alright. i know i said previously that i was working on their general relationship analysis, AND I AM! but all of this has been eating at me the entire time i've been composing it and i've been in a dilemma on whether or not to include it in the analysis or make it a whole separate thing because it's really its own other topic. and!!!! here we are. it's a whole separate thing. phainaxa is kind of crazy #tbh
this post can also be titled 'Anaxa Haunts Phainon & The Entire Narrative', and you'll see why very soon.
this post will be tagged with the proper content warning labels, of course, but please be wary that i briefly talk about anaxa and his suicidal/self-harm tendencies in one part of this.
i'm pumping all of this out BEFORE 3.5, so all information here will be things we already know.
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Simulation name meanings
first things first, i want to go over their simulation names: neikos496 and skemma720.
starting with phainon's:
what does neikos mean? does 496 represent anything?
neikos is of greek origin, meaning discord or strife. along with that, tying in with empedocles' famous cosmogonic theory of the four elements, he was also the one who proposed the concept of that in which love and destruction would mix together and separate the elements.
and because i mention empedocles' philosophy and his concept of love and strife dividing and bringing together the four elements to maintain balance, i should also mention cyrene's simulation name, PhiLia093; philia, also of greek origin, meaning friendship, and is one of the four types of love in greek language—the others being éros (sexual desire), agapè, (altruism), and storgê (familial).
and we know all the eternal recurrences started with cyrene & phainon—cyrene sacrificing herself so that khaslana would be able to continuously experience the same cycle and collect the coreflames. khaslana kills cyrene during the destruction of aedes elysiae from the black tide so that she'll be able to do what she needs to to keep the cycle going, which is why she says "may this woeld never have need for a deliverer", because she's been aware this entire time, doing this since her and the original phainon put this plan into motion.
until the four millionth eternal recurrence, it is the original phainon/khaslana experiencing the loops—he had killed each loop phainon until that point. the hero within eventually begins to fail within his body, and in order to keep his plan going, he instead has the loop phainons kill him at the end of every cycle now, so that that phainon will inherit the previous coreflames he's consumed and his memories. and because he knows himself, he knows that each phainon will choose the same path as him and become "khaslana."
the number 496 is a perfect number.
phainon has been constantly praised by aglaea and some of the others as being the "perfect" chrysos heir, one without flaw.
(and he's really, truly not, if that wasn't obvious. this, too, actually ties into anaxa, his ideologies, and how he sees phainon, but that will be in my relationship analysis instead because wow. hey!!! they are kind of insane!!! what the fuck!!!)
moving onto anaxa's:
what does skemma mean? does 720 represent anything?
skhema, of greek origin, means something along the lines of form or figure, which could possibly tie into anaxa being the representation of reason and embodying erudition within the simulation.
however, skemma, of old-icelandic origin, means to (usually permanently) damage, to spoil, or to ruin. i mention this particular origin meaning because of anaxa and destruction's relationship, which i'll discuss soon.
as for if 720 represents anything, i'm not too sure.
i do, however, have one idea in mind, but it's not exactly the most obvious or sound.
in geometry, polyhedra/polyhedrons are 3D figures with all straight edges from all vertices connecting to each other. which goes along with the meaning of skhema, being form/shape/figure. 720° is the sum of all defects of any polyhedron.
and what does defect mean? a fault or flaw.
in geometry, an angular defect is the failure of some/certain angles not being able to add up to 360° or 180°.
fault, flaw, and failure, unlike 496, which is a perfect number.
anaxa who is reason and is the simulation embodiment for erudition, being a failure. whereas phainon, who is worldbearing and is the simulation embodiment for destruction, is perfect. irontomb, being a lord ravager of destruction, meant to eliminate erudition.
—
Anaxa & Destruction
now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's get into the relationship between anaxa and destruction.
starting off with anaxa's past and character stories—all of his character stories are presented to us in a way that tells us that the form of media it was previously was already destroyed, forgotten, or never found.
in character story 1, cerces is flipping through his past memories before being promptly shut out by anaxa. and post 3.2, cerces is dead, having died alongside anaxa when he took the coreflame out of his chest at the very end.
in character story 2, we read the contents of a parapsychology experiment log anaxa had conducted. however, the original copy had already been destroyed.
in character story 3, we are shown a speech anaxa had improvised during a meeting between the sages of the grove. with the grove now destroyed and it being from just a simple meeting out of many, it's already been forgotten.
