I also gotta say the first half of season 4 was really disappointing for me. Maybe I just need to go back through the manga and re-read the Shie Hassaikai Arc, but it felt so rushed to me. All of my favorite emotional beats felt rushed. I could have sworn we were missing all of the best lines.
Because I read it week to week it could just be that with all the theorizing and forum discussions that I’ve just forgotten what actually happened and the pacing in my own head got skewed. But gah! I remember so much happening that didn’t happen, so many moments that needed pause or to be slowed down and savored.
Kirishima’s arc was one of my favorites and it felt so rushed. In the manga he instantly became the poster child for anti-toxic masculinity for me, but in the anime it just felt like it was missing something.
I really wish they had extended the arc and given those emotional beats more space. They could have added a filler arc of the battle raging around outside with the girls, and added more meat to Night-Eye in particular, extending it out the full season rather than making it half. To give us a break from the action we could have gotten a filler of what the students who weren’t involved in the Shie Hassaikai Arc were doing. And then ended the season on the Remedial Course Arc.
I was so disappointed in it that I actually didn’t catch up with the second half of the season until tonight. I watched 11 episodes in the past couple days, and JEEZ I FORGOT HOW MUCH I MISSED THIS SHOW. This is the first time I was disappointed in the anime, but fortunately I thought the second half of this season has been funnier and more enjoyable than in the the manga, so there is that.Â
Wait when did I get followers on this account...this was supposed to be me shouting into the void about a show I like so much I can’t stop annoying the people in my life by talking about it...where did y’all even come from...
Why Horikoshi is the Greatest Magician of All Time
I just explained the whole show to someone who the entire time looked at me like
And it just got me thinking about how incredibly BNHA/MHA is written.Â
Horikoshi is a master of setting up traps in his writing. He leads us to believe one thing about a character, when the entire time it was something else, and the truth would have been RIGHT THERE if only we’d put away our own prejudices and our own notions of how characters work.
Bakugou and Shigaraki are the prime examples of this. Spoilers obviously. No manga spoilers.
For Shigaraki, we meet him as essentially a melodrama villain. The type of villain who is evil for the sake of being evil, the type of villain who is “bland.” I’ve read so many stories, I wanted a meaty villain, someone like Zuko who has an incredible redemption arc, someone with depth.
Whatever, I found myself saying. It’s only the first season, I’m sure there will be better villains, even if the big bad is bland.
And we got that with Stain, someone with a purpose, someone with a message and a reason for his villainous deeds.Â
And then...
Shigaraki grows. He learns. He adapts. He doesn’t yet become a terrifying villain, and his message is still muddled and unclear, but he is put on a trajectory to become the most terrifying villain of Japan by none other than our broccoli-headed hero cinnamonbun.
It took me for a loop. I couldn’t even wrap my head around what had just happened. Shigaraki wasn’t a bland one-sided villain, not really, he was a character with depth, who was naive in his goal to become the number one villain in the same way our hero was naive in his goal to be the number one hero. I could have seen it all along, if I hadn’t have judged the show based on my own prejudices about villainous characters and my own expectations on how they worked.
And then there was Bakugou. He’s a likeable character even when you want to hate him. Although I was certainly only frustrated and angry at him in the first episodes of the show.
I really could not believe that a kid would tell our main character to go kill himself. That some people even liked this character. He was a better villain than Shigaraki in my eyes. A character I loved to hate.
Used to Sasuke and Naruto I knew where this was going especially when he got kidnapped. I am a smart cookie and can usually see where things are headed, I told myself.Â
And then Bakugou...doesn’t become a villain.
I was confused, trying to piece everything together, trying to listen to what Midoriya was saying about this character. It wasn’t until he was brought back to school and him and Midoriya had their big battle that I got it. And I know I’m not alone in this. All of a sudden Bakugou’s reasons for being who he is, why he’s so hard on Midoriya, what Midoriya means to him made sense.Â
Suddenly Bakugou went from being a villain to being a kid. I was judging him on the yardstick of my own years. I was basing his villainy on what I knew of other villains I had read about. But that wasn’t him. He was just a kid who wanted to prove his strength. Who Midoriya treated in such a way he could only understand it as mocking him. He wanted so badly for Midoriya to beat him, it would have given him purpose, but instead Midoriya fails and Bakugou is left frustrated and upset, torn up inside that it was his fault All Might fell. That because the new symbol of piece will never be good enough to beat him, he will never get it off his conscious. That he wanted only to be a hero.
It was all there. It was all written in the story if I had just looked, if I had just set my prejudices aside. Midoriya could see it all along. I was the one who was blind.Â
In the matter of seconds Bakugou went from being a villain I loved to hate, to being a kid trying his best to be a hero and one of my favorite characters.Â
And those aren’t the only two. Everyone in the class has more depth than I expected. Half of them are different than what I thought and judged at first glance.
Todoroki isn’t cold, he just has social anxiety.
Tokoyami isn’t mysterious, he’s just a nerd who puts on a front.Â
All Might isn’t the best at everything, he’s actually a really bad teacher who has a lot to learn.
