Alright, I got a little challenge for you.
Say you got to reimagine spinner's design and abilites granted from his quirk to be more based around actual geckos.
What gecko species would you use as inspiration for his design? It doesn't have to be just one speices either, you can use multiple and make a composite design if you want.
And furthermore, what abilities would you give him? You don't have to make them a complete 1-to-1 of how real gecko adaptations work, suspension of disbelief is par for the course in the superpower genre after all, but the abilities do have to be based on the the real life abilities of actual geckos to a reasonable degree.
Alright, with the rules set, good luck.
I think his design is fine. I’d just give him a tail.
Like, clearly the author really likes ninja turtles. Okay. But the tail tho. That's the best part of a reptile.
Lots of MHA characters who could have tails, don't. I think the author just doesn't like drawing tails.
As far as his powers? All of them. If there is any sort of special ability I could conceive a lizard person having, he’s fucking got it.
He’s going to be like a cross between Mirio and Tsuyu except as a villain.
Mirio’s claim is that there’s no weak quirks. That’s obviously nonsense, but Spinner is going to benefit from the same gains Mirio did.
Tsuyu can just do whatever the author feels like and her tongue is blatantly a tentacle and doesn’t function like a frog’s tongue at all, so it’s whatever. If it’s good enough for her, it’s good enough for Spinner.
What I think the story objectively loses is representation for people born with crap quirks, but maybe we actually stick with the idea that working hard can make any quirk good.
You know how Koichi is pushed into situation and then he develops more ways to use his quirk?
He starts off with just the ability to be sticky and climb things. It’s tiring to do it. But he never actually worked out or trained in his life.
That changes when he gets into fights. Oh, sweet, then he unlocks a low grade super strength. Oh, then his scales harden and deflect blades.
I’m using the logic that winning fights gives you EXP in the MHA universe like a Pokemon game. It’s the only way I can explain Toga kicking so much ass despite her lack of real training, not having an offensive quirk, and zero apparent muscle mass.
So we spend several arcs where Shigaraki goes “Spinner, I choose you!” And then he cuts up pro heroes.
So that’s why I said all of them. If Spinner is getting his ass kicked, suddenly he’ll go “Oh yeah, what if I did THIS!” and then he does it.
Like, he straight up just fires blood from his eyes to blind someone, then he cuts them.
I’m fully aware this is a horned lizard technique. But since we give the hero characters endless training arcs and power ups and buffs, during a brutal beat down, Spinner would flash back to Dabi’s micro aggressions and how he called him lizard repeatedly even after being corrected.
And then he’d think “Wait. That’s my quirk. I’m not just a gecko: I’m a LIZARD!”
I’m aware you wanted to know how he’d use a gecko quirk to be strong, but if we’re going to have Bakugo go from getting 1 shot by Tomura to being able to kill AFO, then yeah, Spinner’s gonna get buffed.
However, since you do want to see Gecko specific moves, he’s got this:
The Tail Drop: So he has a tail in this world. He can drop it. It hurts really, really badly to do so and the tail wildly flails around to distract and bowl people over as it spasms. It also gives him a massive adrenaline based movement buff and also he’s faster because he lost his tail and the weight it contained. Think of this like Rock Lee dropping his weights.
Before that, he’d use the tail in his martial arts.
Van der Waals Strength: Geckos stick to walls using microscopic hairs on their toe pads that manipulate intermolecular forces. So in this universe, he’d grab someone and his grip is unbreakable. He’d use this to pound people across the face with wild haymakers and they can’t get knocked back or fall away from him.
Leaf-Tail Camouflage: Some geckos, like the Mossy Leaf-Tailed Gecko, have dermal flaps that completely eliminate their shadows, making them practically invisible against surfaces. So Spinner would press himself against a wall, and then bend light around his body so nobody can see him unless they physically bump into him. Remember: If Tsuyu gets a stealth mode that objectively makes her a better version of Hagakure for no reason, Spinner should get this.
You may wonder why Spinner has all of this.
Class 1-A is 20 people. Class B is also 20 people.
Tomura is Izuku and Bakugo’s villain. Dabi is Shoto’s. Toga is Uraraka and Tsuyu’s. Compress and Twice aren’t assigned to any of the hero kids.
That leaves Spinner here to make up the numbers.
Now, just for a moment, examine the League's quirks and fighting styles and you'll figure out the hole the author wrote himself into: on paper, everyone here should absolutely rip children to shreds.
Dabi and Tomura's powers by all rights should be one hit kills. Toga is a serial killer who stabs people. Compress' power is a one touch victory for him, and if he fights at a distance, he's going to throw boulders and potentially vehicles at you. Twice can make copies of all his friends who have one touch kill abilities.
So that just leaves Spinner as the one 'safe' guy people can fight. Having his sword get broken is a major gift to the narrative because now it means we can turn him getting disarmed and then boxing people up into a common combat routine.
I want you to think about the fact that we see constant training arcs from the hero children...but they barely actually DO anything with their powers.
Who, for example, has Sero ever actually fought outside of a movie besides his own friends in class events?
Enter: Spinner. If the story wants us to take the League seriously, then we show Spinner is un-jumpable. Meaning, you can attack him with 8 dudes and he fights them all off.
Also, consider his personality: He actively did not want Izuku dying in the first arc. That means, if we CHOOSE to use it, Spinner could be the one guy in the league with actual morals! Which means, he's the one guy who actively WILL NOT MURDER his child opponents!
Then the narrative needs zero justification for why he flattened groups of kids and didn't kill them! No last minute rescues, no having him carry the idiot ball. A group of students spots him while on patrol and he's buying food from the 7-11, they jump him, he reverse jumps them, and then leaves them laying and escapes. THEN, we can have this happen again when the kids get their run back after a training arc!
But then we'll have buffed Spinner to keep him competitive because he's getting jumped by half the cast and needs anything to keep his head above water.
We give the fodder characters in Class 1-A something to do and Spinner is finally allowed to do something.
Like, the state of villains is so bad in canon that the major antagonists who supposedly brought hero society to their knees...most of them have never actually boxed up the main cast for any length of time. That's ridiculous.
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