[man-i-dont-know]

BNHA Chapter 189 and 190: Thoughts and Spoilers

Alright, these chapters are really hard for me to write for some reason and I’ve edited a lot and eventually deleted it and restarted it. So hopefully this time I can do it. Let’s get right into it. ((warning, if you hate Endeavor with a passion be aware that I speak of him in an almost positive tone, I certainly don’t like him but I can’t help but get hyped up during fights. If you don’t think you’d want to read that, you can read my second to last paragraph or skip over it entirely then make your decision later))

Endeavor, even though he seemed like he was down for the count, bursts into life and continues his fight with High End, but is still losing overwhelmingly as he gets tossed like a sac of potatoes.

Of course all this is being televised, which I can’t imagine how difficult it is to fight for your life and many other people’s life while all your actions are being recorded. That isn’t the point I want to make though, what I am getting at is that the Todoroki’s (minus the mother) are watching this all happen live. Natsu wants him to give up, but the sister (Rei I think?), says that Endeavor isn’t the type to give up. I really like these comments it shows that two people who have had very similar life experiences can have totally different opinions through subtle differences in perception. Natsu wants Endeavor to give up because they both know he can’t be All Might, and because he can’t be All Might lead Endeavor to abusing his family. Rei sees this completely differently because she saw the abuse they suffered as Endeavor continuing the fight to surpass All Might. Rei’s perception is that Endeavor is horrible at quitting while her brother sees the same individual as someone self-conscious and unstable enough to abuse his family. I think the fine points of perception is incredibly interesting and subtly different understandings is something that feels entirely human.

News people are recording the incident and they are showing the pure panic in the streets, and even Tokoyami, who is watching from UA is stunned by the sheer chaos. Among that chaos however, a voice rose up and said something that I had been feeling. It’s the kid Endeavor tried to act approachable to, and the kid shouted something along the lines of, “why are you despairing when the fight is still going? Just because their is no symbol of peace doesn’t mean there isn’t anyone for us. Endeavor is still alive and kicking, watch him.” This is something that was really bothering me, this series is all about progression and growing as a person. Every character is growing and improving themselves, but since All Might retired, the media is casting the world as something that can’t be saved anymore and is fragile. Don’t get me wrong, the Kamino Incident was a massive turning point in the story and in the world, but hanging up on what we don’t have crushes any hope we may have for the future. The kid yelling at the camera is 100% right, and I really appreciate that, he is telling the reader and the characters that tragedy has occurred but sulking isn’t going to do anything. He even says something like “spewing crap... now’s not the time,” he is a bit rough about it, but sadness does have it’s time in a tragedy, but not when it impairs the future.

Endeavor is chasing High End down, propelling himself purely through flame-force cause he can no longer move. Endeavor is pushing himself beyond his limits, which is interesting because Hawks has an inner monologue about his impression of Endeavor. Endeavor was always the number two with a massive gap between him and All Might, and while every other hero was content with the space between them and the symbol of peace, Endeavor was not. Endeavor had an impossible goal and was jeered at and ridiculed, but he kept trying to surpass All Might. This inspired Hawks to be a hero as well. remarkably, this is the third person who saw Endeavor trying to bridge that gap and their reaction to it. It was this chapter where the weight of the name “Endeavor” hit me fully, which is stupid cause someone had already explained it to me but it just now clicked. I like Hawks, he wasn’t impressed with perfection, but instead inspired by the man who continued to work towards it despite knowing he would never truly accomplish his goal.

The next chapter starts mid strike with sentences that High End, Endeavor, and Hawks had said framed in a way to compare and contrast them easily. Both High End’s and Endeavor’s are about how they want to be the most powerful, whereas Hawks’ is his comment on how his back isn’t broad enough to comfort people. I like this bit, but it was a little confusing reading it at first and I think they lay it on a little thick later in the chapter.

With Hawk’s feathers to speed up Endeavor’s attacks, Endeavor slams a flaming fist down High End’s throat. Of course High End can recover fast enough that he can still thrash around and fly. Upon Endeavor calling out, Hawks pushes the two of them up into the sky so Endeavor can fight freely. Since they are now both very visible, The cameras get a good view of the fight. The Todoroki’s can see Endeavor again, and Shoto yells at the screen that “he’s watching.”

This is where I think the comparison is a little heavy handed, but on their way up Endeavor verbalizes that High End perhaps was like him or would be like him if he went down the wrong path (since they both strive for strength). In full view of the world, Endeavor very nearly sets the whole sky on fire, yelling to himself “Plus Ultra,” even though he never did like that motto. It looks like a comet is streaking its way to the Earth with how powerful this blast was. High End and Endeavor fall out of the sky.

As they crash, two minor heroes catch Endeavor, and as the smoke clears the world sees Endeavor striking All Might’s pose over the charred body of High End. All Might has a complex expression, but my guess is that he feels relief that Endeavor won, relief that the enemy was defeated, shock that Endeavor made a gesture that honors All Might’s fight and worry about Endeavor’s well being (whether that is physical well being or emotional well being for fighting with few peoples’ support/confidence or both). Shoto even was relieved and nearly collapsed upon seeing Endeavor standing victorious.

Hawks is surprised that Endeavor took All Might’s pose, but Endeavor claims that he used his other arm, and I am more than a bit hopeful that the “other arm victory stance” becomes an honorary thing heroes in the future do. Endeavor is critical with himself and is quite upset with his number one hero debut. Before any medical help or anything like that happens, someone appears, and who else but Dabi makes a surprise appearance. The fact he says “nice to meet you,” makes me think that he hasn’t met Endeavor before (or it could just be Dabi being a little turd which is also possible). We should know for sure next week.

That wraps up the chapter content, but there are more than I couple things that I want to talk about in these chapters. I want to talk about the Rei and Natsu dynamic, the artwork of chapter 190, and the status of Endeavor’s redemption arc.

I love how Rei and Natsu talk to each other and it took a lot of thinking as to why, but the reason I eventually settled on is that they remind me of myself and my sibling. I like their dynamic because it reminds me of an actual family dynamic, because I don’t think families in stories are handled like an actual family (with some exceptions of course). What struck me is that they feel like siblings, they are strikingly similar yet strikingly different. My sibling and I are similar in the fact that we are both pretty goofy with people we feel comfortable around, however that goofiness is expressed differently, I just dumb stuff with a straight face to get a laugh while my sibling just acts goofy (and highly annoying in my opinion but that’s fine), in short, I am a goofy introvert and they are a goofy extrovert. The similar trait I see in both Natsu and Rei is that they are both very mellow and generally happy people. When Rei teased Natsu about having a girlfriend he gets a little comical but says that it’s fine isn’t? Which in my opinion is a very relaxed and open response to being put on the spot. In Rei’s case, she has shown her mellow side by not getting worked up when Endeavor threw his fit after All Might retired. Rei seems like a soothing personality while Natsu seems like a buddy, both of them I would describe as mellow, quiet, or relaxed. I don’t know how it works for other families, but the relation between the siblings struck me as natural due to is familiarity.

Moving on to the artwork. Unfortunately, the artwork in chapter 190 confused me and still does in one panel. A friend and I were both confused on our first read through, and it was only after my third that I really figured out what I was looking at in some cases. What threw me is Endeavor’s absolute desperation to fight that he doesn’t seem to fight with the dignity I would have thought he would fight with. Not that I think he has dignity, but he probably believes he does. What he did that confused me was that he wrapped his whole body around High End’s head, he’s got High End in a leg lock, his arm is down High End’s mouth, and Endeavor’s free arm is wrapped around the head as well. So what confused me was the sheer twistyness I suppose? the complexity of the situation? With the importance of the fight I was a bit disappointed with the confusing panels, but know that I know what I am looking at I can really appreciate it.

Finally, and most importantly, Endeavor’s status in his redemption arc. I saw a lot of backlash for the most recent chapter, and I want to throw my opinion into the fray. It seems to me that people are pissed that Endeavor is getting forgiven so easily, and I want to say yes and no to that. I think I am going to make a totally separate post about this more in depth because I really want to take more care about this subject than one paragraph, but here is the short simple version: I don’t think anyone has really forgiven him yet. The reason why there is so much excitement and support for this character is because it is an action scene that has major implications in this setting. Endeavor’s loss would destroy almost all hope in the heroes that All Might took his entire career to build up. This is precisely what the League of Villains want and letting them essentially win would be atrocious. We as readers also know that we don’t have a back up if Endeavor loses because Hawks is aware of his role as a rescue and support hero rather than a hero with strength to put people at ease. Endeavor, whether we like it or not is someone that must be relied upon until new heroes come into play or until the villains are arrested. High stakes in a fight is thrilling to read, this coupled with the fact that the author used our hate of the character to paint him someone as lesser and then pitting him into a fight he shouldn’t win at all. With our decreased expectations and the strength of the threat, the readers trapped ourselves into painting an underdog picture.While I still think that no one has really forgave him, the scene was set to be truly thrilling if it was any other character, but since he is so widely hated we think we shouldn’t support him in the fight at all.

So that’s it, I apologize because my thoughts are literally everywhere and that was probably a journey to follow my thought process. So more so than my other posts I am incredibly grateful that you read it and stuck with my ramblings. Thank you for reading and have a great day.

[man-i-dont-know]

BNHA Chapter 188: Thoughts and Spoilers

Hey so I am actually doing an analysis on a single chapter! I couldn’t stop thinking about this chapter and all its major implications, so I am gonna get my thoughts down. Let’s get right into it.

Endeavor dices up a building and hawks manages to catch most the debris so that it doesn’t hit anyone. I think this immediate exchange is highly important because it is solidifying the “power ceiling,” in terms of both power and dexterity. This power ceiling is a counter to the infamous “power creep” that can destroy stories. If you don’t know either of those terms, here is the watered down version: authors/writers of action series will sometimes throw new and stronger villains at the protagonist just to make a new and challenging obstacle. This becomes an issue when every new villain is stronger than the last, meaning the later story is almost totally different than early story (think how Naruto started off as ninja skills and ended with God fights across realities). A “power ceiling” counters this by showing the strongest people in the world early in the series, setting the bar as to what the end game is. Our first power ceilings were with All Might vs the Sludge villain then later with a much more accurate ceiling with All Might vs All for One (even then neither were in their prime). The only issue with that is that All Might and All for One are kinda categories of their own, so the cool thing of seeing Endeavor and Hawks fight High End is we now see what would be considered “Normal” Top Hero worthy, cause not everyone can be All Might. Another thing is now we see is what “quirk strength” looks like, cause All Might was pretty simple with brute force, but seeing Endeavor and Hawks use their quirks in intelligent and skillful ways is something we have not seen in the strongest people around (All for One mentioned stockpiling simple and powerful quirks as his forte).

