attention must have had it good. Hawks was saved because of the bus accident where he saved people as a hero, so obviously it makes sense he reach out to try to save another good person who just had bad luck.

Despite the fact that both of them are pretty much emotionally dead and in deep denial of their true feelings.

Dabi has also made a show of how little he cares about Natsuo, while at the same time his most famous line from the pro hero arc is “overthought things and snapped...”

Dabi is also the only one who notices it’s dangerous to bring Tokoyami onto a battlefield. This is when he asks the question, who is it who needs saving.

We learn at around the same time, the hope from the Pro Hero arc was intentionally a set up by Dabi to bring Endeavor down, and show everyone eventually that Endeavor hadn’t truly changed.

These are all small details yes, but keep in mind we’ve really only gotten crumbs of Dabi’s characterization so far because his perspective is one that has deliberately been kept from us. We see his past through almost everyone else’s eyes but his own - because so far the focus has been on Endeavor.

Just like Dabi set up Endeavor’s earlier success only to bring him down, this might also lead to a reversal in the narratives. In 299, Hawks believed Endeavor to be the one in need of help. We are also as an audience set up to believe that the narrative arc will focus around Endeavor’s redemption. This is before the series revealed the circumstances of his son.

However, Endeavor and Dabi are literal opposites. They’re inversions of each other. Dabi pretends he doesn’t care any more for his family and will go out of his way to hurt them, that all he cares about is revenge, but at the same his ideals are heroic. In his actions and ideals he’s the one calling for a better society. Dabi is the most independent and distant from the league it’s true, and so far he’s denied their friendship, but at the same time it’s Dabi who is the most idealistic of the league. Shigaraki wants to destroy the current society, Himiko wants a society that’s easier on her, but it’s Dabi who has the ideals for a society he wants, one where heroes are held to standards and act like Heroes. It’s dabi better than anyone else who makes the standards for mass appeal. Because, deep down Dabi still has heroic aspirations and drive even if it comes from Stain of all people he’s inspired by. He has some sort of ideals, a world he’s trying to create.

Whereas, Endeavor doesn’t have any heroic ideals at all. His idea of being a hero has always centered around fame, status and the ranking of number one. He’s a hero unconcerned with saving people, only defeating villains to prove his strength. Endeavor presents himself outwardly as someone who is trying to do what’s best for his family, and working towards being the best hero he can be but his intentions are revealed to be selfish, at the same time as Enji’s narration is revealed as unreliable. It may have been set up for an inversion all along, with the setup being that Enji is the one who needed to redeem himself, when Dabi was pushed to the background. Around this time Rei also tried to reassure others, that he was trying to carry his regrets with him.

However, as soon as Touya’s identity is revealed, Rei’s stance reverses. Now she properly calls out that, Enji hasn’t been carrying his regrets at al.. Instead, he’s been forcing his family to carry the burden of it while he gets to go play hero in front of the public.

As soon as Touya is revealed to be alive, it’s not Enji who is the center and focus of conversation but rather Touya. In 299, Hawks believes that it’s Endeavor whose in need of saving, but we’re shown that Endeavor only really seems to pity himself in this situation.

It’s Rei who shows up to remind us, who really is in need of saving in this situation. Not Endeavor but rather those who have been burned the most by Endeavor’s actions.

Which may be the ultimate parallel between Hawks and Dabi as well, Hawks can’t see himself as a victim so he can’t realize who the victims who need his help the most is. Whereas, Dabi in the future may receive the change of heart he needs to reopen his heart again and accept others, and therefore learn to accept himself. Dabi is set up for a reconciliation between his two selves, Touya the victim and Dabi the villain. While ultimately, Hawks will intentionally turn his back on Keigo the victim, because he can only ever see himself as a hero.

I’m not suggesting that Dabi is good or Hawks is bad, or the other way around, not something as simple as that but that Dabi is open to change, and this will lead to him eventually opening up to others. Whereas, Hawks who is given practically every opportunity to change, and even escapes killing Twice with no permanent consequences, (his wings are growing back, and he even is freed from the hero commission) chooses to support Endeavor once again. It’s Dabi who calls others to think and reevaluate, and is actively trying to create a change in the world, whereas Hawks only interest is protecting other heroes and not the victims that heroes themselves create. Because in his mind heroes are good and that fact will never change.

Because Dabi is the one trying to create change, while Hawks continues to cling to Endeavor I believe we’ll eventually receive a reversal for both of them. Just as the narrative around Dabi has changed from irredeemable villain to person in need of saving, we may see exactly what was foreshadowed in this panel happening. Dabi walking towards the light, while Hawks falls further and further into the shadows - because it’s Dabi who is looking for that light, while Hawks chooses to remain in the dark. Hawks was saved once, and now he believes that everyone who is good gets saved, unless they are unlucky like Twice. It’s Dabi who knows the truth, that there are heroes who don’t save people, and it’s Dabi who is at least trying to confront that truth head on and change it rather than just ignoring it.

In a way Hawks is someone who has gone blind from looking too closely at Endeavor’s light, whereas because Dabi was failed by Endeavor and fell into the shadows he at least knows the truth about what it’s like for those who don’t get saved, and unlike Hawks can’t keep deluding himself that this is a world where everyone who deserves it gets saved.

#dabi #hawks #toya todoroki #touya todoroki #takami keigo #mha meta #my hero academia meta #my hero academia theory #bnha 299 #bnha 300 #mha 299 #mha 300

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lavenderwhore444 · 3 years

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UR OFFICIALLY MY FAVORITE BLOG FOR SUB SHIGARAKI AND I TOTALLY AGREE THAT SHIGARAKI DOES HAVE A MOMMY KINK✋😔 ANYWAYS CAN I PLEASE REQUEST SUB SHIGARAKI WITH A MOMMY KINK AND PEGGING PLEASE

🌸 Mommy fic for mothers’s day 😌 🌸

If you want to use interactive fics, it's easy and makes reading fics SO much better. First, you download the Google Chrome extension. You'll see it in the top right corner of your screen. Next, you enter your name in the first box. If you want to change something other than y/n, please click on the text that says “want to change something other than y/n?” here, you can change any word you want to a different word. When I talk about your quirk I will use y/q

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🌸 BESTIE I JUST POSTED ONE here she is BUT HERES ANOTHER AND SINCE IM BOLD AF AND REALLY FEELING THE MOMMY KINK LET ME HIT YOU WITH...

His lactation kink

Sometimes he's so far gone when he's sucking on your boobs that he gets worried/surprised/mad that there's no milk.

Like you're mommy....why no milk for Shiggy?

Let's be real as much as he may want kids in the future. He's not willing to get you prego in the middle of a war. But he will find the money to get those pills adoptive mothers use when they want to breastfeed their adopted baby. And you'd better take them. If you're not immune to his quirk...avoid him for a few days weeks. He will NOT be happy. I know that sounds mean, but he will dust you because you refused. Sorry, I'm right. He's a total brat.

And I mean, c’mon, if you've seen that manga panel, you know the man loves tits. Despite popular belief, he probably has a thing for tiny boobs so he can watch them get bigger once they fill up with milk because of the pills you will be taking. Like if you refuse, tell Dabi what color flowers you want at your funeral.

But this will be saved for another fic that's already cooking in my brain.

I'm gonna be honest, I was a little skimpy with the whole mommy thing last time, y’know, just testing the waters, but oh lord, get ready.

“Mommy, ” he whined, “Mommy, please. I need it so bad, ”

He was straddling your thigh, grinding and humping it desperately. He looked so sweet and pathetic, whining for mommy while desperately trying to get himself off. He was on the verge of tears now. He didn't want to cum in his pants. It's so embarrassing. Little did he know that's exactly what you wanted. Something about seeing him cry out and hide his face in your neck as he was unable to stop the cum spurting out of his dick and into his pants was so hot. He was so embarrassed. One time Shigaraki even cried.

The sadistic side of you wanted him in tears: red eyes and a runny nose. But you loved it when he crawled into your arms, still sniffling as you rubbed his back. You wanted to humiliate, break him down just to build him back up again. Worship his body and tell him how good he was. Whisper how loved and appreciated he was. He started to tug at your shirt, looking up with those puppy dog eyes you loved so, so much.

“Tell me what you want, honey, ” you said.

“I wanna see your boobs, mommy, ” he cried shamelessly.

You nearly laughed at how juvenile it sounded.

“Alright, honey, go ahead, ” you said.

He nearly ripped your shirt in half but restrained himself. He did, however, accidentally bend one of the hooks on your bra. When you were finally bare-chested, he whined desperately, looking up at you.

“Go ahead, ” you urged.

He dove right in, sucking and groping your tits. You moaned softly as he twisted your nipple. His hips were moving even faster, the spot of precum becoming more noticeable. He froze. You heard a strangled cry muffled by your tits as he came. And he did it. He started crying. Hiccuping and sniffling as he buried his face in shame. You stroked his hair.

“Dont cry, sweetie, ” you said, stroking his hair.

He looked up at you with teary eyes.

“Mommy, ” he whispered, another tear rolling down his cheek.

“Right here sweetie, ” you cooed, “mommy’s here, ”

The corners of his chapped lips turned up in a small smile. Mommy’s here. He nuzzled his face into the side of your neck, and you held him tight. You rocked him back and forth slowly, kissing the top of his head.

“Can you do me a favor Tomu?” you asked.

“Yes mommy, ” he nodded eagerly.

You slid out from under him and wiggled out of your pants, lying down on your back. His eyes lit up as he started at your clothed cunt.

“Dont be shy, ” you whispered, “come taste mommy’s pussy, ”

He nearly pounced to suck on your panties. You moaned, only encouraging him to pull off your panties. He almost suffocated himself, shoving his face into your cunt. He loved how you tasted. He loved mommy’s pussy. It was the best. It made him feel so good, and it made you feel good. That was the most important part. He wanted your cum. It didn't matter where, on his face, in his mouth, on his cock. He just wanted mommy’s cum.