and finally, in character story 4, an echo in anaxa's memories had been made by him after the grove fell, but no one discovered it, so it vanished.
along with all of that, we really know nothing about anaxa aside from his ideals and personality—his backstory is never explored within the trailblaze quests, his sister is only mentioned in passing, his parents only ONCE, and his mentor, who we did see in a flashback, but has been dead pre-canon timeline. his mentor's name was also empedocles.
his parents, his sister, his mentor, and cerces, who had inhabited his body for that short time—they are all dead.
his previous home before he was able to leave to the grove was never named and was destroyed pre-canon timeline, and we witnessed the aftermath of the grove after it had fallen—both of his homes destroyed.
aside from that, anaxa had a grave that he would regularly clean and take care of, as if he was already anticipating his death.
i do not think i've ever talked about this in other posts, but i think that anaxa was definitely suicidal but not ready to actually take action to kill himself properly, instead resorting to harming himself repeatedly during his experiments, to the point where empedocles had told him to stop and never again harm himself once he had found out. anaxa had promised him he wouldn't anymore, but after empedocles had passed, that promise was soon broken.
anaxa is self-destructive and self-sacrificial—his body is littered with spells and markings from experiments. not only that, but when he had conducted his experiment to be able to see his sister one last time, we know that he carved his own left eye out as a sacrifice for the process. he also carved out his own heart as a sacrifice to make the stone tablet that would be able to guide castorice on her journey to find thanatos.
cerces themself even asks him at one point in 3.2, "why are you always trying to find ways to die? isn't it good to be alive?"
anaxa dies in Every Single eternal recurrence. not once does he survive, unlike the others who have all survived various times across multiple eternal recurrences.
not only that, but his body is eerily similar to flame reaver/khaslana's—both are void-like, cracked, and on the brink of destruction.
and he haunts the narrative without fail. he is brought up continuously in 3.4 by khaslana AND lygus. he seems to always be the last one shown when we're peering into khaslana's memories of past recurrences. his teachings still hold dear to hyacine and phainon both, even though he's been gone.
he is the only one we really know nothing about, and yet he hangs over everything like a looming shadow.
and the way anaxa not only haunts the entire narrative, but literally khaslana himself as well—looming over him, inside his thoughts and actions, consuming him. not to mention, every time worldbearing is somewhere, of course, reason is not too far behind, even in the game mechanics. same with destruction and erudition when it comes to amphoreus.
anaxa's golden boons within the divergent universe primarily have to do with Destructible Curios. which really makes me crazy, because again, he who is reason & erudition, seems to always be destroyed in one way or another, except by the one who is meant to be molded into something that destroys, and that is khaslana.
anaxa's as i've written/divergent universe art is of him depicted upside down and hanging, referencing odin in norse mythology and the hanged man tarot card (since tarot cards are cyrene's thing, especially with her connections to oronyx and time.) he is the hanged man tarot card in cyrene's deck.
what's important about that?
the story of odin in norse mythology is that he hung himself upside down from yggdrasil for nine days and nights to obtain knowledge of other worlds and to understand the runes.
before doing that, odin had sacrificed his eye into mimir's well and then pierced himself with gungnir, his spear. all of this was considered something of a ritualistic suicide.
as for what the tarot card symbolizes; the hanged man in tarot readings means ultimate sacrifice and surrender. shifting your perspective to give in to time so that things may unfold naturally—a pause in action.
and all of this fits quite well with anaxa.
his as i've written log also explains that his survival priority approaches zero. (which. what the hell. cmon anaxa stay alive for once)
because he is the first individual to uncover the truth of amphoreus, his evolution rate is stated to be extremely unreplicable. along with that, his behavior demonstrated the possible self-destructive inclinations of erudition.
—
Phainon & Erudition
moving on, with phainon & erudition, it's not as blatantly laid out like anaxa & destruction—much of phainon's connections with erudition are sourced through anaxa himself, because anaxa is Reason.
phainon's dream, before being roped into a hero because of the prophecy and destruction of aedes elysiae, was to be a scholar.
when aglaea had sent him to the grove to study, originally, he applied for a different school but admittedly got reassigned to anaxa's nousporism.
anaxa and phainon's relationship is important for a multitude of reasons, but for now, let's focus on one particular aspect of their dynamic while phainon was in the grove—anaxa and peace to phainon.