Some small time heroes jump in to help but end up annoying High End who in turn, releases a hoard of regular Nomu it had stored in its body, making 6 quirks in a single intelligent and rationally individual. Hawks turns his attention to keeping civilians safe and containing all the loose Nomu, but even his feather swords can’t seem to kill the standard ones quickly, meaning he lacks general firepower (not surprising).

Endeavor has an inner monologue about how strong his opponent is, how it is strategizing and intelligent. He also reflects on his own weaknesses, on how his quirk puts his body at danger by raising his body temperature drastically, which in turn is why he married Rei and had the children he did, in hopes that they can do what Todoroki can do, keep his body temperature in check. I think its interesting that weaknesses and strengths of quirks are so directly genetic, I mean it makes sense but the thought process feels similar to breeding Pokemon for specific stat. Unfortunately High End picks up on this weakness immediately, which I would not have got unless it was explained to me, thanks helpful monologue.

High End rushes in and Endeavor sets the whole sky on fire. Too bad for him, High End rips his own head off and throws it to get out of range of the fire blast, which makes me think that High End has more than regeneration (maybe a lot of regeneration but come on this is extreme). High End’s counter attack strikes Endeavor in two places: the stomach and the eye/left side of his face (our right side), mirroring Todoroki’s eye scar and All Might’s stomach scar. The thing is that this is being televised, all of the Todoroki’s see this, All Might, Aizawa, Mic, Thirteen see it too, as well as Deku, Momo, Kirishima, and Kaminari. Everyone is emotional to an extent, seeing Endeavor scarred, bloody, missing an eye, defeated at the foot of the enemy. And it is this that I want to talk about so desperately.

Assuming that Endeavor doesn’t stand up in the next chapter, this is disastrous on a lot of different levels. For starters, Endeavor was named the No. 1 hero literally yesterday, and I don’t need to remind you all that Endeavor is not a source of trust and reassurance for the public. If Endeavor is defeated on his first full day on the job, not only will trust in him plummet, but also trust in heroes in general. Regardless of the source of High End, this is a win for Shigaraki and the League of Villains. Beyond the impact this will have on society’s mental state and the impact this defeat will have on heroes everywhere, there is also the personal impact that everyone who knows him is currently going through. Yes I understand that the Todoroki’s have every right to want this to fall upon Endeavor, but it isn’t that simple. I personally think that saying someone should go die is one thing, but seeing it happen on live television in front of your own eyes is something entirely different. The man they hate nearly had his skull cracked and was nearly was gutted, like damn, few people would have the stomach to watch that at all, much less people who know Endeavor personally.

All Might is sympathetic and worried, gripping his own scar, possibly foreshadowing medical complications for Endeavor. Deku, Momo, and Kirishima all turn to Todoroki (Kaminari doesn’t turn, which lead to some traitor theories but that another can of worms) to see how he is reacting to all of this, and he is conflicted to say the least. Todoroki’s mother is watching this alone in her room, and the brother and sister are watching this in the back of a car, no one is happy. I doubt that Endeavor will die here, his character has too much to do, but this event will be a major turning point on his character, it gives him a reason to make drastic changes. I argued in my last post that I like subtlety, but at this point, subtlety is out the window and many chances of major reformation in his public life and private life have presented themselves. But I wouldn’t like using this event as his “everything reason”, he is gonna have to face his family problems head on with no reference at all to his injury, because if he does then he is turning it back on himself, which is the last thing that is needed in an apology. Basically, this is the consensus among the fans is “I’m happy to see you busted up but you’ve got too much story importance to die right now.”

And I said earlier “regardless of source” because who sent High End was covered in shadow, which is an odd move considering we already know everyone in the League (unless there is a new guy), and I’ve seen people speculate that it was Dabi who sent High End, which is also possible if the Dabi = Todoroki theory is true. My question though is who has the knowledge to make the Nomu? When Shigaraki wanted one, he asked All for One, suggesting that the production of Nomu were not something he had control of, control could have switched hands when All for One was jailed however. Then there is the resemblance that this Nomu has with Kurogiri, which doesn’t make sense to me because over time Shigaraki has cared for his comrades more and more, so doing something like that to a friend/babysitter really doesn’t make sense. Plus isn’t Kurogiri in jail at the moment? I don’t know, the whole High End thing is really convoluted at the moment.

That is about it from me, I started writing this yesterday and fell asleep so I kinda lost my train of thought, but I am pretty sure I hit every topic I wanted to hit. I am pretty sure I covered everything, but if there is something missing, feel free to comment or ask and I will address anything I missed. Thank you for taking your time to read this and I hope you have a great day.

Edit: Todoroki's mom is not watching Endeavor, she is reading Shoto's letters. That is a fairly big mistake and I apologize, that's kinda an important distinction to make. But my thought still stands, I don't think she would be happy seeing this unfold.

[man-i-dont-know]

BNHA Chapter 186- 187: Thoughts and Spoilers

Alright, so it is time to break down the last couple chapters. A lot of what has been happening has revolved around Endeavor, which is potentially very interesting. So with that, lets get right into it.

We start with a guy about to destroy the company he works for (he has a shame quirk which is horrifying to think about honestly) but is stopped short by a super casual Hawks. Hawks is walking with Endeavor and Endeavor seems genuinely impressed with how swiftly Hawks is handling everything around him and how casually he does all of it. Endeavor even has a couple of panels that reminds me of the art style in One Punch Man, which is an interesting decision to make. Making Endeavor look simple, straight forward, and likable despite everything we know about him. This simple art style really drives home the fact that we are getting a redemption arc now. Hawks draws a crowd of fans and some excited onlookers want to approach Endeavor but are too nervous, which is ruined by Endeavor trying to be approachable.

While they are eating, Hawks explains why “approachable” won’t work for him. I find this dynamic really interesting because it could develop into something where Hawks is kinda schooling Endeavor on behavior and attitude, which Hawks has nailed of course, but it would be an interesting challenge because what works for Hawks certainly won’t work for Endeavor. I am not totally sure how his personality will have to change so that the public approves of him, but I feel that the change has to be subtle, like going from unapproachable to... something more like how I imagine Todoroki with his friends? Like that one scene where Sero imagined Todoroki’s extra training as a dance party, Todoroki didn’t really react or deny or anything. Endeavor would have a distinctly different feeling than Todoroki’s lack of social skill, like the one fan in this chapter said, it would be a lone wolf type vibe. Now I say this, but I don’t like comparing the two, but since the are related, they are going to have some commonalities, how they deal with social settings could be similar. I only half believe this could happen, if the public approves of Endeavor it will most likely happen because he handles a big villain plus acting very out of character, I suppose I just prefer subtlety.

They finally get to the core of their meeting, saying that there are rumors about Nomus all over the country and how they could be no real backing to these rumors, they also talk about how the villain that was going to destroy his work place may be influenced by a villain’s autobiography, and all of this seems to go back to one thing. Hawks sees these rumors as the mental state of the country, fear, paranoia, and the adaption of villainous ideals all comes from the retirement of All Might, and Hawks wants Endeavor to become a reliable number one hero so that these rumors subside and people turn away from villainy and paranoia. Hawks wants a world where there is no need for heroes to do their work, since everyone and everything is already peaceful and peachy. Also Hawks straight up admits that his ideal day is going for a walk then smoking a joint and sitting at home, truly someone the hip cool kids can relate too.

Then the worst case scenario occurs, High End Nomu appears out of the sky. It seems to be able to modify its own body to the point that it can grow wings. Endeavor socks it hard in the gut and Hawks leads the evacuation.

At a hospital, several Todoroki’s are meeting up, the mom, the daughter and the second eldest son (who is named Natsu, and since that is the name of that guy from Fairy Tail I wonder if it is related to fire, even though he says he is sensitive to heat). The family dynamic seems very happy and loving, until Natsu bring up the elephant in the room, saying Endeavor is the number one hero but he is still beyond forgiving. Despite this, the mother sees that his redemption arc is occurring, which is solidified with the fact that Endeavor sent flowers to the room, flowers that she only ever told him she liked once, ten years ago. He is making an effort, they have not met face to face yet, but he is trying, and my guess is that he won’t do anything to try to redeem himself until he can meet her in person. Which I find respectable cause apologizing through someone else or through letter or through a phone call feels a bit flimsy when your talking about something as severe as abuse.

Back to the High End vs Endeavor fight, we see that not only is High End capable of speech, but it seems to have a personality as well. It walks off the first strike and is seemingly mocking Endeavor’s strength. The next attack High End manages to dodge through some contortion and counters. With Endeavor’s body, High End cuts the building in half, forcing Hawks to focus up and start the evacuation. Endeavor realizes that he is straight up outmatched. Hawks on the other hand pulls off an amazing feat of skill where he is able to transport everyone in the building and surrounding area to somewhere safe. This is not how I thought his quirk would be used, I just thought they were wings but he can control each feather individually and detach and reattach the feathers to his wings at will. Hawks is so skilled with this that his wings are small only for a very brief period of time and get back to full size almost immediately, which goes to show how skilled he is with the manipulation of the feathers and how successful his evacuation was. With evacuation completed, Endeavor and Hawks team up to nearly cut off High End’s head, to which he only grins. This Nomu is crazy resilient and honestly I am not sure how it is going to be stopped. (I am also really glad that my prediction that High End is way too dangerous for the UA kids to take on was correct, it also sets a really high bar for Endeavor and other heroes about possible villain strengths)

These last couple chapters are super interesting to me, I am curious to see how the author handles a redemption arc for a character so thoroughly hated by the fans. I am also interested to see how the Endeavor-Hawks dynamic develops. On a side note, I think I opened my ask, I don’t really know what that means but I can guess. I don’t really know how to direct you to it either so I apologize if that makes things complicated. Hopefully this will keep me a bit more active by answer questions or just discussing ideas in some way. Alright, and that is about it, thank you for reading and I hope you guys have a good day.

[man-i-dont-know]

BNHA Chapter 183-185: Thoughts and Spoilers

Aiight I’ll be honest, i had to go back and see how many chapters behind I was, summer got me in a funk. So if I did three whole chapters I would bore myself to death so I’ll be selective about what I talk about. With that said, let’s get into it.

The festival turned out great and while Deku was scolded it was only minor, which I am happy about because it shows that Deku made some of the best choices he could and the pros recognize that. Eri had a lot of fun (which is all that matters), the upperclassmen apologized, and the beauty pageant was won by Nejire (she was phenomenal, flying around like a fairy confirmed her victory). On top of all that, Deku somehow found time to make candied apples for Eri since the school wasn’t selling them. Anything with Eri is heartwarming.