Endeavor is...well exactly the asshole you think he is...but man that arc...I could talk about it for days.
And this is the mastery of Horikoshi’s writing. By putting these two traps right up front he catches all of us who were judging the show for lacking depth (who maybe even almost put it down). But watching this show is like wading into the ocean.
The first season is one-dimensional, toes dipped in the sand, barely touching the surface of the water. The only purpose is to get the reader interested in Midoriya, Bakugou, All Might, or the nerdy world that Horikoshi has created. The only purpose is to keep us watching. There is no promise it will get better, just that it will be fun.
The first half of the second season brings more characters to life. Maybe you noticed a side character with an interesting look in the first season. The second season was an opportunity to expand our field of vision, to fall in love with Uraraka, Todoroki, and Iida in particular, to get a taste of some of the others and make foolish judgements on them. We waded into the ocean to our calves.
The second half of the second season was about bringing the world more to life. All of a sudden the world goes from being “fun” to being grittier and darker than any of us expected. There’s a lot more going on here, many more problems the show is dealing with than what was on the surface. We’ve waded waist-deep.
The third season, the whole of it goes so fast it’s over in the blink of an eye. We see our folly with Bakugou, recognize what Shigaraki is truly, and it’s too late. We have reached the drop-off point. The point where all of a sudden the ground falls out beneath our feet and water has flushed over our heads. There is no turning back, we have fallen in love with the show and the writing for all eternity. And...ya know...it’s also pretty funny.Â
Horikoshi tricked me twice with those two character arcs. He pulled the wool over my eyes in the exact way a magician would. He misdirected me into seeing the wrong things. And yet it didn’t feel undeserved at all.
When I started I found the world fun and entertaining enough to start reading the manga (at that point only one season of MHA was up). I wanted to see if it went anywhere fun, fully prepared to quit if I got bored, which I felt was inevitable. The show didn’t seem special to me, just a fun shounen like other shounen. The same tropes, the same character arcs. Maybe a little more nerdiness and hilarity than average. I wasn’t expecting to love it. By god I was so wrong.
And now I have no choice but to trust in Horikoshi. I have guesses about where things could go, but I have no doubts that my first instincts will be wrong, or if they’re right, written in such a way that they will be satisfying and unexpected in some fashion. It’s just what he does. When people claim they’ll never like Endeavor, or they won’t continue to read the manga if X or Y theories becomes true, I can’t help but laugh. I think back and remember when I thought I hated Bakugou, when I thought Shigaraki was one-dimensional, and remember just why I have the fullest trust that Horikoshi will give us a story worth reading.Â
That feeling when you realize the reason Aizawa sleeps so much is that he's busy being a hero at night. He spends literally all of his time working, either teaching or heroing. And he can't let go of either job probably becuase he knows how important the work he does is.
sorry, i gonna have to come back to this moment because it was such a good moment
bakugou is an angry mess. anger’s a secondary emotion; it’s a defensive reaction to another emotion, e.g. you feel angry because you are hurt, you feel unsafe, etc. bakugou feels angry because he has guilt and self loathing in spades, and anger is the only way he knows how to process it.Â
this panel could be seen as bakugou’s typical bakugou-ness – a la “i don’t need your help” / “i want to (have to) be perfect and i have to do that on my own, you absolute cannot and are not allowed to help me” – but this time it feels different. the context is different. this isn’t bakugou trying to achieve everything on his own; this is bakugou feeling like everything is his fault.Â
getting kidnapped. all might’s fall. chaos descending on society. his friends nearly being expelled. if he had just been stronger, then none of this would have happened. bakugou’s always been a proud little shit who thought he was better than everyone else, and yet here is all the incontrovertible proof that he is a total failure. that kind of thinking so easily leads to self-hatred, and here bakugou has been marinating in it for days.Â
and at that point, when you hate yourself that much – when all you can see in yourself are all the failings, all the bad things, all the ways in which you weren’t good enough and thus the scum of the earth – when you get to that point, someone genuinely caring about you feels like a slap to the face.
it feels like knocking all the breath out of you. it feels like adding salt to your wounds. bakugou isn’t just being frustrated with izuku here. he’s hurt. how can izuku ask if he’s okay? how can izuku still care?Â
bakugou’s in such a terrible mental state that he can’t accept any help right now. at least, nothing but a way to vent his feelings and punish himself at the same time.Â
i mean, just look at bakugou’s expression here, the way his snarl almost seems like a grin: izuku has just landed a good solid hit on his face, and he’s not even mad about it. he’s getting exactly what he wants.Â
throughout the series bakugou has expressed himself almost exclusively through attacks (verbal or physical) or by destroying things. it may be the only way he really knows how to give voice to his emotions. izuku shows talent and power during the quirk apprehension test? attack. todoroki doesn’t fight him full power? attack. bakugou is a failure? …Â
attack himself – or find someone who will do it for him.Â
i’ve always thought he had something of a self-destructive streak, and here it fucking is.Â
Most fans already agree. Midoriya’s pediatrician and All For One’s doctor are the same man.Â
I have a hunch that the Doctor played more of a role than we originally thought. Perhaps Izuku Midoriya wasn’t born quirkless. But Tenko Shimura was. My thoughts under the cut!