like i had just stated, phainon's dream was to be a scholar. when studying in the grove, he was able to do just that. but it's VERY important to know this while also remembering the fact that anaxa is the only one who sees him for Phainon and not the prophesied Deliverer.
anaxa is constantly addressing him as only Phainon or Phainon Of Aedes Elysiae, never hero, or worldbearer, or deliverer, etc... phainon struggles with seeing himself past the role he was forced to be and continuously thinks everyone around him really only sees him as such as well, so he doesn't try to think otherwise because he assumes this is all he is meant to be.
him being able to live his dream of being a scholar, paired with the fact that anaxa views him for Him, instilling his sense of self once more, is what gave phainon peace.
the average student takes about 4 years to complete their studies and graduate the grove, but phainon took much longer than that—up to 5 to 10 years instead.
and phainon isn't stupid by any means—he is one of, if not the most, exceptional student anaxa has ever had, stated by anaxa himself. he is extremely good at debating, has earned consecutive wreaths for it, and is a fast learner.
him taking 5 to 10 years instead of the normal 4 could very well likely be due to the fact that he did not want to leave the peace he felt while in the grove and with anaxa—he was free of weights there, able to be himself, rather than the Worldbearer.
and anaxa never did anything about it either; it's never stated that he tried to get phainon to leave back to okhema after the 4 year mark, and that is something anaxa would never do anyway.
phainon is just as important to anaxa as anaxa is to phainon. phainon is one of the few people anaxa allowed himself to be close to, and i won't dive into this too much since i think it would be a better fit for their general relationship analysis, but phainon was constantly trying to break down the barrier between them of teacher/student, whilst also trying to respect anaxa as a person he admires.
in the original cn text, phainon uses informal terms towards anaxa, and anaxa doesn't make any effort to correct him—this is because despite phainon trying so hard, he never really had to in the first place.
compared to others, when phainon addresses anaxa as Anaxa and not anaxagoras, rarely, if not ever, are there instances where anaxa corrects him, instead, letting it slide.
phainon has never had to try as hard as he thinks because anaxa was already letting him in.
he keeps anaxa's teachings dear to him, remembering them even if he graduated so long ago.
khaslana, while experiencing the loops before having to change his methods of obtaining the coreflames, never had to worry about anaxa being one he would fight with or have to kill. anaxa was willing to help him regardless, despite not being able to fully believe his words and what he would tell him.
and what's more is that, before the four millionth eternal recurrence, khaslana always killed the loop version of himself when he had to kill cyrene—anaxa, of all those loops, had never meant the phainon in any of the other loops.
but khaslana had told him that he was once his pupil, and anaxa let him in regardless. he helped him despite it all.
and we know, in the 134th loop, anaxa confronted him on his methods as well, being Reason and trying to get khaslana to turn back, because not only was he hurting the humanity he swore to protect and love, he was hurting himself too.
again, anaxa had never met phainon. but he still did all of this. and not once had khaslana try to destroy him—not even during 3.1 when they were all fighting against him. he attempted to go for the coreflame in anaxa's chest, had tried to, for once, harm anaxa because it was the only way, and yet, when anaxa instead took the coreflame of time from him, he only tried to yank back the ceremonial blade instead of killing him then and there.
and khaslana has never truly lost himself because of Reason—anaxa has always haunted him.
one who is destruction finds peace within the thing he is born to destroy.
along with all of this, phainon's BP lightcone, A Dream Scented in Wheat, is an erudition lightcone.
wheat being the symbol of aedes elysiae, his home, and it being an erudition lightcone amongst all else—yet again, the peace phainon desires.
—
Conclusion
dude i'm gonna be honest. i actually have no idea how to finish this off, but do you see it all now. how fucking crazy they are. how utterly intertwined they are.
they're quite literally programmed to go together in one way or another—within amphoreus, destruction & erudition are always hand in hand some way, somehow, like worldbearing & reason.
and them also having SO MANY references and callbacks to kevin & su. a bit crazy!
considering phainon, cyrene, & anaxa are the only ones amongst the heirs that have multiple callbacks to kevin, elysia, and su, respectively, it was bound to be this complex.
i'd really like to talk about phainon being the sun, cyrene the moon, and anaxa being the stars, along with the anaxa-march connections but. again, i feel like that's a whole new topic for a separate post (<- guy who says this and she's going to take 6000 years to finish it), and i still haven't even finished my phainaxa relationship analysis.