He was moaning more than you were as he lapped at your cunt, sending sweet vibrations through you. Your legs wrapped around his head, and he held your thighs in place around his head. You smirked, squeezing his head tighter until he started to whine and struggle from the lack of air. He pulled away, gasping only to dive right back in, moaning again.

He was always a messy eater, caring more about tasting you than making you cum. However, today, he was doing an excellent job. He was pushing his tongue into you as far as it would go, desperately probing while his nose bumped your clit. To your surprise, you were cumming in no time, tugging his hair. You were crying his name as your legs quivered. He savored every drop, overstimulating you beyond coherent thinking.

“You did so good baby. You did so good for mommy, ” you panted, “let me make you feel good too Shiggy. What do you need, baby?”

“C-can you get the...the special toy we got, mommy?” he whispered.

“Of course, baby, ” you said.

The toy in question was a vibrating dildo attached to your strap-on. He was so excited when he picked it out.

“Look, mommy, it vibrates, ” he said, tugging on your sleeve.

You had bought it without a second thought—anything for him. The toy sat in the closet with a bottle of lube and a remote for the vibrating portion. You moved between his legs and applied lube to your fingers before slipping them in. He was used to the size of your fingers by now but prepping him was still very important. You scissored your fingers to stretch him further. Much to his delight, you began to hit his favorite spot as his sweet moans echoed through the room.

When you pulled your fingers out he whined softly.

“Mommy, please put your fingers back, ” he begged.

“Dont worry, baby. You're gonna feel so so good but you need to be patient, ” you said.

You lined up the toy and sunk in slowly. Tomura let out a long, loud moan that lasted until you were all the way inside of him. His eyes were squeezed shut, and his mouth was open. You waited until his breathing returned to its regular pace before starting to thrust slowly. His eyes rolled back, and a happy sigh left his lips as he met your slow thrusts. As you sped up, he began to pant and whimper, wiggling around to try and find his prostate. When you did find it he nearly screeched.

“M-mommy, ” he moaned, “r-right there...thank you mommy feels so, ugh, so good, ”

You grabbed the remote and pressed the button for the lowest setting. The soft buzzing sound was barely audible over the slapping of skin and squelching as you sunk into him, and of course, Tomura’s whimpers and moans. You could feel it buzzing against your clit as it the strap on rubbed against you. You turned up the intensity and started to chase the vibrating sensation. Meanwhile, Tomura was completely losing it. He was shaking and moaning as you pounded into him relentlessly. He nearly screamed when the vibrator turned up to it's highest setting.

You stopped for a moment deep inside of him and ground against the toy, moving it around in him. It felt so so good, just as good as your favorite vibrator. You were already getting close not only from the vibrations but from Tomura’s slutty moans and whimpers. Crying out for mommy to keep fucking him. So you obliged, setting a pace that had him crying from pleasure. You were getting close. All the pleasure started to focus on your clit until it burst; the little nerve sent waves of mind-blowing pleasure through your whole body.

“Tomura, ” you cried, “fuck I'm cumming, ”

He was right on the edge. The spot you stopped had the vibrating head right up against his prostate. He wiggled a little, rubbing himself on the toy until you decided to keep thrusting into him. His whole body shook as he coated himself in cum.

“Mommy, ” he cried over and over.

You held him tight through his climax and pulled out slowly. With the toy discarded and the mess cleaned up, you moved a mat of sweaty hair out of the sleeping boy’s face. You kissed his forehead and watched as his mouth found its way to your tits. Even in his sleep, he was still a little pervert.

#tomura smut #tenko smut #tomura x reader #mha tomura #tomura imagine #shigaraki tenko #tomura shiragaki #tomurashigaraki #shigaraki tomura #shigaraki smut #mha shigaraki #shigaraki x reader #smut #mha smut

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todomitoukei · 3 years

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English vs. Japanese Shouto - A 298 Comparison

Welcome back to another comparison between the Japanese version and the official English translation. This chapter has caused a lot of confusion as soon as the spoilers came out, particularly in regards to the last line in Shouto’s monologue. Does he want to kill Dabi? Is he going to fight him?

Aside from the confusion, this chapter is important for both Shouto’s character, as well as his and Dabi’s storyline, moving forward.

The scene starts with a panel of Shouto in his hospital bed, surrounded by his classmates who by now are also aware of the situation. As we find out at the end of the chapter, Shouto’s throat is burned, so he currently can’t talk. Regardless, he has a lot to say or rather a lot to reflect on, starting with an obvious fact:

“His flames are stronger than dad’s.”

An obvious fact and a simple sentence. But what about the original?

「あいつの炎は親父よりも強かった。」

「あいつ ; aitsu 」-> he; that guy

「の ; no 」-> possessive particle; similar to an apostrophe

「炎 ; honou 」-> flame

「は ; ha 」-> topic marker particle

「親父 ; oyaji 」-> dad

「よりも ; yori mo 」-> in comparison to; more than

「強かった ; tsuyokatta 」-> was strong

= “His flames were stronger than dad’s.”

The difference here is the tense. While the original text has Shouto say that the flames “were” stronger, the English translation has him say they “are” stronger. It’s not really an important difference, but I think the past tense was him reflecting on the one fact he knew about Touya before all this. The first time we, the readers, heard about Touya in chapter 202 -

was during Shouto’s early training days, where Endeavor brought up Touya and the fact that “his fire was greater” - so this is a fact Shouto was raised with, someone he was essentially compared to. Touya set the bar high, but Endeavor expected Shouto to raise the bar even higher.

“I couldn’t win with firepower alone. So strong… Those flames full of hate.”

While Shouto had so far only been told about Touya’s strength, this is the first time he got to actually experience this himself. Now, Touya’s flames being stronger isn’t just something Endeavor said, but something Shouto knows.

「火力で勝てなかった強い。。。憎しみの炎だった。」

「火力 ; karyoku」-> firepower

「で ; de 」-> with

「勝てなかった ; katenakatta 」-> couldn’t win

「強い ; tsuyoi 」-> strong

「憎しみ ; nikushimi 」-> hatred

「の ; no 」-> possessive particle; similar to an apostrophe

「炎 ; honou 」-> flame

「だった ; datta 」-> was

= “I couldn’t win with firepower. Strong… it was a flame of strong hatred.”

Again, not a big difference, especially since the English translation made sure to split the text the same way as the original, but tsuyoi (strong) is an adjective that attaches to the noun, nikushimi (hatred). Sure, his flames are strong, but more importantly, his hatred is strong and that is the bigger problem here.

Not only does Dabi have a stronger flame, but his hatred grants him even more power as he’s not held back by any rational thought or feeling. Like a forest fire, you can’t just extinguish it. Instead, it keeps spreading and growing larger and larger.

“And he’s… been watching us all this time.”

Next, we get the flashback to the first time Shouto met Dabi back in the summer arc. Maybe Dabi’s “How sad, poor little Shouto Todoroki” didn’t mean that much to Shouto - who might have just assumed that Dabi knew his name from the sports festival - but now he understands that this had been planned for a long time. Touya “died” around ten years ago and during all that time, Dabi had been thinking about this moment.

「あいつはずっと見てたんだ。」

「あいつ ; aitsu 」-> he; that guy

「は ; ha 」-> topic marker particle

「ずっと ; zutto 」-> continuously; the whole time

「見てた ; miteta 」-> was watching

「んだ ; nda 」-> explanatory particle

= “He was watching the whole time.”

Again, not much of a difference except for the tense. Another thing that this is implying is that Dabi is incredibly patient. Instead of just being filled with rage and letting it out all, he waited in the shadows for years, even when being so close to Shouto he chose to keep his composure, even though he could’ve just killed him right then and there if he had wanted to.

Something that got lost in translation is the nuance of the nda at the end of the sentence, which can have multiple meanings. Here, it expresses reason and discovery, as Shouto understands his first encounter with Dabi now. Sort of like saying “Oh, so that’s why he knew my name. That’s what he has been up to the entire time.”

“All… to bring down dad. Wrecking his own body along the way… and not giving a damn whose lives get ruined in the process.”

「親父を貶めるためだけにその身を滅ぼしながらあらゆる人の人生を巻き込んで。」

「親父 ; oyaji 」-> dad

「を ; o 」-> direct object marker

「貶める ; otoshimeru 」-> to look down upon; to cause to fall

「ため ; tame 」-> purpose

「だけに ; dake ni 」-> being the case; precisely

「その ; sono 」-> that

「身 ; mi 」-> body; oneself

「を ; o 」-> direct object marker

「滅ぼしながら ; horoboshi nagara 」-> while destroying

「あらゆる人 ; ara yuru hito 」-> all kinds of people

「の ; no 」-> possessive particle; similar to an apostrophe

「人生 ; jinsei 」-> human life

「を ; o 」-> direct object marker

「巻き込んで ; makikonde 」-> involving; dragging into

= “For the purpose of causing dad’s downfall, he destroyed his body at the same time and dragged other lives into it.”

I find the additional “not giving a damn” in the official translation interesting (= I hate it)… since he literally doesn’t say that, but sure let’s just add this to make it seem like Shouto is judging Dabi here when he is not doing that at all. This is merely an observation, stating the fact that his older brother’s mind was so clouded by hatred that he involved other people’s lives in their family business. This isn’t to say that Shouto doesn’t see this as wrong, but it’s not the point and not something he is focusing on. He’s connecting the dots, making sense of the situation, and understanding the reasons that led to Dabi’s crimes rather than just stating the obvious of “this is wrong.”

On to one of my favorite lines this chapter: “He’s basically... me.”

「あいつは俺だ。」

「あいつ ; aitsu 」-> he; that guy

「は ; ha 」-> topic marker particle

「俺 ; ore 」-> I

「だ ; da 」-> be

= “That guy is me.”