Gentle and La Brava are being questioned, but is seems that the police officer that is interrogating Gentle is actually quiet understanding and hasn’t full condemned him as a criminal. Well like he obviously is a criminal but the officer is... sympathetic. Or at least not as hard as he could be. I really like this touch for a handful of reasons. A lot of series that deal with villains don’t exactly deal with them legally (a.k.a., beating the tar outta them), but when it is done, the outcome is essentially predetermined. What I’m getting at is that justice systems in action comics of any type are painfully rigid and or simplified so that the villain having been beat is a guarantee that they will be in prison forever and simply isn’t an issue anymore. I would give One Piece as an example for a rigid/simple justice system, but the only prison we have really seen has been broken into and out of so that doesn’t really apply. I suppose that the “jury” works for my example, meaning One Piece courts are really straight forward, just not really the actual containing of prisoners. So seeing Hero Academia put effort into  making the system seem much deeper and much more real is greatly appreciated (though I could argue that since there is more emphasis on it, the likelihood of something going wrong is much higher, like prison break theories that have floated around since when Stain was arrested).

Next chapter starts with the surprise announcement that Eri will be living at UA (dreams do come true). It is for public safety reasons but I will take it. Amajiki suggests that it is actually possible that with time, Mirio could make a return to the heroing world, but I think that statement will just get our hopes up so I am not listening to it at the moment. The Wild Wild Pussycats, plus Kouta, makes a surprise appearance and a handful of nice things occur. Tiger apologizes to Bakugou for not being able to prevent his kidnapping (Bakugou shrugs it off); Kouta is embarrassed but is already buying Deku merch (rockin’ red shoes); Ragdoll is still without a quirk, but will be taking a desk job to provide support; and the Pussycats are thrilled with how high their Billboard Hero chart ranking is and want to continue to work for their fans. Their is an ominous monologue that All for One gives in his prison cell, about wanting to get out to “give back” the quirks he stole (honestly, villain dialogue has so much potential when they can offer something nice and it still come off as a threat). Then we see the Top Ten Heroes. Almost all the familiar faces have some kinda costume upgrade which makes me wonder if that changing costumes just happens all the time or if it is a response to All Might retiring, though almost anything could be a result of All Might retiring. Dragon lady Ryukyu is there, Old Man Samurai has a rad design, there is a washing machine, Kamui Woods is 7th which surprised me, I didn’t realize he was that popular, there’s an aggressive rabbit lady, Edge Shot, Best Jeanist, Hawks and Endeavor.

The next chapter begins with a brief speech and each of the top ten are suppose to give their remarks. Hawks seems to be the restless type and is whispering to Endeavor before the introduction is over. Seeing he won’t get a response for the fire man, Hawks zips his lips shut (that motion struck me cause I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone else do that in a comic, besides the CP9 guy in One Piece but that is an extreme). The first handful of heroes give pretty generic speeches, with the exception of the Rabbit Girl who calls out all villains and that she is ready to beat the crap outta them. Hawks, now thoroughly bored/irritated, cuts off (unzips his lips cause they were still zipped from when he tried to talk to Endeavor) Edge Shot who is talking about conserving the peace, saying “Who cares?” Edge Shot isn’t surprised by this and the Rabbit Girl respects his guts to do that, Hawks then snatches the microphone and gives his own speech.

This speech kinda threw me for a loop and I had to think about it for a while, and my interpretation may be quite different from yours so bear with me. He starts off by saying that the most important thing right now is the approval ranking, which is only one of the factors that goes into this ranking system. He says we can no longer stick to the status quo, we can’t do things as we have before now that they are missing their symbol. He calls out the other heroes for not changing during this major transition period, he wants the heroes to act their part and talk like heroes. My interpretation from this is that the current hero system only worked because of All Might, and now that he ‘s gone, it can’t continue like this. That tied in with the fact that he favors approval ratings above all else, what I am guessing his goal is to change the public’s opinion of heroes in general and gain their support. He is already suggesting to do what the principal at UA is trying to accomplish, mass produce heroes in the absence of their symbol. Hawks goes a step beyond saying that the only way to win is if we have the approval rating of All Might among all of our heroes. He goes on later to say to Endeavor that he doesn’t want to be All Might nor does he want to be a leader, so the idea of trying to make a whole slew of heroes the symbol would make sense since if there is only one symbol, one hero falling brings all the peace with it. So that’s what I think he was getting at, we need the people to trust us again, but the current heroes aren’t doing anything to actually fill that gap (at the end of his speech the narrator comments that Hawks is 22 and rose to the top ten when he was only 18, which by then he had his own agency, the kid is a damn powerhouse and is funny but is arrogant as well).

Hawks hands the microphone over to a genuinely pissed Endeavor, who says that despite trying to stir up trouble, Hawks kinda had a point, and that all he has to say is “Just Watch Me.” But how he said it is filled with power and confidence and shook an audience who had been shook by a loud mouth bird man. Off stage Endeavor is pissed off and trying to get answers from Hawks, who laughingly said that he did what was necessary, shook things up, and set the stage for Endeavor. Hawks was actually quite impressed with how Endeavor handled the situation, and then asked a serious question. Hawks is having Nomu activity in his part of town and he wants Endeavor to team up and help out. The next scene is someone from the League of Villains talking to a Nomu named “High End” who is not only bigger and with a much more badass design, but is also intelligent and capable of understanding and replicating speech and taking orders. High End gets me so hyped up but also strikes fear into me because we know how powerful Nomus are, and this one is obviously much, much more dangerous. And that how the chapter ends.

I am purposefully leaving out discussion about the relation between Hawks and Icarus because by now you’ve probably seen it. This analysis really watered down Hawk’s character, but I do like him quite a bit, if he shows some genuine niceness, then he will become a fast favorite, I just worry his arrogance will be too much (again, Icarus). I would pay to see Tokoyami’s internship with Hawks cause I think Hawks would be chill with whatever edgy thing Tokoyami said but still have no real clue what he actually said. One last thing: I spoke with a friend about how some of the heroes don’t really seem to belong in the top ten (mainly the washing machine), but I look at it this way, ostracizing people in this universe doesn’t really occur because your quirk is “weird.” My case is that both of Tsuyu’s parents are straight up frogs, her friend is a snake with hair, trash grape boy is a trash grape boy and every hates him cause he’s a pervert and not because he is three foot flat with odd hair and a diaper, Sero has tape in his elbows, just to name a few. Our weird doesn’t really work in Hero Academia, so a washing machine in the top ten wouldn’t be strange if he has the credentials (I also said that Mister Clean is probably more famous than some sport stars, and that was the argument that convinced her so I’m not sure if my other one needs more work).

So that is it. Thank you for sticking to the end and reading all, some, or just parts of it, I write these just to get ideas out there and start conversations. Take what you want from my opinions and ideas if that will start a discussion. Again, thank you fro reading, and I hope you have a great day.

[man-i-dont-know]

BNHA Chapter 181 &182: Thoughts and Spoilers

Hey so this week’s and last week’s chapters had a little less meat on their bones so I am doing both now. The current arc is wrapping up (unless they go into more detail about the festival, which would be cool but might advance the plot if only marginally) which is why there was less content. With that aside, lets get right into it.

So Gentle surrendered and claimed that he brainwashed La Brava, which, with her personality would be easy enough to believe. Deku, after having been launched away, arrives back on the scene and then tries to downplay what happened for Gentle’s and La Brava’s sake. This is a great show of respect and understanding, maybe compassion is a better word for it.

The criminals were taken away and Ectoplasm escorted Deku back into town to get his supplies that he dropped (already learned that the main character needs to be supervised at all times). Everyone is nervous and running around, but Deku makes it back on time. Eri starts to smile.

Small flashback shows that Ectoplasm delivered Deku to the class but Ectoplasm tells Deku that he has to clean up otherwise he will worry everyone. Which I love, this is showing the core idea of who All Might was being reflected in other heroes. Be strong and don’t worry others, be reliable. I am very glad that this idea is used by other heroes besides All Might.

There are some seniors in the crowd who want to do exactly what Bakugou said, they want to be critical and blame Class 1-A for everything that is happening, Aizawa wonders how serious the class will take this performance. THen, the performance starts.

I genuinely hope that this gets animated at some point in the future, because this will be shocking and beautiful and be the high point of that season’s anime. I am disappointed with the fact this whole performance came out as sketches in a lot of places, but the story and energy are there. I won’t recap the performance because something like that needs to be read or experienced rather than spoken about. What I will say, is at the end, Eri is smiling. She is so incredibly happy. Mirio cries tears of joy seeing her laugh. The shadow of Chisaki is gone, maybe not forever, but at the moment, Eri is happy. She is enjoying a life that she should have had the whole time, and now she is shedding that weight of fear for today to be truly happy. I am so thrilled that we got to see Eri genuinely smile with Mirio as the witness. This was touching and I am glad I was able to read this as it happened.

So that is it. This one was short, part of the reason why I smushed two together. I might change up how I handle this blog sometime in the future, but for now, I will continue to write my thoughts on Hero Academy. Thank you all so much for taking your time to read this, and I hope you have a great day.

[man-i-dont-know]

BNHA Chapter 179 & 180: Thoughts on Gentle and Brava

Ok, I thought I would be three weeks behind but I realized that Golden Week is occurring in Japan so I was granted another week thankfully. I truly apologize for how late my thoughts have been coming, I have been really busy. That should now change and I should be more on top of weekly posts. I will change how this one is structured though. This one will just be about Gentle and La Brava (plus I realized that my excessively long posts could be shortened if I don’t just reread the chapter to y’all). Alright, so with that said, lets get right into it.

I want to address something that a friend of mine was concerned about and prevented her from really getting into the last couple chapters despite how emotional they were. La Brava’s age. Undeniably, she is young, and the relationship between Gentle and La Brava can be worrying. So here is my guess: in one of La Brava’s flashbacks, she was in Junior High when she had her heartbroken. The next scene was her in a dark rook with a year book, and since I am unfamiliar with how her particular school ran, it could have been either that same year she had her heart broken, or two years later (my high school was slack on year books until you were a senior, you got them, but they came a summer late). So I would like to think that she was at least high school age during that portion of her life. After a brief Google search about Japanese high schools, that would put her at about 16. Who knows how long she was a shut in and who knows how long it took her to work up the courage to meet Gentle one-on-one. That possibly could add a year or so to her age (assuming she never went to high school). Then there is always the fact that after they meet, more time passed before present day. I feel like they gave us that number but I missed it. So my guess is that she is at least 18, which even though she is an adult, Gentle is still a lot older. Now that I’ve vaguely determined La Brava’s age, I want to talk about their dynamic together.