OKAY..... ANYWAYS. THANK YOU FOR READING THIS FAR.... IF YOU DID..... #PHAINAXA4EVER
Actually, my therapist has told me this is a healthy way of processing things. Because you can get the trauma out of your head And you can write the ending you wish it had. The trusted person rescue, the catharsis of getting to kill the one who hurt you.
It's good for your brain. It's healthier than bottling it up. Fiction is where we go for emotional release. That can be true with trauma too.
Adding @dear-massacre's tags because they are so true:
#this is why it's important to remember that fictional characters are fake #they have no agency. they're made up #it hurts no one to make any character go through the horrors #it is healthy and cathartic
If x charity aims for £10, but gets £15, would you expect then to give back the extra five or give it then to another charity? No. Any extra costs go into the “rainy day” fund; sometimes servers crash or break, sometimes false reports are made that require the legal team, sometimes you need to hire coders or what not to implement new features or fix bugs or deal with broken code …
The money they aimed for is the bare minimum, which goes towards things like basic server costs and domain names and legal advice and so forth, but they don’t just “pocket” the rest (as people claim). It’s not a business. It has no advertisements. It needs some “rainy day” cash to function.
You can’t ask a charity to give money to another charity.
They don’t “pocket” excess money. They have a publicly accessible budget - waaaay more info than most charities, in fact. In it, you can clearly see where each dollar goes. (Also, you are vastly underestimating either how much traffic AO3 gets or how much servers/hosting costs.)
In my experience, people who don’t work in web design and hosting just have no concept of how heavy a load something like AO3 would have. Not only is the traffic absolutely buck wild, but the quantity of data that archive needs to store is fuckoff crazy. I’m talking “more than the library of congress” crazy. The only reason it doesn’t require Netflix levels of data serving is that it’s text based rather than video.
AO3 is in the top 300 websites in the world, and the top 100 in the US. It is the number 2 literature website.
Number 2 in the entire world. JSTOR is 20.
It sees about 6 million people a day. About 250k an hour. Each of those people is loading multiple pages, many are running searches that execute on literally hundreds of potential variables per search. The demands involved are astronomical.
JSTOR, btw, makes 85 million dollars a year.
It’s 18 ranks below AO3′s traffic, and takes in 650 times the amount of money.
But let’s say you think that’s an unfair comparison. Would you say that the Project Gutenberg Literature Archival Group- another text based archive that handles literature operating outside traditional copyright requirements- is more similar?
Because it sees all of 4% of the traffic that AO3 handles.
Care to guess its budget?
Double that of AO3.
AO3 is doing shit on the kind of shoestring budget that I fully, 100% cannot comprehend. And that’s just the archival service.
The 130k also pays for the OTW’s legal team, which they use to defend the right of fandom to fucking exist.
It’s absolutely batshit fucked up that people are fighting to have the OTW defunded and AO3 shut down. They are the only organized group that actually stands directly between fandom- all the art and the fics and the vids and the music and the chats and the memes and everything we love about interactive, transformative work- and an incalculable amount of lawsuits.
As chaos unfolds throughout Japan, there is no hero shining as a beacon of hope. All Might is effectively dead, and the reigning number one hero is the cause of the current crisis. Throughout the nation, heroes are being forced to acknowledge their motivation for pursuing heroics. As a result, they are abandoning their positions en masse and leaving civilians to the mercy of villains.
There is no hero posed to rescue Japan from the chaos that has been unleashed by the League, so instead, society must begin to acknowledge its own moral failings. If society had not repeatedly failed these villains, this situation would not be happening. If Endeavor had prioritized his family over his own ambitions, Dabi would not have had the fuel to destroy the hero system. The destruction of society began in the crumbling of the foundation of a family unit, so it must be a mother, not a hero, who begins the process of rebuilding it.
“I am here” is All Might’s iconic phrase. Its purpose is to let the hearers know that someone is there who can and will save them. All Might has proven that wherever he is, justice will prevail. As long as the victim is within his reach, they will be saved. For the past several decades, Japan has relied on this man to defeat every threat to justice. However, following the carnage and chaos of the PLA raid, All Might is retired and incapable of saving Japan. There is no one present to save society, and all hope appears to be lost. This has plunged both civilians and heroes into a state of helplessness and chaos.
83
When asked if there has been anyone that he could not save, All Might tells Midoriya that some people can’t be reached. A hero cannot save someone that they do not have access to. All Might did not have access to Touya, and it was never All Might’s responsibility to save him. All Might saved the people he could reach, and both Touya and Dabi were unreachable for him. It is not Toshinori’s responsibility to save society, and even if he was still All Might, it is not even something that he would be capable of doing.