So, I’m not sure why the “basically” was added in the official English translation since Shouto doesn’t say it like that. He just says “Touya = me.” It’s a fact. Obviously, Shouto isn’t actually Touya, but the “basically” isn’t needed unless you suddenly think that maybe Shouto hass two separate bodies at once somehow. This might be nitpicking, and there have definitely been bigger changes before, but to me the “basically” distances the two, even though the sentence is supposed to show that they are the same. Yes, one is on the hero side and the other on the villain side. Of course there are differences. But again, it’s not about the crimes Dabi has committed or how these two brothers differ. It’s about what’s going on in their minds, what feelings control their every action. They come from the same place, physically and mentally. The way they reacted to their pain is the same, with the big difference being what Shouto points out next:

“I was also burning with rage… up until that day.”

That day, as the panel shows, being the sports festival, the day Shouto began to see clearly. But Dabi didn’t have a moment like that (yet) and so he continues going down that path, while Shouto managed to leave that mindset.

「あの日までの俺がこの身を焼いたんだ。」

「あの ; ano 」-> that

「日 ; hi 」-> day

「まで ; made 」-> until

「の ; no 」-> nominalizes the preceding phrase

「俺 ; ore 」-> I

「が ; ga 」-> subject marker particle

「この ; kono 」-> this

「身 ; mi 」-> body; oneself

「を ; o 」-> direct object marker

「焼いた ; yaita 」-> was burning

「んだ ; nda 」-> explanatory particle

= “Until that day, I burned this body.”

As mentioned earlier, the nda is an explanatory particle. Here, it again expresses discovery. Shouto draws a conclusion here: Just like he used to burn his body, Dabi is still doing the same to his.

Again, his focus is not on Dabi, the villain, but Touya, his older brother, and someone just like Shouto. While other people might just see a mentally unstable criminal, Shouto sees how self-destructive Dabi is. And because Shouto hadn’t realized how clouded his mind was, he understands that Dabi most likely doesn’t quite realize this either. Dabi ignores his own pain, all in order to destroy Endeavor. A cry for help that others aren’t capable of comprehending.

“Dad can’t do it…”

「親父じゃやれねェ。。。」

「親父 ; oyaji 」-> dad

「じゃ ; jya 」-> casual particle

「やれねェ ; yarenee 」-> can’t do

= “Dad can’t do it.”

[EDIT because this part originally had a different explanation: As pointed out by this anon here, the jya in this case is a casual particle to mark the topic/subject, and the nee part is the casual form of nai, which negates the verb. The translation is the same but the explanation is different!]

And now, for the last line:

“I have to be the one… to handle… my brother Touya.”

Handle him…

「燈矢兄は俺がやらなきゃ。」

「燈矢 ; touya 」-> Touya

「兄 ; nii 」-> suffix for older brother

「は ; ha 」-> topic marker particle

「俺 ; ore 」-> I

「が ; ga 」-> subject marker particle

「やらなきゃ ; yaranakya 」-> must do it

= “I am the one that has to take care of Touya-Nii.”

So this is the line that caused confusion and panic, due to the yaranakya part. As you can see by the meaning of the word, similar to how “must do it” can have multiple meanings in English, the same logic applies to the Japanese word. It’s also important to note that the word here consists of the two parts yaru (to do) and nakya (must do). Nakya not only expresses that you have to do something, but, in this case, also shows determination. Shouto really has to do it and will do it. But do what exactly? Again, the problem with yaru is that its meaning depends on context, but sometimes context itself isn’t super helpful. One of the definitions of yaru is “to kill” and that might be what some people think it means here? But context tells us that this makes zero sense. Why show how much he understands his brother only to turn around and decide “well, I got help but he hasn’t so I’m just gonna have to kill him, I guess” - no.

More importantly, right before this line, he says “dad can’t do it” - what can’t he do? If we were talking about killing him, then why would Shouto be able to do it and not Endeavor? Of course, there are the... funny people who suggested that only Shouto can fight/kill his brother because unlike him, Endeavor has an emotional attachment to Dabi (I’m just not gonna comment on this). Anyway, to answer the question of what Endeavor can’t do but Shouto can, we have to look at what Shouto said before that, which is talking about him also having burned his body until the sports festival. This is the key moment where Shouto’s and Dabi’s similarities end and only because someone was reaching out to Shouto. So obviously, in order to have Dabi stop being self-destructive and fueled by hatred, someone needs to reach out to Dabi. And that’s the thing that Endeavor can’t do. After all, Endeavor is the root cause of this, which in turn brings this scene to a full circle since right before Shouto’s monologue began, we got this flashback to what Starservant said in chapter 244:

“That one is the root cause,” accompanied by a panel showing Endeavor.

For reference, here’s the Japanese counterpart:

「其奴こそが元凶じゃ！！」

「其奴 ; soyatsu 」-> that guy

「こそ ; koso 」-> for sure (emphasizes preceding word)

「が ; ga 」-> subject marker particle

「元凶 ; genkyou 」-> culprit; main source

「じゃ ; jya 」-> sentence ender often used for old people in fiction

= “That guy is definitely the main source!”

Shouto remembering this is just stating an obvious fact that he hadn’t fully understood before: Dabi’s existence is Endeavor’s fault. His actions drove Touya to become Dabi, someone whose sole purpose for existing is to destroy Endeavor. So Endeavor couldn’t possibly save him. No matter what Endeavor would say or do, it would be meaningless. But Shouto is different because Shouto was Dabi. The big obstacle Shouto has to figure out how to overcome is making his big brother understand this, too. Regardless, Shouto is the only one that can reach out to him and the only one that fully understands him.

Another important to point out with this line, and many others have already talked about this, is that Shouto now refers to Dabi as Touya-Nii, whereas on the battlefield a few days prior, Shouto only called him Touya, without the “nii”. He is now actively acknowledging that this is, in fact, his big brother. He isn’t Dabi, the villain. And he isn’t just Touya, either - some abstract idea; someone Shouto has heard of but never met or talked to (not confirmed, but likely). This is now his big bro, just like Natsuo is, and just like Fuyumi is his big sister. They’re family.

Overall, this chapter was actually pretty accurate in terms of translation; though granted, Shouto isn’t a villain so the bias isn’t there… but anyway, this marks a very important turning point in the story and gives us a rough idea of what’s in store for Shouto from here on out.

He recognizes where Dabi is coming from. He doesn’t just see him as a villain, but rather someone who has been so full of hatred - for good reasons - that he ended up dragging innocent people into this. The focus, though, is entirely on that one fact: “That guy is me.”

Shouto understands that he could have turned out the same way, he understands hurting his own body just to spite his father.

The key concern with this chapter was that Shouto said that he’s going to kill Touya. I have no idea who started this rumor, but as mentioned, there is a possible confusion regarding yaru, which has multiple meanings. But although he doesn’t explicitly say “I will save him” it’s obvious from everything else he says during this chapter. If he recognizes that they’re the same, his conclusion won’t be “I have to kill him.” Especially when taking into consideration the fact that Shouto also pointed out that he couldn’t win against Dabi with his fire. And no, that doesn’t mean he can beat him with his ice or that that’s what he intends on doing. It’s not clear what he will be doing exactly, but that is partially due to the fact that Shouto is currently not in a state where he could possibly figure out the answer, either.

But he has a goal: saving Touya-Nii - not so much from Endeavor, but from Dabi.

Next week’s chapter will hopefully focus on the Todofam conversation about to take place and will maybe give us some more hints as to what to expect. So far, though, it’s very obvious that Shouto will try to reach out to Dabi and save him, much like he was also saved from his hatred during the sports festival. He might not have a relationship with Touya the way he has started to build one with Natsuo and Fuyumi, but they have a much deeper connection because they are the same person.

#298 #translation #shouto #dabi #todoroki #touya #bnha #meta

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haleigh-sloth · 2 years

Note

Yeah sorry about the ask I kind of lost my head for a minute there but it's not fair on you or others to send asks like that. I wasn't upset at Deku saving Aoyama as I was about the class' reactions and then we had last week with Shouto now calling Touya Dabi instead. It just feels that Hori is going backwards with a lot of these characters except Deku and maybe Uraraka, she did have that moment where she was thinking of Toga. But how do you do it? How do you stay so confident?

The class’s reaction is exactly what it should be. Several of them got seriously injured, one got kidnapped, and several almost died because of the traitor. They’re not gonna all suddenly be on board with accepting and forgiving villains. They’re supposed to feel shock, hurt, and betrayal. Idk why people expected anything other than that from everyone all of a sudden. There’s a main character for a reason. You don’t have to like the MC or like the way the MC is written, but for the MC to be given the pedestal of “always kind and forgiving” is not surprising and shouldn’t be at this point. Like that’s literally how it’s been since chapter 1.

And look, I get the frustration. But honestly Midoriya hasn’t thought of Shigaraki in a while either. He’s still kissing All Might’s ass and he isn’t shifting his outlook on hero society that we can see. Which is an important change for him to make for his arc, but we haven’t seen it yet.

Which ties into what I said here about Shouto calling his brother “Dabi”. Also, I forgot to note in that post that Rei ALSO called Touya “Dabi”. This isn’t done on accident. It’s the family trying to separate Dabi and Touya, which isn’t the way to go about it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not going to be addressed. Shouto has shown that he can back track. He wanted to handle Touya alone, but then he decided to work with Endeavor. He called Touya by his name at first, but as time went on decided that separating Touya from Dabi is what he needs to do to “handle” Touya. Backtracking in his way of addressing the situation is different than backtracking on his entire perspective of the situation, which we haven’t seen happen. So nothing to worry about.

He’s not going backwards, he’s showing internal struggle. Do I think we deserve to see Shouto’s inner thoughts more often than just a panel every five chapters or so? Yes. But don’t blame Deku for eating up Shouto’s arc, blame Endeavor for that. Who shouldn’t have had this prominent of an arc imo.

For Toga we haven’t even gotten ANY dialogue on saving Toga. None. The panel is all we got. And before that it was um, like 50+ chapters prior when it was first solidified that her and Ochacko’s storylines are tied together.