I mentioned in a previous post that I do not see their relationship as something physically intimate. I think that La Brava idolizes Gentle like a fan idolizes a celebrity. I believe that La Brava loves Gentle like someone would love an idea, his presence, who he is, and what he stands for, that is what she loves. The issue with this is La Brava has been proven in the most recent chapter and in previous chapters to be highly obsessive and more than a little dependent. So when La Brava saw all the traits that she admired in a person, she failed to realize that it was the traits themselves that she loved and instead related all those traits to a single person, Gentle. Gentle on the other hand is desperate for something very specific.

He wants his name to be known, but he does not want to be known for something bad. Keep in mind he wanted to be a hero, and still fancies himself to be either a Robin Hood or an anti-hero, someone doing the right thing but maybe not in the right way. He did not cut it as a hero, so what he did instead is set himself to be a historical figure where people would say, “well, he had a point.” His drive is to not be forgotten and to be associated with something good. So when La Brava showed up on his door saying that she was a fan, the only logical next step was for Gentle to form a bond with her. Gentle may be a little wack, but he holds himself to a high standard, so I believe that his opinion of La Brava is someone to deeply cherish. My best comparison for this would be a publisher or director agreeing to look at your work and approving it wholeheartedly, especially if that work was rejected by many others. I see the two of them as emotionally dependent upon each other, not anything illegal or promiscuous.

Now about the Gentle’s drive. Honestly, I can fully relate. He fears being forgotten and being someone that seemingly has no value on history. When I was younger I had similar fears which I have since grown out of for the most part (I am now content living a life that brings myself personal happiness and contentment, which is kinda the reason I run this blog, cause I want to and it makes me happy). Gentle wanting to be remembered is totally understandable and the fact that he went so far as to fight Deku when even La Brava thought it was a bad idea to continue just emphasizes his desperation for accomplishment and recognition.

You also see La Brava’s desperation to save Gentle. I empathize real easy, so if I were Deku in that situation, I probably would have gotten off of Gentle is she was going that crazy (I’d like to think I wouldn’t, but that scene was real emotional when I first saw it). Then Gentle did something on the spur of the moment that I think really deserves to be remembered. He knocked Deku off his back, sent him far enough away that the teachers could not see him and turned himself in. He did all of this to mask the fight in hopes to lighten the punishment for La Brava. He could have let Deku turn him in, he was beaten, but he went the extra mile to save La Brava harsh punishment. Making the fight at all also seals Gentle’s fate as a criminal and as someone who will not make history. He gave up his dream to save Brava and I think that was a classy move on his part.

Now here is some speculation. It was not a classy move on Gentle’s part. I have already seen people speculating that La Brava will get a light punishment and then immediately turn and commit much more serious crimes not that she had Gentle taken from her. This may lead to The League of Villains gaining a highly capable hacker, which will add to the danger they present many-fold. The only hope of this is if Gentle specifically tells La Brava to not turn down a darker path, because even he thought that his arrest will have some seriously negative affects on her psyche.

Alright, those are my thoughts. Thank you for taking the time to read this post, it ended up being long despite changing the typical content. It was more about their dynamic over a handful of chapters, so if I continue like this consistently, then they should shorten naturally(?). Anyway, thank you for reading and have a great day.

[man-i-dont-know]

BNHA Chpater 177 & 178: Thoughts and Spoilers

Alright, I really haven’t been meaning to do these double chapter reviews, but I’ve been busy. Unfortunately I will remain busy for the next 3-4 weeks. I will try to get out posts of manageable size or possibly just post more diverse content but I’ll figure that out later. For now, let’s get right into these chapters.

Old man with awesome, blocky character design saw the tail end of the accident and is surprisingly chill with it. La Brava tries to throw him off by saying they are just filming something (with a land of quirks, minor explosions could legitimately just be written off as something normal). Despite this, La Brava knows the ruse won’t last long and wants Gentle to retreat. Deku and Gentle are in a “stand” off in the construction site, and they strike up a conversation. Gentle still wants to continue with the operation and Deku wants to know what he plans to do. La Brava eventually gets there and believes that Gentle is “begging for his life.” As the conversation geos on, Gentle just digs himself a bigger hole while trying to barter his way out of the situation. I say that like he is putting in genuine effort but really he’s saying “nah we won’t ruin the festival, we’ll get in without setting off the alarms and everyone wins.” When they realize neither side will budge, the fight really begins.

Gentle makes the whole construction site elastic, and is bouncing around so erratically that Deku can’t predict how Gentle will move. Gentle gets a pot shot or two off on Deku and loosens a girder that may fall on the old guy who is still around watching the “movie.” Deku intervenes and catches the falling girder (damn, like even with One for All Full Cowl, Deku is really getting jacked). Deku is appalled by this action but Gentle says he really wasn’t planning on hitting the old man, but he knew that the hero wouldn’t be able to take that chance. Even though Deku is jacked, it takes a lot of effort to hold the girder, and Gentle takes this opportunity to put some distance between them and head towards UA. The scene then cuts to what is happening at UA.

The band is nervous (Bakugou hasn’t put on the Class 1-A band shirt yet), the dancers are in their costumes, and Aoyama is in his hero suit (probably easier to handle his quirk that way). Several of them are taking not of the fact that Deku hasn’t come back yet. 15 minutes until the start of the festival.

Gentle has launched himself and La Brava towards the school, and Deku pulls off a rad move. Lifts the girder above his head with one arm, and with the free arm lets off a finger flick shock wave after the two airborne criminals. They manage to dodge, but they are both worried by his persistence and La Brava feels like she may have to use her quirk. Dun dun daaaaaa! Cliff hanger ending. The only good thing about these double chapter posts is I can step right over some cliff hangers.

We start with more festival happenings. Class 1-B is there meeting Kendo who is not participating in their mega-movie-mashup play because she is in the beauty pageant. Monoma is making fun of her a bit but there might be a compliment hidden in there somewhere? Kendo and Nejire show some great sportsmanship and hope the best for each other. Then that other girl that Nejire mentioned some chapters ago who won last year shows up, her name is excessively long so I’ll call her Eyelashes. Eyelashes is confident. We see Mirio, Aizawa, and everyone’s favorite, Eri (well at least mine, and I will fight you on that), are in a taxi headed to UA, and Eri is excited to see Deku. Honestly, Eri just needs to be adopted right now. Hatsume is ready for her robotics exhibit. All Might and Midnight are talking about how Deku got a permission slip to go off campus to buy some last minute supplies.

Deku gets out from under the girder successfully and continues his pursuit after he left sufficient evidence for the next person that something weird has happened here (put some rods on one of Gentle’s midair trampolines). Gentle tells La Brava not to use her quirk, not yet, it is for the escape. Deku switches into ultra high alert mode and Gentle is shocked that Deku closed so much space so quickly. Gentle puts up a barrier between them, and here is what I mean by ultra high alert mode: Deku remembered the placement of the trampolines as Gentle made a safe landing, and uses them to propel himself forward so quickly that Deku is behind the two of them hardly before either can react. Unfortunately, Gentle does react and puts up another barrier. Fortunate Deku is so freaking smart that he bounces the shock wave off the  first barrier in an incredible bank shot that gets around their defenses and knocks Gentle to the ground. Deku switches around and pounces on the two of them and manages to restrain them with his Full Cowl strength (like I know he’s jacked with a powerful quirk, but Deku, a freshman in high school, is restraining a full grown man with one hand and maybe a leg. Gym goals). As this happens, we see some La Brava back story.

She was a recluse. She at least finished middle school, maybe high school(?), but was crushed by the insensitive rudeness of someone she genuinely liked. It went beyond insensitive and calling her a stalker, but because of the framing of the back story, we aren’t totally sure if that is a valid comment or not, I’ll let y’all decide based on your own opinions of Brava. While she was a recluse, she stumbled upon a video made by Gentle, and she was immediately attached to him. We’ve already seen how she approached him, out of the blue saying that she was a huge fan, but we also see a bit of slice of life. Making tea, working a camera, teaching Gentle how to use the internet, running from cops, you know, normal things. We even see that Gentle changed his style to match La Brava’s, but this I mean he just straight up sharpied his eyes to match La Brava’s eyeliner (at least I believe it was a sharpie, I don’t think eyeliner comes in marker shape but I don’t know). In the present, Deku says he is going to turn them in right this instant, and La Brava takes this opportunity to tell Gentle that she loves him. And her quirk activates.

Love. As simple and metaphorical (and maybe a bit cheesy) as it is, La Brava’s power allows her to infuse power into a person she loves. Gentle has been granted a boost of strength equivalent to how much La Brava loves him, and with this strength, Gentle frees himself and Brava from beneath Deku and goes onto the offensive. Gentle is giving off smoke that we had seen before when he was first introduced, and I’ll be honest, I do love it when a character has so much strength that they radiate it in some way, smoke, aura, electricity, etc. Gentle has heart smoke. Gentle flipped Deku like a pancake and goes to knock him out with a chop to the neck, saying “love always wins.” Deku is curled on the ground, but he blocked the chop with his arm, Deku ain’t having none of that love power-up BS, he isn’t gonna let a trope defeat him. Deku will not only twist fate, but he will destroy tropes as they come at him. Deku has a shock wave attack ready and is very much still in the fight.

So here are my thoughts. I am worried about this fight. I have no doubt that Deku can win, but with the power up, I’d say that Gentle has quite a bit of physical strength over Deku right now. Sure Deku isn’t using all his strength, but he limits himself to prevent physical injury. at this point, I don’t think Deku is getting out of this without a broken something, and a broken anything is gonna keep him from participating in the festival. I am also concerned about how Deku is reacting to his shock wave attacks. After each one he noticeably lets out a grunt or there is some sound effect about throbbing pain. I think the gloves might be keeping his hands functioning, but he is putting too much strength into it and is hurting himself already. But let’s say Deku gets back up, because that old man may have called for help. Deku getting back up is the best case scenario, it means that he may not have to injure himself drastically to win, but the risk is that his back up is heroes from UA, which means that even though nothing occurred on campus, they may still cancel the festival. Best-best case scenario is Deku gets back up, Gentle is suppressed, and the heroes take advantage of the fact that nothing happened on campus and they let Deku run on over to Class 1-A where they dance and party and the school no longer hates them and Eri is there and Deku’s mom or Aizawa agree to take Eri on as their adopted daughter and everyone is happy and Shigaraki turns himself in and Deku becomes the symbol of peace. But that is the best-best case scenario.... I’d be happy with about half of those things.