Touya’s care rested on the shoulders of his parents. Because they failed to create an environment where he was both physically safe and emotionally cared for, he “died” and Dabi was created. The Todorokis’s failures in Touya’s upbringing ultimately brought about the downfall of hero society in Japan. Rebuilding Japanese society, then, must start with them confronting these failings.
300
Rei has spent the past ten years in a psychiatric hospital, working through trauma from her marriage and her child’s death. Throughout the series, she’s been regarded as a woman with a fragile mind who needs delicate care in order to facilitate her full recovery. This led to rampant speculation that the unveiling of Dabi as Touya would shatter her progress and force her to be hospitalized for an indefinite period of time. However, Dabi’s revelation has instead given Rei the strength to confront her husband about their family’s suffering.
Rei responds to Enji’s question by stating that she is “not at all” alright. While this is a reference to her current state, this is also an acknowledgment of the decades of suffering that her family has endured. She then utters the words that every Japanese citizen in crisis longs to hear: “That’s why I’m here.” The Todorokis are the people who are able to reach Dabi, so it is their responsibility to try to save him. Rei, as a mother, is taking the first step to save Touya; in doing so, she is ultimately forging the path to save Japan as a whole.
301
No one was present to save the Todoroki family from the horrors of their household. Each member suffered under Enji’s abuse, and they carry that damage with them. Shouto reached out to his mother with the declaration that he would save her, whether she asked him to or not. Now, Rei is stepping forward and declaring that she is taking control of her family’s narrative, and they are going to confront the situation with Touya together. In doing this, she is paralleling All Might by becoming a symbol of hope for her children and by showing her husband that he is no longer in control of their family.
TLDR: Dabi’s revelation has dealt the death blow to hero society. All Might has essentially died, and in his place, society has become hopeless. However, he did everything that he could as a hero, and this is not a situation that he was ever meant to remedy. Rei, by confronting Enji, is showing that she is accepting the responsibility to save her family (including Touya). Proclaiming “I’m here” reflects that she is becoming the hero and hope that both her family and the country need.
Note: This is in no way a condemnation of Rei. While she was responsible for Touya, she was also being abused and was essentially in a lose/lose situation. Dabistits and tdrkrei (x) have expounded on this topic.
Tartarus , AFO’s plan and many more - Chapter 297 Analysis
As the chapter starts, we are given a brief description of Tartarus. The most interesting fact about is the different cell blocks and how the most dangerous villains are kept inside . This line plays a very important role when the outbreak eventually happens.
These lines are very important and gives us a deeper view into the society. Gigantomachia is considered human and killing him is unethical. I mostly think Gigantomachia is another modified Nomu. The one capable of speech, similar to Kurogiri. The Hearts and Minds party is the party led by trumpet; the one against laws of quirks and telling that everyone must be free to use their own quirks. Since we are well aware that they have an influence with media, they would definitely try and manipulate any news that happens as well, since most of the supporters look like civilians. The accusations of Human Rights Violation is very interesting. In a way, Tartarus does violate basic human rights since they lock up the most dangerous villains with the highest security measures.
This must also been a reason why AFO knew the worst cast scenario would be locked up in Tartarus and so he had taken up counter measures to ensure that his original quirk would be given to Shigaraki and he would keep a duplicate . Even though he could have given a duplicate of his quirk to Shigaraki, he wouldn’t have control over him. As he had explained before to the other holders of OFA ;
“Every quirk factor contains a consciousness ... the individuality of the wielder. “
“ As someone with the power to meddle with quirks themselves, I’ve found myself in the unique position to interact with those consciousness. “
By giving his original quirk, he has maximum control over Shigaraki’s body. If it wasn’t for him, Shigaraki would have definitely been captured since OFA weakened him. Which would damper his future plans.
Even till now, we can see how AFO keeps manipulating Shigaraki, just as his brother had said he had always did. Even though AFO is fulfilling his own will , he is not letting Shigaraki do what he wishes, he is forcing him to behave as his puppet.