Clearly Hori’s focus is not on what it really should be, because it still feels stagnant at times (despite the fact that it’s picked up significantly), but if this whole traitor plot has shown us anything, it’s shown us that Hori follows up on his shit.

So many people had thought that the traitor plot had been dropped (intentionally dropped, not forgotten). I literally thought that myself, but then it wasn’t. And then, an annoying bait and switch was unnecessary, but it actually solidified that Hori REALLY follows up on his foreshadowing. Aoyama was “so obvious” that everybody thought there was no way it could be him. But then it was.

So what does this tell you? If Hori foreshadows or hints at something, he’s gonna do it. Yes there are a few retcons on the table that I’m waiting to see how they play out, but those are not rooted in the villains’ endgames so much as they are the specific characters being retconned (Endeavor, All Might, Hox—none of whose endgames affect the villain endgames).

So I’m calm because I see nothing that tells me I need to worry. Shouto isn’t the first family member to call Touya Dabi. I understand he had it and changed it and that’s bothersome, but it’s really no more vague or no less obvious than Toga and Ochacko’s fate together. Midoriya and Shigaraki’s plot is just painfully in your face obvious because it’s not one-sided for them two. The other two kid:villain duos don’t get that privilege, but that doesn’t mean they’re not gonna get the same ending. They all have foreshadowing of being saved and getting a happy ending, so I’m not worried.

#bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha spoilers #bnha 337 #bnha asks #anonymous

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stillness-in-green · 3 years

Text

MVA In Memoriam (4/5)

The Comprehensive Account of the Butchering of My Villain Academia

(Introduction and Part One, Episode 108: My Villain Academia) (Part Two, Episode 109: Revival Party) (Part Three, Episode 110: Sad Man's Parade)

Part Four, Episode 111: Origin: Shimura Tenko

Chapter 233 – Bright Future

• Twice clearly having arranged a Skeptic puppet to where its arm can be used as a pillow for Toga’s neck. A cute little character detail while also being kind of disturbing? Very on-brand for the League! A not-immediately-plot-crucial visual of a member of the League demonstrating obvious care for another member? The guillotine awaits!

• A little explanation about how clones’ physicality and memories work relative to the last time Twice saw the people the clones are based on. This is a very useful little nod of explanation to something that remained unclear from the dialogue of Mr. Clone-press last chapter. Twice’s quirk is pretty arcane in its ins and outs, frankly, and the clearer those details are, the fewer plot holes you’re leaving for later.

• The scene of Skeptic being right on the verge of confronting Twice. Skeptic has, oh, about five moments where he’s obviously a big tense neurotic who’s unpleasant to be around if things aren’t going his way, and the anime deleted or downplayed all but two of them. As ever, it’s obscenely damaging to the characterization of the MLA cast, who we have little enough time with as it is. Further, it was a particularly weird choice to make with Skeptic, who is as of this writing the only major MLA character who’ll emerge still free and active from the War Arc. Why shaft the characterization of the one of new characters who’s going to be getting the most attention out of any of them in the next arc, with yet more scenes yet to come after?[1]

• A full page’s-worth of Spinner’s rationalizations on targeting Trumpet and ordering the Twice doubles to do the same. This lays out the details on why targeting Trumpet stands to relieve some of the load on Shigaraki. It isn’t because Trumpet’s quirk makes the crowds more dangerous, though that is true. Spinner targets Trumpet because he’s seen enough to know that attacking the MLA’s leaders gets them crazy riled up; he knows that if he makes himself a threat to Trumpet, then all Trumpet’s followers’ attention will shift focus to Spinner, leaving Shigaraki with less to deal with. Spinner also knows that that is ludicrously dangerous to him personally, given his weak quirk, but he actively makes that choice anyway, because that’s how much he’s devoted himself to Shigaraki without (yet) quite articulating the nature and reasons for that devotion. Targeting Trumpet without any of that reasoning made for a perfectly sound tactical decision, but it missed the regard Spinner shows the unnamed mobs of the MLA, and it really missed the probable savage beatdown and even possible death that Spinner consciously chooses to risk for Shigaraki’s sake. Of course, a chunk of what the episode deleted is flashbacks to scenes the anime also cut, so they couldn’t figure into Anime!Spinner’s reasoning. This does not excuse yet more cuts to Spinner’s arc and characterization; it only adds to how badly the anime maimed him. Also, on a less salty but still confused note, deleting all the Twice clones from the beginning of the scene and just having Spinner running along a wall past mobs of people instead of laboriously fighting his way through the street to the van was really dumb. Why did all those MLA people just stand there and let him run by? Where did all the Twice clones that just helped save Spinner from a huge flurry of long-distance attacks disappear to? Come on.

• Trumpet’s thought that using Sevens Loud will draw every bit of strength from their warriors, but that it’s necessary. Setting aside that it looks far less necessary when there hasn’t been a crowd of Twice clones fighting Trumpet’s people this whole time, just Spinner by his lonesome, we still lost quite a bit to this cut. Firstly, a nuance on the trade-off Incite gives—that its stat-boost is temporary, and that it’s borrowing from the future to pay for the present, a stock that is limited and a bill that will come due when the effect wears off. Secondly, it’s another demonstration that the MLA leaders aren’t just thoughtlessly wasting their followers’ lives; they’re very consciously doing cost/benefit analysis on how much danger their people are in versus what stands to be gained by the potential exertion or outright deaths those people will suffer. It’s cold reasoning, yes, but that’s how the Liberation Army operates: not for the personal gain or lackadaisical ease of the people on top—Trumpet would just have been in the tower speaking through city-wide loudspeakers, if that were the case—but for the advancement of the group’s ideals. It also just grants Trumpet some interiority, but of course the anime can’t have that.

• The note in Trumpet’s meta-ability explanation that the more his voice causes the air to vibrate, the stronger Incite’s effect. This is—good god, it is literally the entire design mentality behind Sevens Loud! Sevens Loud purpose isn't to make his voice louder so more people can hear him (which I would think is the most logical assumption an anime-only person would make as to why he puts it on); it’s to make himself louder because being louder enhances the boost. It’s about the quality of the effect, not the quantity of targets. This is why Trumpet has the thought about how using Sevens Loud will drain the strength reserves of his people. There’d be no correlation there if Sevens Loud were only about boosting his range.

• When Spinner got porcupined in the anime, they did a close-up on his face, possibly to avoid the gore of showing the spines piercing through his forearm. That’s fine, but they also emphasized the reaction by having him lose his grip on the huge fuck-off knife he had clutched in his teeth. In the manga, sure, he yells in pain, but he doesn’t lose the knife. Indeed, he gets the guy off him by slashing at him with it—a shot the anime dropped. So Spinner doesn’t even get to keep displays of his pain tolerance, a trait he doubtless improved during those six weeks against Machia. Why does the anime hate Spinner so much, you guys? Why did it go out of its way to make him look lamer, when Dabi and Toga were out there getting anime-original flourishes to make them look cooler?

• Spinner’s thoughts, “When I get inspired to act, I don’t know what the heck I’m doing! I’m just a loser jumping on a bandwagon. Or at least that’s what it looks like.” A humorous bit of self-awareness from Spinner here. The anime got at the self-awareness. The humor, as we’ll see, not so much.

• Spinner’s thoughts, “Look at me. Look at me!! With all that prejudice in your eyes!” Hah hah, laughed BNHA the anime nervously, what prejudice are you talking about, Spinner? No idea what you could possibly be referring to there! This one’s particularly annoying because, while one might think that the anime was just dodging the heteromorphobia angle it eradicated all references to back at the beginning of the arc, the prejudice line isn’t even about heteromorphobia, not really. See, the Japanese line there literally translates to, “With those colored glasses!”—to see with colored glasses being a Japanese idiom for seeing something from a biased viewpoint. So aside from being a wordplay jab at Trumpet’s choice in eyewear, it’s also about Trumpet’s expressed view that Spinner, having been a shut-in with a weak quirk who decided to take his resentment out on the world, can’t possibly amount to anything much. So, what, did the people in charge of making those cuts think Trumpet was right? Why even keep the line where he disparages Spinner if you’re not going to let Spinner call it what it is? He’s not calling out fantasy racism there, anime! He’s calling out the bias against weak quirks that even the good guys in this world sometimes partake in! Possibly it’s because non-villains in the world[2] sometimes use reasoning that leads logically to quirk supremacism that the anime got gunshy with it, or it was more reluctance to give the villains—and the Too-Real Iguchi Shuuichi especially—moral ground for accusations against their society that get too close to real life. Whatever the motivation, it’s a bullshit cut.

• Shigaraki calling RD “Detnerat,” presumably because he neither knows RD’s real name nor cares to dignify him by using his code name. The anime, again, made neither the connection nor Shigaraki’s recognition explicit, so it lost the specificity and pettiness of that little snub.

• A little exchange between Giran and a Twice clone as they flee. It doesn’t give you much you wouldn’t assume just from seeing them flee, but it always feels more immediate and empathetic when the characters talk and you can see their expressions, instead of just a quick shot of them from behind as they run away in complete silence. Heck, running away in complete silence is actively out of character for Twice!