I also want to discuss Gentle’s and La Brava a bit. I really like their dynamic a lot, I think La Brava may be obsessive, so that the guy she had a crush on years ago may have had a point in the “stalker” comment, but her intense adoration meshes incredibly well with someone like Gentle who want’s his name carved into history. I believe their relationship is pure (I’m only saying that because I’ve seen one or two posts where people are weired out with their relationship) and it takes the form of an intense fan and a celebrity. La Brava genuinely loves him and is grateful to be with him at all, she is grateful that he pulled her out of her recluse life style and “accepted her as who she was.” And Gentle feels similarly, he is greatly appreciative to La Brava and her devotion, he was something like a starving artist who finally found a critic/person who supported his work. They understand that without each other, both of them would be much worse off in the world. They are lifting each other up and supporting each other, and reading their backstories, I can’t help but feel attached and root for them. It also goes beyond that a bit for me, because neither of them seem like bad people. Their motives are love and justice (maybe fame), however the injustice they fight is in a hard place for the law. Some of the previous villains (Stain) were obviously bad people, but they had a point, others are obviously bad people who don’t seem to have any redeemable point to their actions (most of the rest), however Gentle and La Brava fall under neither of these categories for me. Gentle has seen a genuine problem with the heroes conduct and wants to act to change it, making his name known in the process (the fame part is the only thing that gives me genuine worry). But they----

I was about to say they weren’t bad people, but I’ve been burned in the past with theories like who is good and bad (I didn’t trust Mirio at first and I turned on Aoyama immediately). In truth we don’t really know what they plan to do at UA. I don’t want to say with total authority that he won’t do anything major, just cause some distress in the media and cause trust issues between the public and UA. I still feel that Gentle and La Brava have a good and pure relationship, but I will remain cautious about what they plan to do at UA.

So that is about it. I apologize for writing that last paragraph only to cut away and say something different. I realized during my writing it that swearing by these villains intentions may have consequences. For now I think of them as some lovable goofs with good intentions. I thought about deleting that thought paragraph, but that wouldn’t really be genuine, it was stream of conscious in a way (though I really hate stream of conscious in literature). Thank you for reading this big post, if y’all have suggestions besides “stay on top of it,” I would appreciate some tips on how to manage a blog properly.But for now, during my busy weeks I’ll leave it as is. So thank you for reading and following and in general working through my scattered thoughts. I hope you have a great day.

[man-i-dont-know]

BNHA Chapter 175 & 176: Thoughts and Spoilers

Hello, I am back. Sorry the last couple weeks were busy. Anyway, I am really loving these two chapters so lets get right into it.

Preparation for the festival continues, and Deku still really can’t dance. We see a cute Eri and by now y’all probably decided that it was Aizawa doing her hair, and I agree (the dudes got some long locks himself, he knows how to do hair I can guarantee that). The class has made some serious progress and they are all nervous/hyped for the festival. Then a little bit of plot happens, Deku realized some of the ropes that will support the disco bal- ahem - Aoyama, are frayed and they need new ones. Deku says he’ll go out and get some new ones after his morning training (nothing will go wrong I’m sure). Kaminari notes that Deku will be cutting it close with training, shopping and prepping for the festival. So finally, the day of the festival arrives.

Hatsume hasn’t slept or bathed in a week and runs out into the woods to find Deku to give him his modified gloves (and damn they are stylin’). The sytlin’ aspect is actually something Mei consciously had in mind when she made it, which amazed me because all of her previous “babies” have been just straight up robots, but this time she had Deku’s hero costume in mind when she developed it. Mei is going to be a top-class hero support... uh.. person? Is there a title for it? Engineer? Something like that.

Deku is running a tad late because he was working with the gloves so much, but now he is going to get the ropes. He passes some of the festival which is nice to see that it is all coming together. He falls even further behind because the store he was thinking of was not selling any ropes that would work. At precisely 8:30, Deku bumps into two very suspicious individuals coming out of an alley. This oddly... gentle... individual diverts his path away from Deku and mentions something about a high-end brand of tea. Deku recognizes the brand as the one Momo so graciously served Class 1-A the other day. The mention of tea got this suspiciously suave individual’s attention and started a conversation without thinking. Then, legitimately, the scene gets tense. They start to piece together who each other are. “A high-class student,” “a suspicious character linked with tea,” “a student in the UA area,” “a familiar voice,” “he is a student at UA!” “He is Gentle!” Cue all black panel with Gentle and Deku staring each other down. I loved this sequence for a couple reasons: 1.) neither character is stupid, they’ve deduced who the other is very quickly with minimal interaction, 2.) other shows or stories keep characters in the dark about simple stuff for ages just for tension, whereas here nothing was kept hidden for long, but maximum tension was reached in three pages, 3.) the characters aren’t dumb! I can not stress that enough! God I love seeing characters figure thing out like normal human beings, it is so refreshing to see, 4.) and both characters are taking the other very seriously (more about that later).

Deku then does something that I adore, he asks Gentle to stop. Straight forward and honest, he leaves Gentle open to several options, one of which is dropping the idea and leaving entirely. It also speaks volumes of Deku’s character, despite being a hero confronted with a known villain, his first instinct is a peaceful resolution, not a fight. He does not instigate a fight, such a peaceful kid (despite how freaking crazy he is during his fights). The chapter ends like this, with a small counter saying the performance will take place in an hour and twenty-eight minutes.

The next chapter starts with Gentle admitting that Deku outted him, and Deku checks to see if there are any civilians on the street to worry about. I love that small gesture cause that is something that is typically neglected in stories, bystanders and if they are in harms way. Deku determines that they only thing now is to prepare for a fight. gentle has the same idea, whips off his disguise and tells Brava to start filming and not to stop under any circumstances. Gentle starts with a flourish and poses for the camera, Deku lunges, and basically hits one of those saran wrap pranks where it is pulled across a door frame. This saran wrap however is incredibly elastic and launches Deku backwards at high speeds. Gentle confirms that his quirk is elasticity, which is similar to what I imagined, so I am glad one of my theories was close to the mark. Gentle actually seems very surprised by the sheer force that Deku was launched at, meaning that he doesn’t put any force into his quirk at all, all the bounce comes from outside force (makes sense in this cause Deku was using Full Cowl). The distance that Deku was launched intimidates Gentle, saying that if the kid could withstand that, he must have some serious power behind him. Coming to that conclusion, Gentle and Brava book it.

Deku gets up and chases them further, Gentle sets up a trampoline and bounces Deku into the air so they can get further away. Gentle takes this moment to talk to Deku, saying that he understands Deku’s desire for the festival to go well, but Gentle is prioritizing his attack over the students having fun, which as a villain should be a given, but Gentle doesn’t really give off the villain vibe. Gentle and Brava make another dash for it, and Brava recognizes Deku from the sports festival, saying that he was “the crazy boy who fought by destroying his arms.” Gentle then gives a face of comedic fear, and I love it, Deku’s madman reputation is giving people pause now, I love that he is scaring the crap outta people he hasn’t even meet yet. Something similar occurred kinda recently in One Piece, I might write a post about that later. Anyways, Deku is tumbling through the air. He is remembering a conversation he had with Eri, and how she is looking forward to the dance party (THIS WAS SAID WHILE ERI WAS TRYING TO SMILE AND IT WAS SO SWEET I BECAME PHYSICALLY ILL THEN I LOOKED AT IT MORE). Deku is also remembering helping Jirou compile a load of notes she took for the other band members. She had notes on par to Deku’s hero notes, and Deku was thrilled cause originally he thought Jirou had a favorite hero she wanted to take notes on (Deku’s reaction to this was not like himself, much more like a friend’s though I can’t really place whose, Iida maybe? Either way, friends are rubbing off on each other). It is shown later Tokoyami using those notes, and its implied that Bakugou has already read it, which makes sense with his academic jock vibe.

This is all to show that Deku absolutely can not allow Gentle to get anywhere near to UA. Deku is about to launch a midair attack, remembers his training with All Might and comments about dancing from Mina. This combination allows Deku to fire off an air blast while upside down to stall Gentle. Deku immediately catches up with a Full Cowl jump and sends both of them into a construction site. And that is where the chapter ends, but I’ve got a couple other thoughts I’d like to share.

So there are a couple things I absolutely adore when some elements are included in a story. One of which is recognition. Not like a character starts off well known, but when a character works hard and somewhere during the story you realize, oh crap, this character is really well known now. Deku is getting there and you’ve got no idea how much that hypes me up. The implications of this fight with Gentle could launch Deku even further into the public eye. If Deku defeats Gentle, that will be the first villain Deku took down without help. On top of that, the whole thing will be recorded, meaning Deku will have to learn a lesson or two about camera awareness or at least he has to acknowledge the celebrity aspect of heroing. I would love for Deku to get interviewed or something, maybe we see a new article about him or something. Plus, imagine this: Deku starts to develop a fan club. Of course Eri and Kouta are the founder and president of the club, but imagine Deku getting recognized in public positively (we’re just gonna forget about Shigaraki “recognizing” Deku in the mall). To sum it up, Deku is moving up in the world, and there is some major potential for him to get his name catapulted into the pro-hero world.

The other thing I absolutely love is when opponents recognize each other as strong enemies. Far too often villains are so egotistical that they refuse to see the possibility that their adversary could beat them, even if they have already been beaten. A fight where both sides realize they can lose makes the fight 100x more tense, and this is what is happening here. Gentle is legitimately wary of the strength that Deku wields, and Deku is the cautious type by nature, so of course he too is aware of how this situation could be very bad. A fight between equals is sooooo good. Those are two of things I love seeing in stories, I got a couple others, but those are the ones that apply to this chapter.

That should be about it. Thank you for taking your time to read this whole long thing. I am thinking that I might try to diversify this blog to some other stories as well (anime, movies, etc.), though I have been busy recently so I am not sure how that would work out. I’ll figure it out later. Again, thank you for reading and I hope you have a great day.

[man-i-dont-know]

BNHA Chapter 173 & 174: Thoughts and Spoilers

ALright, I am real late so I am gonna wrap these two chapters together. The preparations for the cultural festival are in full swing, so let’s get right into it.