Quirks are becoming more powerful with each generation. All For One is constantly scouting for potentially beneficial quirks, it would make sense to station lackeys in a healthcare setting.
All For One has been alive for while. He must have a lot of money, he knows how to work the system, he knows how to not be suspicious. He owns several properties; some of which serve as nomu factories, living quarters, hideouts, even his own personal hospital… I wouldn’t be surprised if he rented out extra space to businesses or clinics. So while All For One lives at the top of this skyscraper, his Doctor runs a legitimate pediatric practice on the ground floor.
The Doctor works with young kids who haven’t manifested quirks yet. He’s in a position with access to medical records. If he can’t figure out a parent’s quirk from researching, he can outright ask the parents about their quirks. It wouldn’t seem odd to them, since he’s a doctor. Any time the Doctor meets a mother or father with a quirk that All For One might be interested in, he passes along the information.
All For One can easily impersonate a practitioner, administering vaccines and blood tests is the perfect opportunity to steal a child’s quirk. What if he could take a quirk that hasn’t even manifested yet?
Most children in this universe develop a stronger, more complicated version of one of their parents’ quirks. Sometimes a combination of the two. Inko has a telekinetic quirk and Izuku’s father has a fire quirk. Fire quirks are… run of the mill. Common. Boring. Telekinetic levitation, though? That’s something more rare. I’ve never seen a character in this series fly from sheer will alone. Usually there has to be something else involved; like wings, fire, wind manipulation, etc. Even All Might doesn’t really fly. He takes off by using One For All. It requires a powerful jump and it’s extremely time sensitive.Â
So the Doctor meets Inko and Izuku. He thinks “Oh, wow. All For One as been looking for a quirk that can make him levitate for years. This kid might actually have that.” And what is All For One doing when the protagonist sees him for the first time?
So, yeah. That x-ray of the foot that the Doctor shoes to people? It’s a fake. If All For One wants to take someone’s quirk, that person is quirkless now. Sorry. That’s just the way it is.Â
When Tenko Shimura was three years old, his father brought him to the Doctor for a check up. The Doctor recognizes the family name and tells All For One immediately. All For One was ecstatic, he had been saving Decay for years, knowing that one day he would pass it to the child. No one would know. Especially not Tenko. Perhaps Tenko was quirkless to begin with. But not anymore, the plan was set in motion. Decay would manifest soon, Father would be killed, Tenko would be left all alone, and All For One would be there to pick up the pieces.Â
Maybe now you’re asking “But wait, wouldn’t Shigaraki recognize the Doctor and feel suspicious when he saw him as part of All For One’s team? If Decay manifested shortly after the doctor’s appointment, wouldn’t Shigaraki see red flags?” My best answer to that is… Shigaraki doesn’t really know the doctor.
If the Doctor was assisting Shigaraki, then Shigaraki wouldn’t have to worry about injuries as much. And he wouldn’t feel the need to say this to Stain.Â
It’s canonical that All For One and the Doctor “make” the nomu together. Shigaraki just seems to be in charge of training them and giving them orders.
So we can deduce that the Doctor is loyal to All For One only. We haven’t seen him interact with Shigaraki in person at all. Since All For One’s arrest, we haven’t seen the Doctor, period. His involvement in the High End nomu is just speculation for now. I can imagine Shigaraki has never seen the Doctor, and that is what All For One wanted. That way, Shigaraki would never wonder if his tragedy and rescue were staged.
Izuku inherited the OFA quirk. Shigaraki inherited All For One’s legacy…. but not the AFO quirk. At least, not yet. I’m sure that the AFO quirk can be transferred to someone else if All For One wills it. He was probably just waiting for the right time.
This is the part where we change from theory to wild headcannons. Here’s what I think could happen in the future.
The League of Villains will probably make an attempt to take down Tartarus. If they do, they can re-recruit villains like Mustard, Muscular, Moonfish, Kurogiri, All For One, several nomu, USJ villains, and perhaps even Stain. When Shigaraki breaks into All For One’s cell, All For One tells him that he’s proud of him. That he had grown up enough, that he was ready. All For One transfers the AFO quirk to Shigaraki, and with it, a plethora of various stolen quirks. All For One was storing quirks that he thought would suit Shigaraki’s personality and fighting style. So the life change should be easy.
What if the AFO quirk came with a certain… sentience. What if Shigaraki would automatically have the knowledge of how to use every quirk, what the limits of the quirks were, and even… who the quirks came from.
In that moment, Shigaraki knows that Decay wasn’t his. In that moment, he puts all of the pieces together. All For One sits dying painfully in his wheelchair, as the Longevity quirk is no longer with him. Shigaraki strides toward him and decays his chest, putting the man out of his misery, as well as severing their bond.Â
Shigaraki prepares to leave the prison with a terrifyingly calm disposition. The prisoners do not hesitate to follow him in his path to shatter society.Â
Shigaraki had talked with Midoriya during a time of emotional turmoil before, and he’ll probably do that again.