Shigaraki is aware how he is being used and he keeps refusing to be AFO’s pawn and AFO keeps lying to him . The hands and the twisted power tendrils surrounding him emphasizes and how much he is trapped. Even though AFO keeps saying Tomura is the next him, it doesn’t feel like that. His statement and the visual imagery is contradicting. This scene reminded me of Shigaraki inside OFA mindscape and how Deku could see how AFO was controlling him the entire time. While the others users were helping Deku, they never controlled him like AFO did. Deku always had free will while using the quirk,but AFO was the opposite. Instead of telling his plans to Shigaraki and letting him follow along, he instead controls him and does all the work.
These lines from the previous chapter would definitely be discussed in the future chapters with the rest of the heroes. Ochako and Toga’s interaction would also add into this insight. Even though Ochako felt Toga should be punished for her actions, she can now understand what villains also go through as well and not every villain is purely evil and not every hero is purely good. This experience would deepen their understanding and to eventually it would be interesting to see how our heroes handle the aftermath of the situation.
Back to the chapter analysis, the next lines said by AFO are very interesting.
Before fighting All Might, he would have definitely researched about the Tartarus and gained information. He required Shigaraki’s quirk to decay with precession which would have freed him, but the deep sea levels would eventually kill him due to the pressure. The only reason this escape was successful because the other heroes were down, AFO had the perfected Nomus , which helped in the prison escape. Even Shigaraki’s own body wasn’t enough ,even if it was perfected. This tells us how protected Tartarus was.
The way AFO planed was a dual attack- one from the outside and the inside. Shigaraki controlled by AFO had made an electric attack short circuiting the entire facility, at the same time the real AFO attacked at the same time. This was only possible due to the phenomenon only AFO and OFA had . This is another reason why AFO had made sure his original quirk was inside Shigaraki. This is main reason why no other villain could ever attempt to escape Tartarus, the most important thing was a coordinated attack, which wouldn’t be possible with a single quirk, no matter how dangerous.
As the first user had stated before , AFO is doing the same thing he always did, manipulating people. By granting them freedom from Tartarus; the most secure facility , he gained an army of the most dangerous criminals .
Over here we can see despite saying to Shigaraki that he is the next him, he keeps saying about how he is the greatest Demon Lord. Being immortal gave him a major god complex, where he believes nothing can stop him. Even if the other villains had escaped out of Tartarus, crossing the sea would be a dangerous task, which would kill them. Villains coordination wouldn’t be possible, but since AFO has years of experience , his overwhelming malice and power would allow him to control them and create more pawns.
I’ve always had a head cannon that Toshinori is a very emotional person. Like when he was a kid he would sob at the drop of a hat just like Izuku. Telling him a sad story or seeing a puppy/kitten would make him tear up and sniffle.
When he met Nana she found it cute, but would gently try to get him to control his emotions better, “Nobody’s going to want to be saved by someone who’s snot-nosed crying! Instead, try to smile, show them there’s nothing to be scared about!” Gran Torino was much harsher, demeaning him whenever he let the control over his emotions slip. He was trying, but he was still young. When Nana died, Toshinori found it even more difficult not to break down at things that reminded him of her throughout the day.
Gran Torino used him as his own personal punching bag, beating the feelings right out of him. It was easier that way, to hurt physically than emotionally. When Grant Torino sent him to America, he made a promise to himself, that no matter how terrible things got, no matter what horrors he’d see, he wouldn’t cry. The people deserved someone who could be positive, a Symbol that there was still hope. He learned to stuff his emotions down, only showing the bright smile that made everyone feel safe, and hiding everything else.
He had almost perfected it, always smiling, always positive, the kind of guy everyone wants to be around, until he met Izuku. The snot nose kid reminded him of himself at that age, and those emotions that he held so strongly below the surface started trying to make their appearance again. Perhaps out of fear, and as he was taught, Toshinori tried to reason with Izuku to hide his tears, man up, like he had to. “Seriously! You gotta stop crying so much if you want my quirk! Come on, kid.” It’s too dangerous to feel. If you have to, keep it inside. Don’t let anyone see that you’re not as perfect as you pretend to be.
But Toshinori found the control over his emotions slipping. His entire life was changing and he could nothing to stop it. He couldn’t save anyone anymore, more of a burden than a hero now. The constant ache of being helpless, along with the pain ever steady in his side grew more and more overwhelming.