Class 1-A is doing their preparations separately, the band, the stage hands, and the dancers, when an unexpected guest drops by. Mirio is spying on the class from behind a bush trying to figure out how to make a funny appearance when Deku spots him prematurely. Mirio thrust his butt straight through the bush saying something about a peach when Eri steps in front of the bush. This elicits a strong reaction from class 1-A. Some students who did not participate in the raid think that Eri is Mirio’s child, but Uraraka and Tsuyu immediately compliment Eri on her cute outfit. Aizawa also suddenly appears and explains that the principal suggested this because dropping Eri into the middle of the cultural festival without any mental preparation may cause problems. So Deku and Mirio are going to walk around with Eri to see UA and get Eri used to the school and the general activity. ((Kirishima also appears to say hi to Eri, but naturally, Eri never saw Kirishima, so she didn’t know who he was))

The three of them start to wander across the campus. Some kids from the business department ask Mirio if Eri is his kid, to which he remains silent (seriously, do all the kids in UA think Mirio is that much of a player?). They then run into class 1-B, who is putting on a play called “Romeo and Juliet the Prisoner of Azkaban: the Return of the Kings,” which is a “totally original” play. Monoma of course takes this opportunity to get on Deku’s case, so another kid from class 1-B clocks him with a two by four. Kendo was not here to do it because she is being forced to participate in what I assume is a beauty pageant, though it is UA so there is probably more to it than that. With a convenient segue, it turns out the Nejire is also in this contest, and Tamaki is helping her out (I like how the Big Three are really pals that help each other out and they aren’t just bound by the title they share). There is a background character that is there for a single panel called Yuyu and she is cute, that is all. Nejire says she will do her best to win since it is her last one, I kinda forget that they are seniors in high school. Mirio, Deku, and Eri then move on to see the development department, and Deku is ambushed by Hatsume. She makes it clear that bathing is not a priority at the moment since her “babies” will be presented to some important people during the festival. Her baby then explodes. We see Shinsou for a single panel and he seems stronger than when we first saw him and I am looking forward to when we see him again.

Eri finally gets a chance to relax and tells Deku and Mirio that she is looking forward to seeing how everything turns out, the principal makes a sudden appearance and tells Eri that that feeling is “excitement.” Then we see a small flashback from the principal’s perspective that shows that he fought with some officials to keep the festival going, and by officials I mean the person who holds the highest rank in the police force. The police want this shut down because if another villain attacks, that will totally ruin the credibility of UA’s security. To counter this, UA has spiked their security many fold for the festival. IN the present, the principal leaves, and Deku tells Eri that his class will have a dance party and that he wants Eri to come and see it. the very next scene is after Eri has left, and Mina is telling Deku that he is fired. Oops. I was genuinely worried about this, but Horikoshi seems to want to leave us on cliff hangers that don’t actually mean anything.

Deku really was just recruited by the stage hands to help out with Aoyama being the disco ball. Deku will dance part of the time and help out the other part. The stage hands figured that this would be for the best, entertainment wise, cause they don’t want it to get boring. Deku accepts after hearing the whole story, and on top of all of the stuff he is taking on, he finds time to train with All Might. All Might can’t actually help too much with this part of the training because he was able to handle almost the full force of One for All immediately. This was news to me, I suppose it makes sense because all the other before him have been only working with a couple people’s strength coupled with their own unique quirks. Deku has to handle All Might’s strength, which is the strength of the number one hero. So All Might’s advice is “train a lot.”

All Might then senses something coming at him at a high speed, and catches a golden snitch from Harry Potter. This interaction takes place in two panels but I am majorly impressed with his coordination and reaction time, which I shouldn’t be, but seeing him outside hero form accomplishing this was impressive. Turns out Hatsume is the the one who made the golden snitch and comes out of the bushes soon after. All Might switches to a different accent to hide himself, which I find weird cause everyone should know about his slim form now, but Hatsume has a pretty one-track mind so I think it worked. She then tells Deku that she has a support item that could be functional as soon as needed. I feel like this whole exchange was strange, and I think that Hatsume recognized a connection between the two of them, but simply does not care or does not want to pry in anyway that would make them uncomfortable (though Hatsume is plenty ready to make people uncomfortable).

This exchange prompts All Might to share that he also used support items once, which surprises Deku cause Deku knows everything about the number one hero, how could he have not known that All Might used support items? All Might warns not to be too reliant on them though, he has seen heroes become useless when they lose their support items and the situation becomes dangerous. We then go back to see class 1-A on a break from preparations, and Momo is making tea for everyone while Deku is in a frenzy to find All Might support item pictures online. Accidentally, Deku clicks on a video starring Gentle.

This is a new video, and Gentle is saying his next video will be a wake up call. Deku knows of Gentle and is fairly impressed with how Gentle has managed to evade police for so long, even if he isn’t very popular. Deku is cautiously curious of his next move. With that sentiment, the scene shifts to seeing Gentle planning out his attack on UA, which is remarkably strange.

Gentle states that UA has very good defenses only when they are defending against predictable attacks, implying that Gentle will do something incredibly unpredictable. But he also tells La Brava that this attack will greater prepare the students to be better heroes in the future, saying that they will grow in the attack, which calls into question what he is even going to try to accomplish. Does he want to prove that he can get in? Will he get in and beat on some students or some teachers? I don’t think that there is anything worth stealing there, except maybe some tech, but Gentle has already proved that he isn’t the thieving type. With a flourish, Gentle open the laptop in front of him, it turns out that he has no clue as to how to use a computer, so the stealing tech seems even less likely now. Once he gets the computer working, he meticulously plans out his invasion route, having scouted the areas before hand looking for security cameras. In his planning, he has scheduled an hour and half tea break to have some high class tea (the same tea that Momo brewed for her friends just a bit ago). Gentle has even predicted that Hound Dog will be the one on patrol (this was mentioned when the principal was going over security measures), and he mentions that they are probably prepared for sky assaults as well, which means that Gentle won’t be using his quirk to get in (we haven’t seen the specifics of it, but my guess is that he can turn an area into something elastic and undulating, allowing him to jump high and distort physical objects). This is where La Brava steps in, turns out that she is a hacker, on a seriously high level, which would explain how Gentle has evaded the police despite their video trail. Gentle then expresses how grateful he is for La Brava being there with him.

Gentle said that to make his dreams come true, he studied so he could post videos online, though, similar to his current situation, he got minimal views with harsh comments and a bad like to dislike ratio. La Brava is the one who took initiative and hacked his account to get his address and meet him in person. Gentle expresses how much she means to him and that in order to achieve their dream, he is willing to put his life on the line for this next attack. He is completely resolute in his decision and completely ready to face the consequences, which is not something we have seen the other villains express as of yet, Gentle is fully ready to take responsibility for his crimes and actually expects it after his his next job. I respect that, not sure if I should, but I legitimately felt for him during his expression of gratitude and his statement of resolve. He is willing to do all of this for his one fan, La Brava, and she loves him for it. I’ve seen some people think that their relationship is strange, and while it undoubtedly is, they took it in a more intimate direction, which I believe is incorrect. Gentle feels a great amount of affection towards La Brava for her loyalty, but it isn’t romantic at all, and La Brava probably sees him more as an idol or a perfect figure rather than anything romantic. I really like their dynamic, there is going to be a lot of heartbreak when one of them is caught.

So that was my two chapter review, thank you for reading. Now that we are talking about fans and what not, i am going to take this opportunity to make an effortless segue. I want to thank all of my followers for the notes you have left on my ridiculously long posts, and I want to thank everyone who has spent the time to read any of my posts at all. I am incredibly grateful for everyone’s support, especially since I never expected anything from making this blog, I just wanted a place to put down my thoughts, so seeing comments that may spark conversation or reblogs or likes is so nice of all of you and I’m so thankful. Alright, enough of the mushy stuff. Thank you for reading and I hope you have a great day.

[man-i-dont-know]

BNHA Chapter 172: Thoughts and Spoilers

This was a nice and happy chapter, I hope there are more like it in the future. So, let’s get right into it.

Class 1-A is assigning roles, and unsurprisingly, the uber-classy Momo can play piano (I hope the genre change isn’t too difficult to overcome). They also decide that they will need people working on the staging and people dancing, meaning that there are three groups of people. Mina seems to be having lots of fun with this cultural festival and suggests to make the place look better is to float Todoroki and Kirishima to make shaved ice fall on the dancers like snow while Aoyama is disco ball and makes the snow glisten. Aoyama veto’s the idea. Just then the intern group arrives and starts participating.

Uraraka suggests that Jirou sings, but we get several volunteers first (Kirishima, Mineta, and Aoyama), none of whom can sing. So Jirou sings and blows literally everyone away. Jirou, being as amazing as she is, is embarrassed by the praise she gets but accepts the role as the singer (on top of her bassist role). Then Class 1-A tries to find a guitarist and several eager volunteers step forward. Kaminari wants to but has no clue how to play, but is enthusiastic, Mineta wants to but “his character design doesn’t let him hold a guitar.” Luckily, it turns out Tokoyami knows how to play, so he steps in, of course in his patented over dramatic personality. Mineta is genuinely upset that he didn’t get any band parts (which really speaks to his character, which is a controversial topic but I’ll talk about it a bit later), so Mina lets him have a good dancing part.

By 1am, the roles are decided, Iida looks horribly tired and a little insane. We’ve got Jirou, Bakugou, Momo, Tokoyami and Kaminari in the band, who all look rad as hell (Kaminari is the only one with little or no experience, so he will learn the parts in a week or so). On the staging side, we have Todoroki, Kirishima, Aoyama, Sero and Koji (the guy who can talk to animals), that combination has a lot of potential to make the place look good. Everyone else is on the dance team, plus Aoyama (?) he is in both staging and dancing, which is weird, but maybe he might have to duck out of staging if his quirk causes problems, at least that is my guess.

The next day or so we see peaceful Deku and relaxed All Might having a tea together in a teacher lounge. They chat about the cultural festival for a little before mving on to some more important internship related topics. Deku tells All Might that he was able to use 20%, but was predictable and useless against long range attacks. Not only that, but using 20% at length was dangerous, and he wasn’t able to win without Eri’s help. So All Might gives the simple answer, get some long ranged attacks of your own. To explain more effectively, All Might suggests a change of location. So now that they are in the woods, All Might tells Deku to go 20% and launch an attack. Lo and behold, Deku mimics All Might’s weather altering shock-wave attack, though at a much smaller scale. All Might is about to lead int oa grand discover, but Dkeu cuts him off because he figured it out before he said it. All Might doesn’t use 100% all the time. This should have been obvious to me, but the revelation was a slap to the face and an “of course!” moment. So Deku then understands what his next stage of training should be, using a lower percent most of the time, and increasing to a higher percent at the moment of attack, but not too high that he starts breaking himself again. All Might says that it requires a large amount of precision an control, which is a great thing for Deku to learn, since most of Deku’s problem solving skill are “did hitting it work? No? Then leT’S GO HARDER! ” Deku is now back to training with flicks again, controlling precision with weak parts of his body.

This leads to the end of the chapter, with arguably one of the cutest god dang things I’ve seen. Mirio and Aizawa are leading Eri to UA for the cultural festival, and finally, Eri is in something besides a medical gown, and is instead a little dress. God I hope she has a good time. I want her to have candied apples and laugh and smile and dance and all the best for her. ((that being said I might need to change my icon picture to literally anyone else, for obvious reasons. Maybe I’ll go Gentle depending on how this arc turns out)) But I am cautiously hopeful for Eri becoming happy or taking steps to being happy this arc.