Midoriya isn’t the type to just kill the bad guy and move on with his life. Midoriya will know that there’s something inside Shigaraki that needs help. Midoriya will give advice that eases Shigaraki’s moral crisis. And Shigaraki will tell Midoriya that he’s on a mission to right some wrongs. “I have something for you, to say thank you. It’s yours, after all.”Â
It’s Midoriya’s quirk. Levitate.
Eventually, Shigaraki will return Search to Ragdoll, as well. He’ll return every quirk he can to any living original wielders.
We can’t know for sure what Horikoshi will plan for the final climax of this story. He’s put a lot of work into making Shigaraki seem almost… understandable. Maybe even forgivable. Horikoshi is also hinting at Uraraka and Midoriya being endgame. Definitely not everyone’s favorite pairing, but I have to admit that Levitate and Zero Gravity working together and loving each other would be a fulfilling ending.
Thanks for reading! I am open to friendly discussion/criticism.Â
I also think that the doctor wouldn’t even have to use a fake x-ray. He probably has a quirk that could separate a pinky bone easily and without a kid noticing.
what we’ve seen of kirishima’s backstory so far really puts his entire character into better perspective and makes his dynamic with bakugou even more complex and interesting.
like, when we first meet kirishima officially, he already has a fair bit of confidence. he stands up front during the first hero exercises, and doesn’t shy away from commenting on what’s happening. during the usj arc, he and bakugou are the first people to run towards danger when they try to attack kurogiri.
the middle school kirishima would’ve frozen, but a few months later he’s literally the first of a group of heroes to rush in. whether or not that was a smart move, i have to wonder if kirishima consciously made that choice to prove something to himself, or if whatever changed his mind about applying to yuuei had already changed his initial responses so much.
and the fact that he ends up alone with bakugou– a character who is his opposite in many ways– is significant, too. at usj, kirishima says he wants to rejoin the others, but bakugou pretty quickly convinces him to go after the villains. so i have to think that kirishima initially thinks of the safe route, but then sees brash and overconfident bakugou’s response and thinks “he’s acting how i think a hero should act in this situation.” i mean, by that point it’s an obvious storytelling choice to have midoriya and bakugou present for the big fight. todoroki was more of an unknown variable at that point, but we very quickly learn his importance. but kirishima is the forth person there, and we’re not immediately made aware of his significance, at least not to the same scale as the others.
and it’s also after that arc that kirishima’s attitude towards bakugou shifts. in the first few indirect interactions they have, kirishima is awed or unsure about bakugou– calling him out as erratic during his fight with midoriya, for instance. but after this, kirishima volunteers to be on bakugou’s team during the sports festival, and from then on they’re friendly (or as friendly as bakugou is towards anyone).
so now we’ve pulled back a few months and seen where kirishima was starting from. he had no confidence in his own abilities, and lacked the kind of brash and thoughtless courage that usually characterizes hero-types. but he acquires that courage, and i think that’s a pretty amazing transformation.
contrast that with bakugou, who has no shortage of courage and pride, but who can’t admit his vulnerabilities to the point that they eat away at him and make him dangerously unstable. he and kirishima literally have opposite starting points. one of them has no faith in himself at all, and the other only has faith in himself and nothing else.
bakugou needs someone he’s on equal footing with to help him learn how to have trust in others and allow himself to accept help from them. kirishima gives him that, because bakugou never feels that kirishima is condescending to him. and that’s likely because kirishima’s admiration of bakugou’s courage and convictions is so genuine– he’s been hearing about bakugou’s strength since middle school. but he also has gotten close enough to see bakugou as an actual person, and can therefore understand his feelings.
kirishima needs someone who can build him up and help him believe in himself. at first glance, bakugou might seem like the worst candidate for this, but he’s actually the best. kirishima knows that bakugou is never going to compliment him just to spare his feelings– so when bakugou says that kirishima is strong, or accepts kirishima’s help, he knows exactly how much bakugou’s good opinion is worth. he can believe it, because he knows bakugou is never going to do anything just to be nice.
so kirishima starts out believing in others but not himself, and bakugou starts out believing in himself but not others. they’ve slowly started to meet in the middle, and i think they’ll both be essential to each other’s growth going forward.
Theory time! A lot of other people have had their take on this theory (AFO is Izuku’s dad) but I have yet to see any of them address the obvious elephant in the room. Why would Inko marry AFO?
They conclude either:
Inko must be evil (which would be horrible and feel out of character)
Inko must not know (but then why would AFO choose such a sweet lady with such a low powered quirk)
At the end of the day it just doesn’t make any sense...or does it?Â
(warning: manga spoilers)
I’m not gonna worry about proving AFO is Izuku’s dad too much, enough people have already done that, I’m gonna focus on why he would choose Inko.