• Because the anime has some kind of aversion/restriction on showing hand-related violence, it radically changed how Shigaraki lost his fingers,[3] resulting in the loss of several important shots. To the best of my parsing, in the manga, when Re-Destro makes that first big jump to avoid Shigaraki’s decay wave, he comes back down specifically aiming for Shigaraki’s outstretched left hand, spread wide and flat on the ground. Shigaraki tries to evade (you can see the blur of his left arm in the panel where RD lands), but either RD does manage to clip the hand or he simply hits the ground with so much force that the sheer explosive burst of rock shreds Shigaraki’s hand and part of his coat sleeve. Being so much larger, RD then simply snags Shigaraki by the wrist before he can get out of range. It’s very fast, a burst of speed and violence, and very different (read: cooler) from Shigaraki flipping end over end in slow motion in a way that seemed to imply visually that he was thrown well out of RD’s grabbing range. As to the shots we lost? I counted three. First, Hana’s hand crumpling amidst all the flying debris. Second, that big dramatic panel of Shigaraki’s maimed hand ribboning blood into the air as the narration box finally drops Re-Destro’s identity and code name. Third, the shot of him catching Shigaraki, almost delicately, between one thumb and forefinger and delivering the, “Was it this hand that committed such evil acts?” line—a clear threat to what of that hand Shigaraki has remaining—as we find out what his meta-ability is. This is all hugely dramatic in the manga, because, of course, readers always assumed Shigaraki needed all five fingers to activate his quirk, and here Re-Destro nigh-effortlessly robs him of fully half his capacity to use it. It’s a shocking turn-around and instantly ups RD’s threat level by allowing him to permanently maim Shigaraki in a way that no one, hero or villain, has done before or since. Robbing Re-Destro of the immediacy of that seemingly devastating blow—inflicted within moments of meeting the real Shigaraki—did immeasurable damage to his credibility as an arc boss. The shot in the manga is also just arresting visually, with RD finally getting to properly loom over Shigaraki. Most of the shots up to this point have been framed such that, while RD is obviously bigger, he and Shigaraki have still been moving and fighting in a pretty level way. This is the first place where the viewer is situated so squarely behind Shigaraki that they can really feel how massive RD is in comparison. It’s certainly a more impressive visual than this mess—thanks, anime; thanks, whatever broadcasting standards forced overworked and uninspired animators to undertake a redraw of RD’s quirk reveal panel when every other member of the MLA brass had theirs carried over directly from the manga.

• A chapter-ending cliffhanger of Slidin’ Go helping direct traffic on the outskirts of Deika and the warning rumble as Gigantomachia approaches. Aside from being a nice little tension boost—Will Gigantomachia roll up just in time to see Re-Destro making a mess of Shigaraki? Who will he target? Will Shigaraki ever be able to win him over if he sees a scene like that?—it’s good foreshadowing for what the news reports will eventually be saying. Remember, the claim is that a bunch of villains lured Deika’s heroes away and then attacked the city while it was defenseless; that’s why we never see any of the MLA’s heroes involved with the fight once it starts. And now, here, we find out where they’ve been the whole time: making sure no outsiders get in who might be able to undermine that narrative.

Framing Shifts

• Once again had an MLA member using their Detnerat item say its name out loud, when it’s clear in the manga that they’re just thinking the names internally. Once again, it was kind of silly.

• When Spinner flashes back to watching Stain on TV and being inspired, the manga uses a shot of Stain’s face, snarling and defiant. The anime used—a shot of Stain from behind, only visible from the shoulders to the knees, hunched so that his lower back and ass were towards the camera. Bones… What exactly were you implying lit Spinner’s fire there? Or did you just not have the time or budget to go pull Stain’s reference sheets for drawing his face?

• A tone issue, but a major one: Spinner should be grinning, face alight with accusatory challenge, as he hurls his accusations of the MLA/Trumpet being the same bandwagon-jumping nobodies that he is. This is the moment in the manga where we see Spinner truly throw his hesitations and his doubts to the wind and embrace Shigaraki’s nihilistic fervor and the beauty, value and profundity of emptiness. So what if I’m empty? So what if he wants emptiness? Who cares about other peoples’ ideals if their ideals leave no room for me? It’s not a heroic triumph, but it’s a triumph all the same, and losing Spinner’s smile made the moment far too bitter.

• Meanwhile, in exactly the opposite problem, Shigaraki by this point is not smiling. In fact, he’s barely on his feet, swaying violently in place with accompanying sound effects. While his words are openly mocking, he seems to wholly lack the energy to back them up with his usual verve. The anime didn’t have him smiling, admittedly, but the whole time the ‘camera’ wasn’t directly on his face, his voice actor was reading the lines with an uneven, chuckling cadence that suggested Shigaraki was seconds away from breaking into howls of laughter. He was also, of course, impossibly clean, at a point at which his manga counterpart is muddy, bloody and tattered from the horrifically extended combat he’s been living for six weeks. It’s stuff like this that made it so impossible to take the Army or even Machia as much of a threat in the anime, when, other than the red cords on his hands being broken, Shigaraki looked absolutely no different than usual.

Additions

• Gave Spinner a tiny bit of new animation when he got mobbed by people hopped up on Incite. It was nice, but if they were going to give him a flourish, I’d rather it have come when he swipes Porcupine Dude off him with a combat knife. Or, you know, just kept the bit of him telling the Twices to attack and his reasoning on why.

• Cut inside briefly to show a ballerina girl dancing through a darkened apartment right before she sliced a neat circle out of the wall. I love it, A+, exactly the kind of expansion on the action of the manga I wanted to see. My only complaint is that her manga self looked more like Pearl from Steven Universe.[4] XD

• A quick new shot of RD when Shigaraki was hounding him about his feelings. His teeth were visibly gritted, the corners of his mouth pulled down. It stands out because there’s only one shot of RD there in the manga, and in it, he’s smiling, close-mouthed and calm. The anime copied said shot, smile and all, then cut away, and when it cut back, Re-Destro had a totally different expression on his face. Baffling. Anime!RD having a dour scowl everywhere manga!RD is smiling in a tight, controlled way was all over the fight scene, and it detracted from the sense of RD’s menace every time.

Chapter 234 – Destruction Sense

• The illustration(s) accompanying Re-Destro’s, “Let’s not judge people by their quirks,” line. The pictures are cute, but the real loss there was the note informing us that they’re excerpts from a children’s book published by Shoowaysha—Curious’s outfit—called Quirks and Us. That’s a very concrete illustration of the kinds of things the MLA is getting up to in the world, and an equally concrete thing an anime-only viewer lost. Of course, that viewer never even found out Curious was in publishing, so it wouldn’t have meant anything on that front, but there is one other thing I think is notable: the way that book implies that the only people explicitly pushing a “don’t judge other people by their quirks” message are the radical Liberationists. See, the rest of the story touches on the virtues of a nonjudgmental attitude here and there, but actually finding people willing to say it out loud is—unprecedented, I think. Deku comes across situations where he could say something like that multiple times and he never, ever does—not to Shouto, nor to Shinsou, nor to Eri, nor to the giant fox lady. And that’s not even touching on Shouji’s mask, or the discrimination Spinner faced, or the CRC “losing support” without being declared illegal. I think the manga itself is against judging people by their quirks, but it’s interesting that it doesn’t make its characters into mouthpieces to say as much. This is because its characters are thoroughly enmeshed in a society that very much does judge people by their quirks, regardless of whether or not it will say that doing so is bad or rude or prejudiced. Re-Destro and the MLA aren’t immune, of course—Re-Destro himself says that quirks are linked to personality—but they adhere to a different set of values than the larger society does. While Hero Society talks about quirks in terms of being heroic and/or useful versus villainous and/or useless, the MLA spectrums instead emphasize how capable a person’s quirk is of helping them exert their will and how ambitious the quirk’s bearer is in that exertion. That is, their ethics are less about morality and utility-to-society than they are about aspiration and utility-to-self.[5] Both worldviews have their pros and cons, but that, I think, is what the children’s book is getting at when it says not to “judge”—don’t assign an arbitrary moral value to a quirk; judge a person by their actions. And isn’t it interesting, that the only explicit verbal statement of that value comes from the leader of a radical cult descended from a famous insurrectionist quoting a children’s book published by a member of selfsame radical cult? The value is not ever stated by a member of the heroic cast, so are we to assume that the heroes don't actually believe it? Do people profess to believe it but everyone knows it’s only for courtesy’s sake, with only the MLA willing to breach that wall of “things we don’t talk about in polite society” to actually talk about it in anything other than platitudes? Obviously, you lose this entire line of discussion when the "don't judge people by their quirks" value is just never mentioned at all.

• The phrase, “In that case,” from RD’s, “You will never measure up to me.” It establishes continuity to what RD was saying before. He’s not taking breaks from talking while Shigaraki has flashbacks; the two are happening concurrently.

• RD’s, “Cracking apart…?” reaction to his Decayed fingertip, and the dripping blood from the injury. I’m not hugely fussed about the former, but I like the latter as indicative of what Re-Destro’s Stress powers actually do. That is to say, he isn’t covering himself in a thick shell of Stress power or something; his Stress powers make him physically larger, infusing his body and swelling his size. That’s why he bleeds when Shigaraki touches his fingertip. Admittedly, the size distinction was more obvious in the anime, where the audience watched RD’s shoulders inflate like balloons last episode, compared to the manga, where you don’t get in-between animation. Still, given that RD still has that wound even when he goes back down to normal size, and is still wearing bandages for his speech a week later,[6] it’d be nice to mark the severity of the wound with a bit of blood. Oddly, the anime did keep the wound for the crater scene, visible red slices opened in the flesh along the length of his finger, very obviously the sort of injury that would have bled upon being first sustained. Maybe RD ran afoul of whatever the studio mandate is on when Decay has a dust effect and when it leaves gore? (More of that later.)

• Shigaraki’s, “Mother!” for the first panel we see of her. It’s obvious enough who she probably is, but odd that we got a whole bunch of narration for Hana, and likewise an acknowledgment of his grandparents, but not even a single word for Nao.

• Very significantly drops the grandfather’s, “Eating yummy things helps make the sadness go away.” Grandpa’s not just randomly handing Tenko his favorite snack in that memory—he’s trying to treat some kind of grief or wrong without actually addressing the wrong, opting to just put a flavorful band-aid on it. That could be fine if it were something outside Grandpa’s control, but we’ve already gotten some early hints from Hana’s phrasing that things are not okay in the household, and thus the grandfather’s attempt to bribe Tenko with sweets is just as ominous a sign of what’s to come as the grandmother’s attempt to guilt him into not crying lest he make her cry too.

• A little shot of Shigaraki stirring in the rubble when RD answers the phone. It’s a nice demonstration of their size difference, especially comparing both of them to Machia, who we just saw tearing through buildings like the kaiju his theme music declares him to be.