Kamino hit, and Toshinori found the control over his emotions slipping. Everything he knew was over. He couldn’t find it in himself to even smile. What was the point anymore. No one would find his corpse-like face comforting. But when he saw his boy running to him, he was filled with a joy that, maybe he was doing something right. Izuku was still alive, he didn’t engage in a fight with AFO like he feared. Telling the boy that he was proud of him words he missed from Nana, and wished he could have heard from Gran Torino he could feel his voice wavering, embracing his boy the best he could with his broken body. And when Izuku clings back, like he had feared he may never have gotten see his mentor alive again, it painfully reminded Toshinori of the day he lost his own. Emotions overflowing, and frustrated with himself, he allowed his tears to fall.
“What’d I say about keeping your word, you little crybaby?
I thought we agreed that you’d stop it with the waterworks.”
I always felt Toshinori was very numb, emotionally dull, especially in his Small Might form. He’s been drained, granted, but more than that, he’s put up a front for so many years, that it’s most likely a bit of relief to not have to constantly outwardly appear happy handsome, as he may believe. But I believe the years from constantly smiling has imprinted on him to the point he constantly bears his teeth. Though with his excessive weight loss, the grin that used to bring joy to millions, now looks like painfilled grimace. And perhaps that’s fitting.
Besides showing an occasional grin or that silly side that everyone loved All Might for, he’s very emotionless now. I believe he’s emotionally detached, allowing himself not to be happy 24/7, but still keeping himself from outwardly expressing his negative feelings. Nobody wants to see how messed up, how damaged you are.
Doesn’t help that now his own body is forcing him to remain in a calm state. In one of the only instances we see All Might actually excited about something, his body appears unable to take the emotional strain.
And he’s forced to go back to a calmer state.
Again here he only transforms into his muscle form, only flexing his muscles, and again his body resists it.
And you can practically see the self-hate in his expression at his body’s weakness.
In the few instances he’s actually allowed himself to cry, it’s been brief, as if he’s still holding back, resisting the emotion as much as he physically can. Once the floodgates open, I fear they may never stop.
Toshi is not a bad teacher, he gave Izuku what none of the other teachers did-- commitment, patience, and even though it was extremely difficult for him after life as All Might, emotional connection. Was he able to guide him through the steps of using OfA? No, but he guided Izuku through the steps of figuring it out. The quirk *fundamentally changed* when it passed to Izu, EVERYTHING is uncharted waters. Toshi gave Izuku endless persistence, effort, and support. Exactly what the kid needed most.
(this was meant as an unpopular opinion thing right, sorry it took so long lol)
ok this made me so emo i had to share it with some friends who encouraged me to absolutely go off and so, i present:
alright i will not act like toshinori is a god at teaching in the traditional sense, but lmao he did start training izuku + working at ua with no prior teaching experience and he's clearly making a serious effort to get better at it so honestly fight me he's doing amazing
i won't jump into manga territory but as you said anon, izuku's experience with OFA is something completely new to both of them; toshinori ultimately has little idea of how to help izuku, OFA is practically a whole new quirk now that he has it. (coughs awkwardly) they're both confused together and toshinori is trying the best he can with what they've been given. he admittedly didn't do a ton to help izuku control OFA in the first few seasons, but we see during the festival arc especially that he is putting the whole "devoting myself to raising you" thing into practice, and when they first started training he even made izuku his detailed, personalized training plan!
and as you said anon, toshinori was the First Person to tell izuku he could become a hero. inko obviously loves her son more than anything, but she ultimately didn't wholeheartedly support him in his dream, something izuku suffered heavily for. izuku was constantly bullied by his peers and neglected by teachers who enabled their behavior, leading to being A. a social wreck and B. severely mistrusting of adults.
not counting inko, toshinori was the First Person to ever give him what he'd been denied his entire life: genuine love and support. the first person to listen to him, care about him, support him, and see him as much of anything at all. toshinori may be kind of a mess of a teacher, practically, but he has the most important aspect down: give your student all the love and support they will ever need
Major spoilers for the manga below, I can't hide them on phone so just close your eyes and scroll ig
Post-raid-arc will be centered around the crumbling hero society due mainly to the numerous failures involved with the raid as well as the information Dabi revealed about Endeavor, this as far as I'm aware has been more or less confirmed.
It's also confirmed that a Tartarus prison break WILL happen, though currently it isn't clear who will escape other than AFO. One obvious candidate is Kurogiri.
But I have a mounting suspicion that in the chaos of the nomu attack on Tartarus, many more villains will escape. I could easily see All For One trying to amass an army (as he did in his prime) consisting of many currently unknown Tartarus villains (alongside the possible use of known villains such as Muscular and Moonfish)
Overhaul is another one very likely to escape, though it's unclear how him interacting with All For One would go, and whether he would be willing to join him.