The only reasons I can think that AFO would marry Inko (aside from her being evil, unlikely) were if he had briefly in his life turned over a new leaf (unlikely), or if she had something that he wanted...
AFO is a really powerful guy (THE most powerful guy, really). And One for All users may not have been too much trouble for him at first. But with each new iteration of OFA, as it gets passed down user to user, it gets more powerful. They don’t just get the quirks of the previous users, they also get the physical capability of each quirk user added to their own. OFA users get amplified quirks, amplified physical abilities, AND the ability to use the previous quirks.
It’s to the point where All Might almost killed AFO, he genuinely thought he had. He was surprised that AFO was still alive.
So AFO would have been getting a bit scared, or at least if not scared, a bit concerned about OFA continuing to exist. What’s a guy to do who can steal and use quirks though?
Well, as I have discussed much more thoroughly in this meta about AFO’s weaknesses, AFO wants as much power as possible in as easy a way as he can. The best way for him to do that is to:
Get powerful quirks that require very little training and have few drawbacks
Get quirks that specifically cover the weaknesses of his own quirk
Do it all without too many people noticing
What’s the best way to do that?
Well, I would say that the best way to steal quirks without anyone noticing is to steal them from other villains who no one will care about (although this could leave AFO vulnerable if his minions turned against him) and/or steal quirks from children who have not fully manifested their quirk yet.
Which sounds eerily like what could have happened in BNHA if Izuku’s doctor was in fact evil or something...but he’s not...right?
(although this is a meta for another time my friends)
The other question is what’s the easiest way to find and steal a quirk that would specifically cover one of AFO’s weaknesses?
I mean, that would require a perfect quirk. A quirk that fits like a puzzle piece, related just enough to AFO to meld with his own quirk perfectly, but different enough that it solves one of the drawbacks of his own power (and like I already pointed out in this meta that I linked just above and will link again, there are many potential limitations to AFO that may or may not be true)
But that would require a quirk that was essentially made for AFO. How can someone make a quirk, like if they wanted to become the top hero so bad they wanted to make a quirk that could do just that, how would someone go about doing that?
...oh...
We’ve long since been introduced to the idea of quirk marriages. And if it’s not above a particular hero to quirk marry than it’s certainly not above the worst villain of them all.
Now I would imagine at this point (this point would be while AFO is still concerned for his safety, but before his epic beatdown by All Might) All For One is contemplating quirk marriages to either create epic quirks that he could later steal or to create a successor that would kill OFA should he fail. He would have already had Shigaraki as his ace in the hole, so I’d guess the former.
But now who to pick as his bride? And I wouldn’t imagine he’d stop at one bride, I’d imagine he has a few ladies he’s using for their quirks.Â
I’d also like to pause for a moment to point out that there are a couple quirks that strike me in the series as similar to AFO in some way or another, the obvious being Monoma’s copy quirk (although it’s significantly less powerful than AFO, so it makes sense that AFO wouldn’t even bother stealing it) but another more recent one that’s come to light is actually Himiko Toga, who can borrow people’s likenesses and also their quirks if she knows them well enough.
Now I’m not saying they are also AFO’s experimental quirk children, but I am saying we should definitely watch these experimental quirk children.
And now back to the AFO’s brides...
I think it’s important to point out at this moment that Horikoshi takes words very seriously. He is incredibly specific with what words he decides to use, from character names describing their powers and what we should expect from them, to using Star Wars names for the locations in BNHA, to describing powers in a very particular manner as I discussed in this meta about OFA.
We’re introduced to Inko’s quirk through a single line of dialogue.
A lot of people interpret this to mean that Inko has psychokinesis. She can move objects around with her mind.
But that’s not true. Her ability is less powerful than that and two fold.
She can only use it on small objects
She can only bring those objects towards herself (she can’t send them away)
This is exactly how Horikoshi intends her power to be, not psychokinesis, but acting more similarly to a positive magnet when turned on.
And if you have already read my incredibly long meta about AFO’s weaknesses that I’m now pointing out for the third time (kudos if you did), you know that of the numerous potential weaknesses to AFO’s power one such possible weakness is the distance in which AFO would have to be to be able to steal someone’s power.
Specifically that he may have to be touching his victim to steal their power.
This is of course an assumption, but it’s a possible assumption, probable even.
If AFO is capable of stealing OFA, when is he gonna get the chance to lay a hand on the forehead of the current OFA user? Even if it turns out he can’t steal OFA, the ability to steal quirks from a distance would increase AFO’s power considerably.
And what was Inko’s quirk again? Oh right, the ability to attract small objects towards her.
It’s not a stretch at all to assume an all powerful quirk-stealing quirk + a very specific attracting telekinesis quirk would make a mega all powerful quirk-stealing quirk that could steal from a distance.
It may only be able to steal small quirks, or it may not be able to steal from very far away, but hell, it’s still fixes a problem AFO has, and it does it without AFO lifting a finger.Â
He just has to pretend to be a doting husband, do the hanky panky, and pretend to work abroad the moment he has a kiddo. He can leave the child-rearing to his wives, and the moment the kids are gonna manifest quirks, pull them into doc’s office to see what they have. He can steal the ones that are worthwhile and leave the ones that are useless to him alone. He could even do it face to face, what kid’s gonna be afraid of their own father touching their head?