All right, that is about it, this paragraph will be about Mineta, so if skip it if you want. So let me explain why I thought his actions were interesting this chapter: he is totally a gag character, but I am interested in some underlying character traits that are hidden behind his terrible personality. When the final exam arc took place, we saw why he wanted to become a hero, he thinks that being a hero will make you cool and indirectly get you the ladies. This must be closely tied with an inferiority complex of sorts, or a need for validation. I am amazed that something like that was expressed in his need to participate in the band. He tried out for every part that was available to him, which is more than I could say about myself if I was in that situation. I think his character is amazingly consistent despite how off-handed he is treated. So now I am gonna express my general opinion on him: I don’t like him, he has quite a few problems, but despite this his character is pretty well thought out and his actions have meaning that express his character well. I greatly respect someone who can express those traits in small actions. How he is treated by the fandom doesn’t bother me, he is of bad moral standing and the jokes against him are funny, however I think full censorship of him could potentially be dangerous to us as readers. As a joke it is hilarious, but it destroys any potential understanding of his character, and I personally am always greatly interest in characters, their motives, and their development, even if it is seemingly stupid like “hey, maybe taking this job for indecent reasons was the wrong thing to do.” I like seeing people grow, even if they are gremlin grape people. ((final note, this is just my opinion, feel free to disagree))

So that is really all I’ve got to say. Thank you for taking your time to read all of this. I hope you have a great day.

[man-i-dont-know]

BNHA Chapter 171: Thoughts and Spoilers

Thank you all for waiting, I was busy these past couple days. I also wanted to see various translations for this chapter so I really knew what was being said. With that said, let’s get to it.

We get a bit of hero and villain history and how when quirks first occurred, the line was hard to see, very vague definitions. It reminds me of the “realism” or “grim” western comics (though hero academy is distinctly less edgy), with unknown people holding unfair amounts of power and using it the way they see fit. Gentle likes to think himself a hero, or at least a chivalrous thief, he likes to think that he is in this grey area, but the justice he is serving is flimsy and tacky at best, La Brava is eating it up though.

La Brava seems to work very hard to keep their videos online, though, I assume, the police keep taking them down. She is upset that Gentle is not getting the views he “deserves.” Which is interesting,both of them agree that they are on the villainous side, but they dislike Stain, All for One, and the Villain Alliance because they are malicious and violent. While Gentle dislikes their conduct, he can’t help but understand that they are much more popular than he is. ((something weird I noticed: in Gentle’s debut video, his eyes are light, in the present he either has bags or deep “villain-shadows,” which might suggest something occurring between debut and now))

We then see the Class 1-A kids and we see that other students are aware of what their theme is. This is interesting, because we hear some snide comment saying that Class 1-A is trying to relax people, but they cause all the problems. Not only do we as readers see this comment, but Bakugou does as well, and this might be the panel that has the most pent up rage I have seen Bakugou contain. Typically he would have said something smart, but he held his tongue cause yelling wouldn’t have helped any (good for him for seeing that).

Then, happily, it switches to later that day and Class 1-A is trying to sort out the music. Bakugou apparently knows how to plays drums and only confirms it because Sero suggested he couldn’t (they know how to push his buttons now). Jirou asks him to play, but then we get a really interesting speech. Bakugou blows his fuse, but not a loud, but instead a scary quiet, at least at the beginning. Bakugou is pissed (this time) because he knows that the other students aren’t grateful, heck, they are looking at Class 1-A with contempt. “Why the hell are these freshmen that are causing all these problems acting like nothing is wrong when this affects everyone at UA?” They are pissed because these nobodies came out of nowhere, changed things arguably for the worse, and pretend like they didn’t do it. But that is precisely why Bakugou is pissed, “we aren’t causing problems cause we want to,” is a much tamer way of saying Bakugou’s dialogue. He is pissed cause they don’t see that they don’t see things fully and making assumptions, he says that people like that sicken him. Why please someone who isn’t grateful? Why please someone who dislikes you? Bakugou sees it as a waste of time (this might be another reason why he hated Deku so much, Bakugou gave him no reason to like him, but Deku tagged along anyway). Bakugou concludes his speech with agreeing to take the drums position. For a while I was confused why he did this after explaining why you shouldn’t, then two things hit me. He is doing it out of spite, and wants to make it the best thing it can possibly be just to rub it in the snobby classmates’ faces, but the second reason is more debatable. He wants to make the event fun in his own way, so he can achieve the class goal, however he wants to do it for the class, not the other students. It sounds like a nice thing to do, and while Bakugou is capable of being nice, I also see it as more spite, something along the lines of “look at how awesome this party is that you weren’t invited to. We are going to have fun despite how you feel about us. I am going to show you that your words don’t affect me.” So while his reasoning may be flawed, the end result is that he is participating and contributing positively to the class.

Bakugou’s speech got through to a couple classmates, mainly Jirou. When Bakugou first started talking, she was stunned. My opinion is that she was surprised but how pointless the event seemed, and how there would be a lot of aggression and animosity towards something so suited for her. By the end of the speech, Jirou seemed determined, like she was ready for that hostility and was totally ready to take it on and jam her heart out. I really like seeing this determination out of her.

Then we see a last bit of Gentle. Basically confirming what we already know, but he plans on invading UA, to prove he can and to make a name for himself. As someone who watched a lot of Criminal Minds when I was younger, I think the “progression/maturity” of his crimes escalated rapidly. From sticking up a convenience store with a knife, he plans to invade possibly one of the most secure places in the country. I am starting to doubt how much of a chivalrous thief he is, and I am getting the feeling he has a dark past involving violence against others. I don’t know if he crossed the murder line, but his character is so weird that I would not be surprised if off-camera he was a killer or if he is so genuinely disillusioned to reality that he believes his petty crimes are justifiable for the sake of getting popular. Ultimately, he is either a mastermind or a wacko.

So that’s about it. Thank you guys for sticking with me even with such an inconsistent schedule. I do enjoy putting my thoughts out there and I greatly appreciate you guys reading my ideas, even if they are long as heck. I say my thoughts but it would not be fair to say that totally because I do look at other opinions before writing my own. In particular, a post by saisai really helped my understand the argument that Bakugou was making. So that is all. Thanks again for reading and I hope you all have a great day.

[man-i-dont-know]

BNHA Chapter 169 & 170: Thoughts and Spoilers

Alright, I am real lite for this one, sorry. I got really busy and I am still fairly busy so I will try to cover two chapters worth of stuff in the time I would cover one (shouldn’t be too bad since 169 is kinda transition chapter). So lets get into it.

Mina can dance hard core and tries to get Deku and Aoyama to dance too (Aoyama is gonna be much more prevalent after his two chapters since now he is considered a friend). Kaminari singles out Jirou for having a rad hobby too. Jirou is all flustered by this and it is real cute, I am glad she is getting more screen time, I wanna see how she develops (how she views her hobby is interesting too).

Class starts and Aizawa says there is going to be a cultural festival, understandably, everyone is suddenly loud and excited. Surprisingly, Kirishima is against it due to the rapid increase of villains, which shows a lot of maturity on his side. Aizawa then puts those worries aside by saying that the festival will be contained entirely within school grounds, he also says staff will be cut and that does not sound promising nor reasonable, I hope I misunderstood it or there was a translation error or perhaps some other reason. Aizawa also explains that the festival has multiple purposes, the main one is the fact that U.A. is a hero school, but it has three other departments that aren’t heroics, and they need to have something comparable to the sports festival which was definitely for the heroics department solely. This event will also relieve stress for the students who have had to go through a lot of changes.

Then the class goes into deciding the theme, and a figurative/literal explosion of enthusiasm blasts off in the class room. I won’t say Mineta’s suggestion but Tsuyu bags him and hangs him from the rafters by his feet. After the initial outburst we see a board with everyone’s suggestions and it is fairly easy to see who suggested what (Bakugou had the audacity to suggest a gladiator match to the death). They were able to narrow it down some, but the went through the whole period without deciding, so Aizawa gave them an ultimatum and said decide by tomorrow morning or there will be a lecture.

They continue the conversation in their dorms with some people missing due to sleep (Bakugou) or supplementary lessons (the kids on the raid mission). They eventually rule out food based ideas, or unsanitary ideas (petting zoo) and decide they should provide a service that will let the other departments blow off steam, so it is narrowed down to an amateur play or the dance party (which Mina suggested). Todoroki puts his weight into the dance suggestion after his experience at his supplementary lessons. This idea gains momentum and they realize they will need music and all eyes turn to Jirou. Then we see something interesting about her views on music.

She loves it, but it is a hobby. She probably thinks hero work is about strength and being a good role model and being someone reliable, and she does not see how music (especially her rock and roll) can benefit her heroing. When she looks at other hero role models, the people she relates most with are the sound based heroes (we don’t know that many but I am basing my assumptions off of Present Mic), and they use loud sounds instead of music. Jirou went head to head with Present Mic during the finals exam, and Mic was really straight forward, he yelled at them in intervals with no funny business and Jirou was outclassed in every way. She probably thinks that she is lacking in something, strength and dependability would be my guess, and music doesn’t seem to add together for her. That mentality is a pity because I am sure most of us can see how that pairing would be incredibly powerful/useful, if she had gone to the lessons with Todoroki and Bakugou she might have a different mindset, but she didn’t, and I can’t imagine Bakugou sharing that and I can’t imagine Todoroki sharing that in an understandable way. Eventually, with the support of Kaminari and the guy who can speak to animals, she agrees to be the music (she says something like “saying no at this point wouldn’t be very rock and roll of me.” And that is all nice and good, but when she said that I could only think about that meme “that wasn’t very cash money of you.” Maybe I have been on the internet too long.)

The final panels are of a youtube video, since the class was trying to find ideas on what to do online through youtube tutorials (truly a modern story) and the next video plays revealing a shadowy scarf-wearing figure.

The next chapter starts on the highest note humanly possible with Mirio and Deku meeting Eri in the hospital. A little bit of explanation is given in a flash back, Aizawa told the intern group that Eri wanted to see Deku specifically. In the hospital room, Mirio and Deku are visiting, Aizawa is there in case Eri’s powers go wild and doctors are behind Aizawa. The doctors are nearly certain nothing bad is going to happen since Eri’s horn has shrunk to the size of a lump instead of a legitimate horn.