But more importantly:
I am here to give my two cents on the possibility of a Stain Return Arc/sub-arc.
It would be weird to have a Tartarus prison break without at least mentioning everyone's favourite hero killer, and I have my suspicions that he may play a larger role in what's to come.
Currently, the remaining league members consist of entirely people who were brought in by a belief in or obsession with Chizome Akaguro, aka Stain's ideology.
Currently, AFO is in control of Shigaraki's body, and we can assume that whether or not he allows Shigaraki to have his body back, All For One plans to remain in control of everything. Spinner has already shown a dislike for AFO's actions, being distressed by the fact that he abandoned Toga and Mr Compress. All For One is also Shigaraki's abuser, and anyone can see that Spinner cares deeply (and pretty gayly, let's not lie to ourselves) about Shigaraki. I doubt AFO assuming control will go down well with our remaining crew, if not because of Shigaraki's wellbeing, then because All for One serves as a more tyrannical leader. Anyone on his side is his puppet, unlike Shigaraki, who outside of Important events generally allowed the league to do as they please.
Along with Midoriya's interest in saving Shigaraki from All for One, I believe Spinner, Toga (and possibly Dabi, though how he will react to AFO is less clear given current events) will split off from All for One, and join Stain. Though Toga initially only liked Stain because of her admiration and desire to kill him, I believe her current disillusion with heroes (after her conversation with Uraraka) puts her further in line with Stain's philosophy. She has matured a lot very fast, and I believe she may be more interested in Stain's cause alongside Spinner, who would join Stain with the hope of taking down All for One and saving Shigaraki.
The reason I believe Stain is the perfect candidate for this position is because of his he interacts with the heroes. Stain hates heroes, and villains without a purpose equally, and has killed many of both in the past. Very few heroes have passed his ideals, with one exception being Midoriya. The reason this is important is because I very much doubt we'll ever see a villain group allied with the heroes, but Stain is the closest we can come to that WITHOUT it being an alliance, as he is the only villain with ideals that would cause him to help Midoriya in a climactic final fight.
Other events which could be set off by Stain are things such as a possible attempted assassination on Hawks by Toga, who's emotions are currently a Chekhov's gun type deal, as she is too angry and too distraught for it not to lead to anything. Whether she succeeds in killing Hawks or not doesn't matter.
Secondly, and far more importantly in my opinion is that Spinner, Toga (and again, possibly Dabi) will likely want to save Me Compress. You may be quick to think that it would be uncharacteristic for Stain to agree to help in this endeavour, but I would like you to take a look at these following images.
Oji Harima, Compress' great grandfather, and Chizome Akaguro share an all-too-coincidental resemblance. As far as facial shape and smile go, I would go so far as to argue Stain better resembles Oji than Mr Compress does.
The two of them also share very similar ideals, with Oji's purpose having been to steal from heroes he deemed fake, and Stain's being to kill the same. It could be that the similarity between these ideals is only to make Stain's influence over Compress make more sense, but I believe there's a possibility that Stain IS related to Oji Harima, and by extent, Mr Compress, and that Stain's philosophy after being beaten and disfigured by Knuckleduster is a twisted adoption of Oji Harima's.
In conclusion, I believe it's possible that after escaping Tartarus, Stain will be joined by Spinner, Toga and maybe Dabi, after which a familial connection to Mr Compress will be revealed, leading to the Stain splinter group stealing our favourite handsome masked bastard back from the heroes.
"my child is fine" your child's favorite trope is a tough old warrior who could kill a man with their bare hands in over a hundred different ways grudgingly adopting a small reckless child they grow to love and protect with their dying breath
I worked in HR, handling applications and interviews, and if someone turned in that string of techno babble nonsense, I would have rejected them out of hand.
A resume doesn’t need to sound fancy or overly technical, it needs to tell us why we should hire you.
“Independent novelist/writer” is more than sufficient here. If you want to express the skills that fan fiction taught you, something like, “creative writing, editing, and publication,” will get you a lot further than… Whatever that just was.
A resume should be tailored to the position, if you can afford the time and energy for that. But if not, then just think about what writing got fandom taught you. How to respond to criticism, how to present a professional pubic face, how to correct punished mistakes, creative thinking, project planning, persuasion via emotional leverage, html formatting, office suite fluency.
There are a lot of actual, marketable skills that go into fan fiction.
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