Of course then All Might had to go and smash his face in.
But not before Izuku turned 5...and found out he didn’t have a quirk...but the scarier question is what if he did?
...
I don’t imagine we’re gonna find out anytime too soon, but if any of this is true it makes me hope Izuku really didn’t have a quirk. Because if he did...welp...AFO’s more powerful than we realize.Â
Anyway this is why you don’t underestimate women.Â
All for One is an incredibly powerful quirk (maybe THE most powerful quirk next to OFA). The ability to steal quirks, be able to use those quirks, and the ability to give those quirks away is OP AF.
It’s not surprising that AFO became the most powerful villain with a quirk like that. The possibilities are endless.
But it doesn’t mean that there aren’t any weaknesses.
(In depth look at the possible weaknesses of the quirk AFO and some comparison to OFA. This meta was originally part of another meta that was getting too long and off topic, needless to say there will be manga spoilers below the cut!)
As I already said, AFO can basically do three things: steal, use, and give away quirks. Each one has potential limitations that have been addressed in the manga or have been carefully not discussed at all. I’ll go through as many as I can think of.
Part One: To Steal a Quirk
So we know for sure AFO steals quirks. It doesn’t borrow the power or allow the user to copy it (like Monoma’s quirk). It steals the abilities forever, leaving the original quirk-holder without their quirk.
We know from Ragdoll, that when a quirk is stolen the experience may be traumatic, but ultimately the person can go back to their same personality after a period of time and rest (ch 184).
We also know that AFO can steal quirks relating to mental abilities (Ragdoll’s search), enhancing physical sensations (super hearing and vibration sensing), enhancing physical abilities (super strength and speed), and possibly a variety of other abilities (warp quirk, cybernetic fingernail quirk, etc).
AFO also has a quirk that relates to prolonged life in some way whether that be related to an advanced healing factor, immortality, advanced durability, or any number of other possible quirks is unclear.
We can also assume it can steal quirks relating to external manipulation (Best Jeanist). Even though he didn’t steal Best Jeanist’s quirk he suggested that it was within his ability, it just wouldn’t be useful because it required too much training.
We can also assume that many of the Nomu’s skills were gifted by AFO, meaning that they’re quirks that AFO would have been able to steal. But it’s unclear which quirks the Nomu’s started with and which ones were given.
While there hasn’t been any definitive evidence that there are quirks that AFO can’t steal, I would imagine it’s impossible for AFO to steal quirks that require a physical mutation. Similar to how Aizawa is unable to turn mutation quirks off and uses his scarf and fighting skills to counteract them.
Originally posted by yoshis
The reason this makes sense is because of Aizawa’s limitations. But also because AFO hasn’t stolen a quirk of a person with extra eyes in order to be able to see again and looks entirely like a normal man in a suit. Either he can’t steal mutation quirks or he always gives mutation quirks away (which, again, doesn’t make sense for a guy with no eyes).
The hole in that theory is the Nomu’s have mutation quirks. Either this is from AFO having the ability to transfer mutation quirks, or this is due to the doctor’s quirk, or they’re starting with a person with a mutation quirk and adding other types of quirks to it, or some combination therein.
The pterodactyl Nomu having (at least in part) the mind of Izuku’s childhood friend (ch 56) would suggest that the friend was the starting place that quirks were added to. But the way both the pterodactyl Nomu and the USJ Nomu look different from their original bodies would mean that someone’s quirk is responsible for that physical change whether that be AFO or the doctor’s quirk.
Even so I still think it’s most likely that AFO is unable to steal mutation quirks, and that the mutations in the Nomu are a result of the doctor’s work.
One would assume for One For All to have survived as long as it has, that AFO is unable to for whatever reason steal OFA. Although this has not been confirmed by anything other than its continued existence.
Another possible weakness of how AFO steals quirks is the distance at which a quirk can be stolen. So far in the manga the only character we’ve seen AFO steal a quirk from was Ragdoll and we didn’t get to see the process.
But we have gotten to see one important scene where AFO gifts a quirk:
In this case AFO is putting his hands directly onto the victim’s head and then giving a quirk from there. It would make sense that AFO would have to touch a person to give them a quirk and would have to also touch them to take away a quirk.
It’s also a weakness that AFO cannot sense quirks. He doesn’t realize his brother already had a quirk before gifting a second one (as far as we know). He also takes a minute fighting Best Jeanist before determining that his quirk isn’t useful to steal.
It also may take time to steal a quirk, but I haven’t been able to find any evidence one way or another how long it might take for AFO to steal a quirk, except that we know it takes less than 24 hours (due to how long Ragdoll was kidnapped).
So we know that stealing a quirk:
is permanent (but not permanently debilitating)
that most types of quirks can be stolen (although possibly not mutations)
that they can be stolen from touching a victim (although distance is unclear)
and that they take less than 24 hours to steal (but may possibly take significantly less than that).