Framing Shifts

• When Shigaraki narrates that Hana always took him by the hand when he got weepy, she actually does take his hand in the manga, her fingers wrapped around his, his clasped over hers. It emphasizes that this is what he can’t do anymore, simply hold hands with people, the innocence lost aspect, and it suggests the closeness he once had with his sister. In the anime, she reached out a hand but wound up taking him by the wrist instead, his hand splayed open beneath hers. This suggested, albeit very implicitly, that maybe that innocence was something he never had from the beginning; it also suggested less reciprocity in his relationship with Hana. Even though Tomura said in narration that their hands were joined, what we saw was that Hana just pulled him where she wanted him and he didn’t fight her on it, not that he held her hand in return. Alternatively, the anime could have been drawing a parallel to how her hand would eventually be gripping his wrist in a much different context (a more necrotic one, for starters) later in life, though if that's what they were going for, they could have stood to tweak the dialogue so it actually matched the onscreen action. (Credit to @robotlesbianjavert and @aysall respectively for these two theories!)

• Shigaraki still having his fingers when Re-Destro squeezed his hand made RD look like a real moron. I assume the intention was that he assumed he’d done enough damage—broken bones, torn ligaments, etc—to prevent Shigaraki from being able to move his hand in more than spastic twitches, but like, if all it takes is a hard enough spasmodic clench to dust you, you are playing much riskier games than the MLA is generally portrayed as favoring. (Not that the anime kept many of the scenes that demonstrated all the planning and prep that the MLA did as groundwork for their attack, as I have complained about at length.) In the same sequence, Anime!RD turned and bodily hurled Shigaraki away from him, while Manga!RD threw him a similar distance with nothing more than a flick of a finger. Anime, why you gotta make Re-Destro look so lame all the time?

Additions

• Just one episode prior, the anime managed to turn in an entirely reasonable assemblage of swiping and dodging between Shigaraki and Re-Destro while RD was rambling on about the Mother of Quirks. What the hell was the excuse for this episode’s ridiculous shot of Shigaraki literally running circles—big, broad circles—around RD multiple times in the time it took RD to finish one (1) thought? For heaven’s sake, if you don’t have the budget for flashy, just use slow motion or more flashback animation or something. I know there’s more leeway for long thoughts in manga, where the reader understands that thoughts are moving far faster than action, and that it can be hard to bridge that gap for anime, where motion is motion but voice acting still has to rattle its way to the end of a sentence. I understand that measures have to be taken to account for that. Still, I promise, something that just looks a bit padded is much preferable to something that looks outright dumb.

• I admit to having found huge Stress monster RD pulling out a teeeeeny-tiny cellphone very funny—even more so the distinct cracking sound it made when Skeptic reported in bad news and RD’s fingers tightened infinitesimally—but the manga suggests fairly strongly that RD’s just answering on some kind of earpiece or micro-receiver, the same kind of thing Ujiko hands out and that Skeptic is associated with on multiple occasions. It’d be nice if RD could have kept more of the jokes he actually makes, the ones that stem from his native good humor, rather than the anime making up new ones based entirely in the contrast of Re-Destro and the viewer’s expectations of Re-Destro.

Chapter 235 – Shimura Tenko: Origin

• The man at the door, whom Nao is apologizing to at the beginning of the Tenko flashback and the apparent reason Tenko got busted for playing hero. I don’t love the way deleting this obscured that Tenko, in some fashion, troubled someone to lead to Kotarou dragging him down the hall (the anime also dropped Kotarou’s subsequent line, “Causing trouble?!” that’s supposed to supplement his, “Playing hero again?”), but it’s not like the manga doesn’t imply that the same thing would happen for any hero-based rules infraction, regardless of whether it troubled strangers or not. No, the much, much funnier thing to me is how it just fuckin’ torpedoed the most obvious thing people point to when they posit that All For One gave Tenko Decay, kicking off the entire tragedy: the man at the door with the conspicuously shadowed face and the even more conspicuously AFO-like suit and dress shirt with the top button unfastened. Listen, I hate that theory and what it would do to the narrative of Shigaraki Tomura/Shimura Tenko as Hero Society’s long-overdue reckoning, the villain they can’t put down and the victim they can’t silence, so watching the anime summarily cut out the scene that really kicked the theory into overdrive was very validating! Conversely, I still can't deny that it's a plausible theory, so if it does turn out to be true, that means the anime shot itself in the foot on the most obvious bit of foreshadowing this side of AFO addressing Tenko by name when he finds him in the alley. The schadenfreude of that would also be very funny. Really, unlike every other cut this season, I regard this one as win-win for my personal experience with the anime. Incidentally, I was very prepared to complain about the anime dropping all the changes of clothes the Shimura family goes through over the course of the flashback—I regard the timelapse as one of the major points against the AFO Gave Tenko Decay theory, since it’s never taken a quirk bestowed by AFO multiple days, maybe even multiple weeks, to kick in before—but it turns out I’m a lot less bothered about them not taking the time to change the side characters’ clothes when the anime also deletes the dude at the door who is the only reason I care about clarity re: how much time the flashback covers! But just for the record, while they had more outfits than I was expecting them to, the family did go through fewer changes of clothes in the anime than in the manga.

• The full echo of the line about kids being sneaky and simple in favor of Narrator!Shigaraki just letting out this exhausted, rueful, “Ahhh, kids are…” I actually rather like it. It’s a clear reference back to the earlier line without having to restate the whole thing, and Uchiyama Kouki’s delivery is really excellent.

• Kotaro’s first slap of Tenko, the only one directly portrayed on-panel, and Mon-chan’s barking in response. On the one hand, I think there’s an argument to be made for the scene flowing a bit better like this—why wouldn’t Grandpa try to stop him from going for that second slap; why wouldn’t Nao pass Hana off to Grandma and do something instead of just standing there yelling for the entire scene? It makes a bit more sense if they’re hesitant to intervene because Kotarou has “only” grabbed at Tenko’s collar and they don’t yet know how that it’s going to escalate to naked physical violence in a way that it never has before. On the other hand, that first slap is so visceral and shocking. Nowhere else in the manga is domestic violence portrayed more sharply and directly, in greater detail or more cruelly generous panel space than in this moment. It’s in the difference in size between Kotarou and Tenko, the force behind the hit that’s enough to knock Tenko clear off his feet, the pages upon pages of gut-churning lead-up to this moment and what we know will be following soon after. Also too, it makes the family’s failure to help Tenko much worse that no one else acts when Kotarou pulls back for a second hit. The first one, you could almost excuse because no one saw it coming; the second throws those justifications out the window and spits on them afterward. Two hits are important—not only for what they tell Tenko in the moment about his family's inaction, but because two hits speak in ways one hit doesn't to how wildly uneven the power balance is in the house, that Nao and her parents could witness something like that and not only fail to intercede, but then take who knows how long to work up the courage to confront Kotarou afterwards. I understand very well the fear of showing this in a family TV timeslot—the violence is so much more real than any big fantasy beat-‘em-up could ever be—but it’s the kind of thing that really drives home what Tenko needed to be saved from even back then, a social issue that heroes as they currently exist were in no position to address. Far from demonstrating that heroes aren't at fault for what happened to Tenko, though, what this scene truly does is vividly illustrate the flaws in All Might's social contract, in which his power and smile seem to promise that he can save absolutely everyone, only to leave children like Tenko out in the cold with no explanation as to why. It's brutal because it has to be, and the anime shying away from depicting Kotarou's physical abuse undercut that.

Framing Shifts

• There was a bizarre, nonsensical change to the scene at the beginning of the chapter where RD is figuring out how Shigaraki survived/got back up after taking a Burden attack head-on. The manga’s explanation is that Shigaraki didn’t actually take a full force hit because he was Decaying it even as it was blowing him back. This is somewhat silly, given that even a reduced-strength Burden is still strong enough to put him through multiple buildings. It is, however, less silly than the anime’s take, in which Shigaraki touched Re-Destro rather than the corporealized Stress of Burden. How Re-Destro survived a full-fingered touch from Shigaraki’s completely uninjured right hand[7] went totally unexplained; the problem was then compounded by Re-Destro delivering manga-accurate lines about Burden not being an evadable attack despite “evasion” having nothing to do with Shigaraki’s actions. Anime!Shigaraki didn’t dodge the Burden attack any more than Manga!Shigaraki did; unlike Manga!Shigaraki, however, Anime!Shigaraki also did nothing to reduce the impact of the attack. So not only was how Shigaraki survived the Burden attack not explained, the change to the material also opened up the plot hole of how Re-Destro survived a direct touch attack that Shigaraki in the manga never lands.

• There was also an extremely weird decision made to give Tenko dark, gray-blue eyes, obviously reminiscent of Nana’s, and suggest that they became red at the same time as his hair was changing to white. But in the manga, other than the size, there’s no difference between young Tenko’s eyes and how Shigaraki’s eyes have always been drawn—an unshaded iris with a visible pupil and a relatively thick line delineating the iris from the white of the sclera. Tenko’s eyes never matched those of anyone else in his family, least of all his dark-eyed grandmother. His hair changed color because of a trauma response,[8] but his eyes were always red.

• Relocated Shigaraki’s first, “Little kids…are sneakier than you’d expect. And simpler,” to underscore Hana showing him Nana’s picture in the study, squarely centering the line on her. And like, yes, that line does get its bitter echo later when Hana panics in the face of her father’s fury and throws the blame onto Tenko—but that line isn’t just about her; it’s also about what Tenko wanted to hear from the other adults in his life. It didn’t matter that his father didn’t approve; if he could get at least one adult to say he could be a hero, to take his side, then he could feel vindicated. It’s a child’s sneaky, simple reasoning: if an adult’s words are absolute, you just have to get one (1) adult to agree with you. It’s asking Dad if you can do something you don’t think Mom will agree to, and then going to Mom with Dad’s permission held defensively in-hand. Laying the line over Hana obscures that it’s as much about Tenko’s craving for external validation as it is Hana’s (entirely understandable) deceitful streak.

• After half a season full of internal monologue being voiced aloud even when it made little sense to do so, the anime decided to render clearly talk-bubbled dialogue—Tenko’s chatting at Mon about how he feels like he could take on the world—as internal monologue instead. Who talks to their animals in their heads when they could be talking at them directly like pet owners the world over?

Additions

• Added a few extra stills of Kotarou rebuking Tenko and dragging him around. I don’t think they’re inaccurate to the situation, though I wonder if it really needed to be underlined two more times than the manga did. Maybe they were trying to make up in advance for deleting the first slap?

• Added a few new stills of Nana and child!Kotarou. They hurt my soul and I love them without reservation.

Chapter 236 – Shimura Tenko: Origin, Part 2

• Hana’s second apology. What needs to get across was communicated with her first apology, but I do think the second one adds some naturalism to the dialogue. It feels very normal for a child feeling extremely guilty to apologize multiple times, like the more times they say it, the more true/convincing it will become.

• A bit of Tenko’s internal monologue—thinking Hana’s name, and Mon’s, and that he can’t talk. The anime slipped some attempts at verbalizing “Mon” into the dialogue, and it was painfully obvious just from listening to him gag and choke that he was too horror-struck to get words out, in ways that would be a little harder to convey on the page. Also, he thinks again that he can’t talk just as Hana runs away, so it gets across regardless. No real complaints here.

• Some thoughts about how he’s itchy, which, given what his itch represents (or at least what he thinks it does), they probably should have kept for continuity’s sake.

• Tenko’s last, “Hana-chan!” just as he grabs for her. I can imagine it having just that little bit more desperate impact, especially given Sekine Arisa’s great delivery of the first “Hana-chan!” but his delivery of the first one was great—weeks later, I can still remember it clearly—so it’s not a snip I’m inclined to doomsay about.

• Hana’s verbalization as the Decay hits her. Given that they kept Mon-chan’s last whimper, it’s kind of inconsistent not to keep this. It’s grueling, sure, but no more so than the rest of the horror show shortly to follow.

• An echo of Nao’s defense of Kotarou’s anti-hero stance. Frankly, I think anime already over-indulges in echoing dialogue we’ve heard not ten minutes prior, so I don’t mind losing this—in the manga, the moments would have fallen in different chapters, so it makes more sense to squeeze in the little reminder, but that wasn’t necessary for the anime, in which the original moment and the callback happened barely more than five minutes apart. It was obvious what the mental image was meant to draw attention to, since Tomura was narrating about exactly what his grievance was, and the image was followed by the two equivalent moments with the grandparents. (Admittedly, it hurt that correlation a bit that Grandpa’s line about the ohagi being intended to make the sadness go away got cut, but the sentiment was pretty clear from the man’s expression of nervy, abashed guilt regardless.)

• The line of Decay that splits Nao’s eye, one of the more vividly horrific little grace notes in the chapter. It undercut the grotesquerie just the tiniest bit, but the scene’s grotesque as-is, so I can understand that slight edit for TV standards. The discrepancy between Decay-to-dust and Decay-to-gore, discussed below in Framing Shifts, was much more damaging.

• A shot of Kotarou just after he hits Tenko with the tree pruning shears in which he looks, briefly, incredibly distraught, like he’s just realized what a monster he’s become. The anime didn’t make the slightest of attempts to keep that spasm of horror, grief, and regret, and thus lost that last moment of sympathy for a man deeply traumatized by a heroic character’s actions. It’s my only complaint about Anime!Kotarou, who I was otherwise far more pleased with than I was afraid might be the case, but it’s a complaint I must register nonetheless.

• A bit of inarticulate yelling before Tenko screams, “You... Die!!” It helps get across Tenko’s rage overflowing, to have that wordless garble before he can actually wrap words around it. He was still having trouble talking, too, so it makes sense that his first vocalization would just be a long, incomprehensible screech. That said, with the music there to supplement the mood in a way the manga would lack, I don’t think the anime’s rendition of the scene suffered overmuch from its absence.

Framing Shifts

• The anime, of course, has always gone the dust route for Decay because Decay is a little too gruesome for family hour TV, and anyway, when Tomura gets as fast with Decay as he is in Deika, he really is just insta-dusting people, such that not even blood remains. But he wasn’t that fast or that thorough as a child, hence why it’s all so much gorier—and it needs to be, because it’s hard to imagine Hana freaking out like she does if all she sees is a pile of dust instead of, well, dog gobbets. (Also, if his family had gone the dust route, it would have been very hard to convince the audience that Tomura’s hands are his family hands and not fakes provided to AFO by Ujiko.) This obviously put the anime in a difficult spot, but apparently the decision they settled on was—to not decide? Everyone we saw in the active process of decaying decayed into dust as usual, but then once they were done decaying, once that transition from person to ruin was complete, there were all these heaps of gore everywhere. It was a very strange and distracting inconsistency that hurt the scene much more than any of the nearly invisible cuts, and I hope the blu-rays will change it.

• Added Grandpa catching Grandma as she staggered at the sight of things in the yard. Since his body language in the manga (the only non-Decayed shot of him in the sequence) has him leaned more forward, like he’s still halfway through running towards the kids, I thought this was a nice little touch on why he stopped, for reasons other than just the obvious.

---

Episode 111 was about half of a really strong episode. Most of my complaints about the Shimura Family flashback are very minor, and most of the ones that are less minor are still easy to overlook when the rest of the presentation was so strong. Unfortunately, the non-flashback half of the episode had as many problems as ever, and those aren't over yet.

Come back next time for Part Five, Episode 112: Origin: Shigaraki Tomura. Assuming my complaining about the finalized gutting of Spinner's arc doesn't get too out of hand—which it may; if so, I'll tack on one final part to wrap things up—I'll also be running down a quick overview of the Paranormal Liberation Front scenes in the Endeavor Agency arc and some various odds & ends.

FOOTNOTES

[1] Yes, I know the Skeptic Confronts Twice scene goes nowhere, but maybe, instead of deleting it, they could have patched it up by showing Skeptic turning away from the confrontation when the tower went down? You know, actually made an effort to improve on the material?

[2] Bakugou, of course, but also Inko, Kotarou, and, very prominently, even All Might. Deku circa MVA has an entire arc lying in wait for him about how much he’s internalized All Might’s paternalism re: having the strongest quirk.

[3] Indeed, as of the scene in the crater, he still hadn’t lost them at all! He had his prosthetic by the time of the speech, so I guess we’re meant to assume that Ujiko or some MLA doctor declared them past saving and amputated them. I hope I don’t need to tell you how unbelievably lame it is to have a shounen manga character sustain a permanent injury like that off-panel.

[4] It’s the pointy nose.

[5] That, at least, is the best way I’ve found to reconcile all the related-but-distinct values professed by the various members of the MLA brass, from Re-Destro’s focus on liberation and purpose, what exactly Trumpet chooses to cite when he’s talking about Spinner not “amounting” to anything much, Geten’s open extolling of quirk supremacy, and so on.

[6] In the first big double-page spread. Oddly, no bandaging is visible in the other panel that has a good shot of that hand, possibly because Horikoshi was more focused on drawing RD’s empty pant leg. The anime kept the obvious wound during the crater scene, but not the bandages during the speech.

[7] I assume, anyway, that Re-Destro only survives Shigaraki’s first touch because it’s a weaker Decay, coming as it does from only from two fingers rather than five.

[8] The fabled Marie Antoinette Syndrome. Never been scientifically documented as such (hair can whiten because of extreme stress, but not overnight) but it endures in fiction because it’s pleasingly dramatic. Trauma-based eye-color changes, not so much.

#my villain academia #boku no hero academia #my hero academia #bnha #bnha meta #my writing #stillness has salt

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bbq-hawks-wings · 3 years

Text

The narrative is not saying Hawks should feel guilty for his parents not wanting a relationship with him.

A concern that started back in 299 but really came to light in 303 is that the story may be trying to infer Hawks should feel bad for not pursuing a relationship with his parents. I completely understand where this concern comes from, but I also don't think that's what's happening here; and once again, I have the perfect disaster that is the Todoroki family to help me explain it.

Horikoshi's writing has been praised for the Todoroki plotline in particular for its portrayals of abuse, neglect, trauma, and broken family dynamics - and in particular how each member of the family has a different response to the traumatic events in their history. May I posit the idea that Hawks and his family is just an extension of that same concept?

While the Todoroki Family is able on some level to put itself back together, even if not completely, and move on in a positive direction. The Takami family is one that didn't mend, didn't heal, will never come back together.

Where Enji, even if decades later, is able to face what his self-centered behavior has done to his family; Thief Takami met the end of his relevance to the story as he tried to run away for good.

Rei owns her responsibility for the nightmare of the household and the scars she inflicted on her children without hesitation - giving validation to the feelings of her children and credit to them for being the ones who allow her to remain in their lives; Tomie was never able to own up to her actions and how she abandoned her son - even refusing to look him in the eye and literally ran away rather than face anything he might have to say about the way she treated him and how she was absent.

Each of the Todoroki children get to choose their response to a parent who's repentant of their behavior and allows them to be in control of the relationship moving forward - Dabi seeks to hurt them back, Fuyumi seeks to forgive and forget, Natsuo wants nothing to do with his father and put the past behind him, and Shouto won't let his father forget what he's done but will let him start over and prove himself with time. Hawks doesn't get parents that want a relationship with him, and he just has to accept that he won't ever get that healthy family dynamic from them, even if he wanted it, and move on with his life.

Natsuo is the important linchpin in this reasoning for me, because if there's one person who is single-handedly proving Endeavor's redemption is about atonement and not forgiveness - it's Natsuo.

Not every panel and stylistic imagery choice in the manga is meant to be taken as objective reality. We saw this in the confrontation between Hawks and Twice. The scary, shadowy way that Hawks was drawn was not objective reality but the way Twice was seeing him.