Part 2: To Use a Quirk
It’s quite possible there’s a limit to the number of quirks AFO could hold at one time, although it hasn’t been addressed or suggested in any way. However, having a limit could make sense of the reason AFO doesn’t just steal everyone’s power around him, and be another reason for him to have given up a quirk to his brother.
It’s also never been addressed how many quirks AFO can use at a single time, not just hold, but actually use. We have seen him use several quirks at once to make his arm an incredible amount stronger, but there may be a limit.
As we’ve seen from AFO’s fight with Best Jeanist (ch. 89), he’s pretty picky about the quirks he decides to take. He doesn’t want quirks that require a lot of training or experience, because when he takes a quirk he doesn’t automatically get training or experience when he steals it, and neither does anyone he gives a quirk to.
This means that while AFO can steal a wide variety of quirks, he’s looking for quirks that are powerful regardless of training. This is the most clear and obvious weakness of AFO. He takes time (just like everybody else) to master certain quirks, and he doesn’t want to take that time.
(I also really like this impatience quality in AFO from a storytelling perspective, because it puts him as a foil to characters like Mirio who directly stated that his quirk is only strong because he made it strong. It gives a very good life lesson on being a hero/good/talented really requires putting in the work.)
And (mostly just for fun) we can also look at something like Class A and see who’s most at risk of getting their quirk stolen:
Momo Yaoyorozu (very unlikely) - powerful quirk but requires the most training of anyone in the class to be able to work, she can only make things that she knows the entirety of the chemical structures (dayum this gurl has to be smart)
Yugo Aoyama (unlikely) - needs mechanical support for quirk to work well, and physical drawback of puking after only a little output
Rikido Sato (maybe) - good strong power even without training, has mental drawbacks, and a requirement to function (eating lots of sugar)
Fumikage Tokoyami (maybe) - it’s unclear how much dark shadow is its own person, it may not listen to a different master, or it may work really well with a villain
Mina Ashido, Koji Koda (likely) - good strong powers, doesn’t require too much control, powers don’t appear to rely on their physical mutations
Ochako Ururuaka, Denki Kaminari, Eijiro Kirishima, Shoto Todoroki, Katsuki Bakugou (most likely) - good strong powers even without training, not too harsh of drawbacks when used within reason
We also know (thank you Bakugou) that all quirks have drawbacks to use them. Sometimes the drawbacks take a physical toll like with Bakugou or Todoroki. Sometimes they take a mental toll like Sato or Kaminari. Sometimes the drawback is about having control over the power like Tokoyami. But it means that AFO must also be getting these drawbacks when he uses other people’s quirks. He should be able to be worn down, but he also probably picks powers that have fewer drawbacks to them. This is also reasoning for why AFO wouldn’t just steal everyone’s quirk around himself.
Using quirks is really where I see OFA at having the advantage over AFO.
AFO may not have had too much trouble defeating OFA users during the first few generations. But with each new iteration of OFA, as it gets passed down user to user, it gets more powerful. They don’t just get the quirks of the previous users, they also get the physical capability of each quirk user added to their own. OFA users get their own quirks amplified, their physical abilities amplified, AND the ability to use previous owner’s quirks.
OFA is limited in the number of quirks based only on how many previous generations there were. Same for how much power it has stockpiled. I went into slightly more depth in how OFA now works with the newest manga info in this meta. From what we can understand the stockpiled power is what can amplify a user’s own quirk and or physical abilities.
Izuku will have to train his own body and skills very hard to be able to use the stockpiled power without breaking himself, as well as to be able to use the previous owners quirks. (As I mentioned this will very neatly make Izuku a foil of AFO, and makes my literary brain quite happy)
Really this means that AFO’s power comes from having access to a larger number of weaker quirks (especially as OFA becomes more powerful generation after generation). Of course AFO could counteract that just by, ya know, training, but what kind of big bad would he be if someone saw him sweating at the gym?
So it’s cool to think that a lot of what the final battle is gonna hinge on isn’t what a person’s quirk is, but how much they’ve trained their quirk to become strong. What makes you a hero isn’t how strong or skilled you are, it’s how much you work towards doing good for both yourself and others. (*sheds a single tear for Mirio)
But I digress.
AFO
May or may not have a limit to number of quirks he can hold and use at any given time (and it may be so many that it won’t become relevant)
Has to train to use quirks that require lots of training (and specifically won’t steal a strong quirk if it requires a lot of training)
Most likely feels aftereffects of the quirks he uses (although he may have other quirks that counteract those effects)
Part 3: The Gift of a Quirk
The only character we’ve seen AFO give a quirk was his brother, where he placed a hand on his head. It’s quite possible that there’s a distance or amount time involved in giving a quirk to someone. We’ve also seen quirks where the more info a user knows about a person the more effective their quirk will work (Toga Himiko). These could all be factors in AFO’s use, although there is little evidence to suggest these factors with the exception of distance required likely being physical touch, and possibly requiring a forehead touch.