Some imagery and themes surrounding Natuso and Endeavor have been consistent, no matter who's perspective we're seeing.

In order, these depictions of Endeavor's abuse are from Rei's perspective, the entire Family's perspective, and finally his own as he recounts what he did. Absolutely nothing about what he did is meant to be taken as subjective. Horikoshi will not let us get away with thinking what he did was anything less that the horror that is was.

Which is why as everyone recounts their memories in that hospital room in chapter 302, Natsuo's is the only one not accompanied by supplemental imagery when even Fuyumi has some in her panel. Natsuo's statement doesn't need expounding; he's just right.

And his feelings have been acknowledged and validated in being that the only reason Natsuo even comes to these family meetings is to support his family. His father is the bad guy - the villain - in his story, but he's willing to acknowledge that he isn't the bad guy in everyone's story. For this he's praised as being selfless and kind - not to Endeavor, but to his loved ones. This happens not once:

But twice! Natsuo is acknowledged in the narrative as having major objections to having anything to do with his old man, but is also acknowledged that in choosing enduring it even in the face of the anger and distress it causes him makes him selfless and caring of his his loved ones who have chosen to stand by Endeavor - and even in this second instance it's acknowledged that he's supporting his dad only because people need the Hero Endeavor and his family behind him.

While the issue was still just their family, Natsuo's boundaries were respected by Endeavor, the rest of the family, and ultimately the narrative; and these boundaries will once again be reinforced when the situation blows over.

So riddle me this: if Natsuo is allowed to hate and abandon his father who is repentant and does want a relationship with him, I don't understand how the same story is turning around and condemning Hawks for simply letting them go when he acknowledges he didn't even get the same opportunity?

I really think the order of his thoughts matter.

"I didn't get to confront my parents. They're gone."

"So I left them there behind me and moved on."

More than likely Hawks has some choice words for his genetic donors if he got the chance considering he praises Shouto for taking steps that are tremendously difficult for a child in those circumstances to do - especially towards his father who Hawks now knows is guilty of some major sins of which his family has zero obligation to forgive. He recognizes that Shouto's parents placed the power to redeem or destroy their relationships with him into his hands, and instead of cutting them off as was his right, he reached back out and met them halfway.

Yeah, man, that makes you a pretty cool dude.

In conclusion: I think Hawks is just another example of how this kind of family dynamic could go wrong and how sometimes the child just has accept what they can't control and move on, even if he wishes he could get closure. We can't always get that, and so in another way he's painted as being strong for doing that emotional heavy lifting alone without the promise of closure and not let it consume his life.

#she speaks #let's talk Hawks #bnha meta

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mikeana · 3 years

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So I keep seeing this sentiment used in pointing out the differences between Hawks vs Twice and Midoriya vs Shigaraki (often used to prove how Midoriya is a true hero unlike Hawks) that Hawks never understood Twice, or even tried to understand him before he killed him, which... what?

Not only do I think that’s not true (or at least, not to the extent that people claim), but even if Hawks did understand Twice, knowing his entire tragic life story, understanding the bonds of the League of Villains... would that even have made a difference?

There are a lot of differences between the characters of Twice and Shigaraki. Twice kills people in order to protect his friends - the bond he found with the League is what his entire character revolves around - whereas Shigaraki kills because he was brainwashed into thinking that that’s his purpose. He was born to destroy - so why not destroy everything he doesn't like about society? Simple as that.

Because what drives them are so different, the process of ‘saving’ them - breaking them away of that motivation to kill and do active harm - would be different as well. Midoriya can appeal to that crying child inside Shigaraki, showing him that he is more than just destruction incarnate. Midoriya would also have to get past a wall of hatred towards... just about everything (but him especially) in order to get that message across - how he manages to do that, I have no idea - but we still have quite a bit in the story to go. Meanwhile, in order for Hawks to have successfully saved Twice, he would have had to come in between the bond that Twice shared with the League.

I know that there are several people that tout the LoV as a ‘found family’ but... it’s not. It’s not a healthy environment in the slightest. The entire League revolves around their status of outcasts and their hatred of society - but while it’s nice to have friends that can understand your past, the fact is that the League does not do anything to take a step forward and move on from sitting in their negative emotions. They ‘express themselves’ sure - by killing and doing whatever they want, but that’s not self-improvement. It may give them a temporary feeling of satisfaction, but at the end of the day, they’re as stagnant and lost as ever, enabling each others worst habits. It’s completely unhealthy - and one of the worst type of environments Twice could have found himself in.

Twice - who has little to no self-worth of his own - found himself surrounded by a bunch of people with similar sad backstories and who were also social outcasts like him. They also happened to be murders. Because they showed the smallest appreciation and kindness towards him, Twice was then given purpose - do whatever it takes to protect his friends. That’s the motivation that led him to overcoming him drama and breaking out Sad Man’s Parade. Unfortunately, while the League did give Twice senses of direction, purpose, and belonging, they didn’t do much to actually give him the proper help and care he needed (and vice versa - in protecting his friends, Twice is also protecting the status quo). I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again - it was no coincidence that, while Twice managed to miraculously ‘overcome his trauma’, his split-personality condition was stated at the end of the MVA arc as becoming worse. The League enables each other’s worse habits - and while Twice did grow during MVA, it was in the wrong direction. Coincidently, I think MVA is also the point where Twice can no longer be saved.

So, in order for Hawks to miraculously have saved Twice, he would have to had come between his bond with his League - aka his entire reason for living. And Hawks did do exactly that - he destroyed clones of all the League members for crying out loud. But still, some people assume that Hawks didn’t understand Twice - didn’t understand his backstory, nor his connection to the League.

I’ll be honest, we never got a panel of Hawks thinking about said connection (or at least, not that I remember), so there’s no way to know exactly how much he knew about Twice. But Twice was one of the villains that Hawks had information on (the only ones he didn’t were Dabi and Shigaraki), and the two hung out fairly frequently. Hawks could have known all about his past, or maybe he knew nothing at all. He didn’t know about Twice’s trauma with being double-crossed by Overhaul, leading to the death of Magne - so again, who knows how much he knew? Even if Hawks looked over Twice’s case file though, that still wouldn’t have changed the fact that he would have had to overcome his connection with the League - which leads me to my next point.

Hawks definitely understood Twice’s connection to the League. Or at least, he knew that his love of them was the motivation of his crimes. Hawks admired Twice because he was a kind person - he wanted to be useful to his friends, just like Hawks did. However, that same drive can also be dangerous. If Hawks thought that Twice’s level of commitment to the League wasn’t so strong, that Twice would automatically agree with him and accept his offer when he started talking, then Hawks wouldn’t have sent almost all his feathers to surround him. Twice was a kind person - and that’s exactly why he was such a threat.

So, in order to surpass the bond that Twice shared with the League, Hawks would have had to do one of two things: 1 - gain Twice’s unwavering trust so that he accepted his deal or 2 - show Twice that he has more inherit value than he gives himself credit for, giving him another motivation besides the League.

Scenario 1 was what Hawks attempted to go with, though it was doomed from the start. As soon as Hawks double-crosses Twice, reveals himself as a spy, he’s immediately clocked in shadow, seeming monstrous from Twice’s perspective. Any trust Twice had extended Hawks was immediately broken. This doesn’t help that Hawks has to come out with a bunch of sharp feathers pointed in his direction. No matter how much he liked Twice, he was still an active threat, and Hawks needed to be able to act at a moments notice in case he resisted (which of course, he did).

I’ve seen some people suggest that Hawks could have promised that the League would be safe, that his failing was that he didn’t understand the entire League the way Twice did - that if Hawks had just calmly approached him beforehand without the feathers, told him the situation, promised that he’d get the entire League help the same way he promised he would with Twice, everything would be fine. But - there’s no guarantee that Twice would agree with that. During their months together, none of the League have ever tried to reach out to get help with the intention of improving themselves. The status is that they have to maintain their way of life - aka them doing whatever they want with no repercussions. In order to get proper help, that would have to change. Twice protecting the League means protecting their way of life and any active threat against it. Again, as soon as Hawks came out as being a spy on the heroes side, Twice’s immediately distorted him into something monstrous. With his former trauma with Overhaul, I believe that - no matter what the scenario - Twice would have immediately lost all trust in Hawks. Therefore, there was no hope that option 1 would work.

But what about option 2 - giving Twice some self-worth, and giving him some motivation outside of the League? Well, I think that would also be impossible - at least, for Hawks anyways. Because, like it or not, Hawks and Twice have the same fatal flaw - aka they both have little to no self-worth outside of being useful to the people they want to protect - to the point that either would happily lay down their lives if it meant the people they care about could be happy. The only difference is that Twice’s care extends only to the League whereas Hawks’ extends to the whole of society. In order to give Twice that sense of self-worth, Hawks would first have had to found some in himself - a little hard to miraculously do, considering he’s on an undercover suicide mission. The tragedy of Hawks vs Twice is that, at the end of the day, they were both kind characters - which meant they both had the same ‘unbreakable will’ that make up some of the most dangerous characters (according to Hawks).

Even if it the person that fought Twice wasn’t Hawks (which first off - good luck to anyone but Hawks dealing with Twice’s clones), this second option still requires some deal of trust - which meant you’d have to find a hero or anyone who Twice wouldn’t have thought of as an immediate threat to his friends. Twice didn't hesitate to attack Midoriya or the UA students at the training camp - what makes anyone so sure that if Midoriya faced Twice, there would be a different result?

So in synopsis, I think Hawks did understand Twice enough before the fight (at least to know what drives him) - but even if Hawks did know every. single. little. thing. about Twice's life, it wouldn’t have made a difference.

In order for a character to be saved - in order for them to start their redemption - they have to want to change. That is the key difference in what makes a person savable or un-savable. However, by the time of the PLF arc, Twice is actively choosing to side with the League - and nothing Hawks could do was going to pull him away from that.

How Midoriya will convince Shigaraki to want to change is something we’ll have to wait and see.

#bnha spoilers #hawks #keigo takami #rant

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