Otherwise the important thing to think about in relation to giving a quirk is the effect on the person you’ve given it to.
All Might suggested that giving the quirk may have been to force his younger brother to submit (ch. 59). There’s a possibility with that statement and with the brain-dead Nomu’s and Shigaraki’s demeanor that this means that AFO giving a quirk to someone may mess with their brain in some way.
However that argument is hard to make when you consider that passing on One For All doesn’t seem to mess with people’s brains, and that the most similar comparison would be Ragdoll’s stolen quirk, which didn’t seem to permanently mess up her brain either.
(Although I will say that my theory with the stockpiling quirk gift is that AFO realized that the stockpiling quirk would break his bones and thought that a painful quirk like that would subdue his brother, not realizing or not caring that you could counteract the breaking with a significant amount of training, and as we have established AFO is lazy af)
The existence of the Nomu may suggest a few other possibilities for gifting quirks. They may be made brain dead because AFO fears his underlings becoming too powerful, so he only gifts many numerous quirks to those who are under his complete control (i.e. brain dead Nomus, and a successor he trained and abused from a child age).
AFO gifting quirks may also steadily decrease brain function, or adding quirks may be traumatic enough that each additional quirk added makes a person less functional. In that case the creation of the Nomus would be necessary for AFO to be able to gift numerous quirks to someone else. There’s not really evidence to suggest or deny this, but worth mentioning.
Also worth mentioning that Shigaraki may or may not have ever been gifted a quirk from AFO, but I included him just in case he has.
So the conclusion of gifting quirks is that AFO:
May have to touch a person to gift a quirk, may have to touch them for an undetermined period of time
May cause brain problems when gifting a quirk or multiple quirks, or that most individuals have limitations on how many quirks they can possess
Or none of this could be true
Conclusions:
Basically AFO is super powerful, but is still a quirk that can have limitations or drawbacks just like every quirk we’ve seen. There’s not enough evidence to suggest any limitations conclusively, but there’s enough to question several different facets of AFO.
Woo that got way longer than intended for something so incredibly inconclusive! So have a smiling Izuku to thank you for getting all the way here!
I find it funny that the way I initially interpreted One for All’s power is the exact way that it actually is. (warning: manga spoilers below the cut)
OFA is described in the manga as a stockpiling quirk mixed with “the power to transfer power.”
When I initially read that in the manga I assumed it meant that Izuku went from having 0 quirks to having 9 quirks. I quickly realized that this was not the case and the power was more of an amplifier of the users abilities. For Izuku that meant essentially a 9-fold amplifier on anything he does when he uses the ability (although it’s actually more because each user would have been especially strong or powerful enough to have been gifted OFA).
But then I could have kicked myself in the more recent chapters because I so clearly should never have doubted myself in the first place.
If Horikoshi had intended OFA to be an amplifier then that’s the word he would have used. Instead he used “stockpiler” and “power to transfer power.”
Stockpiling isn’t amplifying power, it’s collecting it. So OFA collects the power of all previous users and then transfers that power.
Power is left more up to interpretation. I originally assumed that it meant quirks not strength of ability. But because it was Toshinori, a trusted mentor character, who had no idea about the transfer of quirks who told us about OFA he couldn’t be more specific. (Strike one for Toshinori being an unreliable narrator whenever he’s telling us a story.)
A lot of people were upset when it turned out Izuku could control previous users quirks, but if any of us had been paying attention we would have seen this from the beginning!
Horikoshi already told us exactly what OFA could do. If anything it just proves to pay attention to the way things are worded (yeah, sometimes things might just be translator errors, but even so).
I can’t believe it’s done…it’s finally done…and just in time for the end of the year.
Concept for this was that someone with a quirk that could knock out people with quirks came to UA. The only one to save them all is Small Might! He would try, too. We all know he would. He may not have One for All anymore, but he’s still like a mom who can lift a car off her babies.
How long was I working on this? 2 months? What a ridiculously long amount of time. To be fair I got tired of working on it halfway through and then I could barely bring myself to draw on it and was procrastidrawing with as many other things as I could.
Am I happy with it? I really like how some of the characters came out. Kirishima is probably my favorite and also All Might looks great, some of them just don’t look right at all to me or I just couldn’t seem to get them to fit in with the overall imagery. I drew and redrew so many of the characters. Eh… Mostly I’m just happy to be done and never have to look at this drawing again.
Anyway! So happy it’s over!
Why did I work so hard on this piece? I have no idea…
Have a Happy New Year, everybody! I hope you make all your resolutions come true and that 2k19 is your best year yet!
I really like BNHA Meta and I want a place to post my own, outside of my main blog which I’m sure people would get annoyed with. Also want a place to collet all my BNHA stuff in one place. So here we go!
Main Blog is @seeminglycaptivating if you want to follow for comedy and advice and art!
Art blog is @thechargrey and worth a follow for sure, although any BNHA stuff I do I’ll reblog here too.
Boku No META Academia @bokunometacademia - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