Mirio has the best people skills ever and brings a fruit basic, proceeds to guess Eri’s favorite fruit based off a pun, is wrong, then claims he knew it. Eri explains that she wanted to talk/apologize for causing problems for everyone who came for her, and she wants to know Deku’s name, since she didn’t get it when everything was going down. Deku gives his full name then tells her it would be easier to remember his hero name (the poor thing doesn’t know what a hero name is). Eri has been kept in the dark about Sir Nighteye passing, and it has been agreed between everyone there that telling her is a no-go for the sake of her mental well-being. Eri does know that Mirio has lost his powers and she is about to get all teary when Mirio being the pure sunshine he is, jumps in and says that she caused no pain and everyone just wants to see her happy and smiling. Eri pulls on her face because “how do you smile again?” At this moment, both Mirio and Deku realize that Eri has not yet been saved from Chisaki. I really like this touch, as heart-wrenching as it is, because I feel that it is a fairly accurate depiction of someone in that situation, you don’t become happy as soon as you are safe, the trauma that happened there isn’t gone. But this is also the first step to recovery, being in a safe place so you can work out the problems that will take longer to fix. Deku then has an idea that seem like it could be both incredibly beneficial or dangerous. He wants to take Eri to the cultural festival.

Mirio thinks it is such a great idea that he has a light bulb moment so strong the light bulb breaks. Aizawa says it is possible and he will talk to the principal (he was about to say something else that seemed important, but Deku cut him off). MIrio is already explaining what a cultural festival is to Eri and she seems as excited as she can get, her mouth already watering for the candied apples. Eri wants to go, she wants to know about all the people who helped her, she essentially wants to be friends with them. Mirio is more than willing to oblige and claims he will be taking her on a “constantly-supervised date.”  Deku plays the straight-man and asks Mirio, “what are you saying?”

Then we see across town, the police station is trying to figure out where a video that was posted by a villain came from. The video shows the villain robbing a convenience store. The villain is snazzily dressed and talking formally and his robbery gets cut short by a pair of heroes, this freaks out the accomplice, La Brava, but the snazzy man, Gentle, is unphased. Gentle does become a little phased when three more heroes show up. The video cuts and the heroes have been taken out, we see Gentle fully for the first time, and the dude is the snazziest thing I’ve ever seen. Walking cane, trimmed facial hair, two belts, collar popped so far he could wrap it around his head, his coattails so long that they trail on the ground, or they would if his sheer coolness didn’t keep them afloat and clean. This is all well and good, but the most interesting thing is that the store he just robbed looks like it has been through a fun house mirror, and is distorted in ways that should not be possible (Gentle also has smoke around him and the edges of it looks like hearts, though I am not certain if that is purposeful or not). On top of all of this, he knowingly left the money he just stole on the counter, because it is his performance fee. The police officer watching this video does not share the idea that Gentle is the snazziest cat to walk the Earth.

We see Gentle and La Brava (the female camerawoman accomplice) on top of a sky scraper for dramatic effect, cause its fitting for the dynamic dramatic duo. La Brava is short and because of the nature of anime and manga, I have no clue how old this girl is, wouldn’t be surprised if she is an adult or a teen or a child. La Brava is worried that their view count is stagnating, so Gentle says that he must do something bigger, something that will make him extraordinary. He takes out a teapot from.... somewhere.... and pours himself a drink, except he has to be as cool as possible and tries to do a far away pour and the wind ends up taking it and throwing it into La Brava’s face. She seems mildly annoyed.

On a real note, I really do not like how Gentle said that he must look for something bigger, then Mirio, Deku, and Eri were in the next panels with no dialogue. As fun/silly this guy seems, it appears his next target is going to be U.A. during the cultural festival. I would imagine the security would be super tight, but Gentle has already proven himself competent in a fight, and the fact that he was portrayed to seem like a joke, he most certainly isn’t. I am afraid that this will hinder Eri’s growth, and I am afraid that Gentle will cause even more distrust between the public and U.A.. I fear that the gag character will cause massive implications in the story, which is precisely what he wants to achieve.

So here are my final thoughts. I have seen people thinking that bringing Eri to the festival is a bad move (foreshadowing wise, yes) but I disagree with their arguments. They fear that Eri will be overwhelmed and cause problems with her quirk due the the mass of people and so many stimuli. While I agree that she will probably be overwhelmed a bit, I think she has the maturity to be able to collect herself and kept herself “in check,” for lack of a better phrase. Remember, this is the girl who was tormented all her life and her first priority is to keep others safe (sure that was implemented by Chisaki to keep her for calling for help, but she has help that she relies on now, she has already grown in that aspect). Eri also had the maturity to ask for Mirio and Deku and have a conversation with them without any emotional outburst at all, she was sad then excited, but she was muted and reserved, I don’t think the stimuli will be a problem. For emotional reasons, I also want to see her interact with the student body, specifically class 1-A. Everyone in 1-A will become a big sibling, I just want to see how. I am also interested in how Bakugou might interact with her. 

So the long short: Jirou is gonna have some growth this arc, Eri is finally getting a chance to have fun, Gentle is the new villain and the classiest to date. General things to worry about in the next arc is information on the traitor (didn’t talk about that this post, but still a threat), U.A.’s public relations, and Eri’s mental development.

Thank you all for reading this, I appreciate it, especially after my unintended hiatus. I hope you all have a great day. 

[man-i-dont-know]

BNHA Chapter 168: Thoughts and Spoilers

This chapter frustrated me so let’s get straight into it.

I wanna start with saying that this chapter blind sided me so hard that I want to revoke every theory I presented last week about Aoyama, but, on the other hand, I was blind sided so hard that I understand less arguably. So I suppose I won’t revoke any of my previous theories, but I don’t have any particular faith in them any more after this chapter.

Deku saw Aoyama on his veranda, and was thoroughly spooked. I would be too. Aoyama left a serial-killer-esque letter composed of different cheeses for Deku to find that read “I know.” The school day proceeds fairly normally except Aoyama winks at Deku when class first starts and the narrator takes over for a while (aka future number 1 hero Deku). Class 1-A is let out so they can do their hero course work and we see some light-hearted chit chat. Kaminari makes a comment that recently pro heroes are getting into hero groups and working as a team. This comment could have been thrown in for the sake of the readers, so we can better understand the “political climate” of the hero world. With the symbol of peace gone, heroes working in groups would feel safe, though I imagine they would have lost some mobility, so small crimes may be easier to get away with.

Everyone goes into the gym and starts working on their super moves and their hero skills. Kirishima just wants people to kick the crap outta him, calling out Satou, Bakugou, and Deku specifically. Deku declines and as Bakugou goes to fight Kirishima, Bakugou asks if Deku has improved at all. I think this is interesting cause Bakugou is the one checking, not Deku telling. After the whole raid arc, Bakugou must have been curious, and I think that Deku is selling himself short. Even if his skills did not increase, his experience and knowledge did. Something I have been thinking about recently is how Bakugou has quite a bit less experience with combat than Deku. Deku has fought Todoroki all out, Stain, Muscular, and now Chisaki. Deku also came up with the rescue plan to get Bakugou away from the League of Villains (not the plan to do it, but the plan to jump out of hiding and grab him and leave). Bakugou on the other hand has fought a half-hearted Todoroki, fended off some henchmen that were “weak” from the USJ envasion, partolled with Best Jeanist, fought Moonfish (I think his name was) with Todoroki and I believe some other type of restriction, he was escorted through the camp site by his class mates, kidnapped and forced on the defensive instead of actually fighting, and hasn’t fought anyone since. IN sheer experience, Deku has the clear lead, not only in combat, but also coming up with a plan and executing it in a high tension situation. The whole point of that was Bakugou was checking on Deku, I don’t think there was any care there, but Bakugou tried to trust Deku by giving an honest answer, which Deku did not actually do, at least not in Bakugou’s eyes. Recently I heard a conversation that bullies are dependent on the people they bully, but I don’t see Bakugou as dependent on Deku, Bakugou feels threatened by Deku and that is the reason why he acts the way he does. This simple check in was just Bakugou trying to see Deku’s side of things, while still containing that competitive edge to it.

Anyway, Deku says he won’t beat up Kirishima, and makes eye contact with Aoyama, who tells him to look, and laser-blasts a lot of rocks (I’d like to add that the first rock he lasers while making direct eye contact with Deku. Aoyama is an enigma cause as soon as I assume something, he goes and surprises me). After he blasts the rocks, he writes a french phrase in one of the rocks that says “still water runs deep” (at least that is what I have read from others talking about this panel). Some people have taken this phrase as a warning, as some kind of deeper message. Aoyama doubles over cause his quirk hurts his stomach and Deku helps him over to the side. Once there, Deku directly asks Aoyama what that cheese message meant. Aoyama says that they are the same, and that their quirks don’t fit their bodies. Deku would break in the the early arcs whenever he used his quirk and Aoyama says that when he was a kid his laser power would leak and cause problems without the belt. Deku visibly relaxes and says that the cheese surprise Aoyama left was a huge success, This next panel bothers me because Aoyama does not react happily to this, he hardly reacts at all. He seemed more depressed than anything, which could lead to more theories, but I’ll only briefly talk about those later. Aoyama then craps his pants. That is canon.

Fast forward a day or two and Aoyama and Deku have become friends, Mina and Kaminari made remarks between each other that Aoyama has visibly perked up or have become more lively. Even the narrator (future Deku) says that they became friends. Future Deku needs to stop being an unreliable narrator. “Long internship” “True colors” geez man, does Aoyama’s dramatics rub off on Deku in the future? (I will admit, I like the idea that Deku becomes a character with a lot of connections to very different types of people who he is all friends with. A space/gravity hero? Yep. Frog hero? Yep. Blasty hero? Yep. Hero with engine legs? Yep. Sparkle hero? Yep. This also extends to future generations of heroes or even people who are police officers or other oddly connected groups)

Alright, so I am gonna discuss some theories, but they aren’t mine, just stuff I’ve read (this first one was from a post I read by redhairedanne, sorry I don’t really know how to give proper credit). Aoyama is a spy. He is the “counter-traitor” that has been keeping an eye on the students to try to figure out the real traitor. I like this, because the last two chapters have put a really strange emphasis on Aoyama and I think that he must have some kinda role in the story, also the really weird french phrase has been interpreted as being mistrustful of someone. There have also been theories that Aoyama is just that he is excruciatingly awkward and this was the only real way he could start a conversation. There were probably others, but the traitor theories were gone into pretty deeply last week by me and others. so here are my last comments, aka, things we know for certain about Aoyama: he is really observant, he has had several panels and now full chapters that cast some sort of suspicion on his person, he tried to foil the Bakugou kidnapping at camp, he has very few friends (possibly only Deku as his only friend), he is really committed to his aesthetic, and he hasn’t taken initiative on hardly anything (the only times being at the hero license exam and at the camp, the first was a guerrilla attack and the second seemed self-sacrificing though he did get his license).

That’s all I’ve got to say, I am actually surprised this post is as long as it did because I was planning on just saying “oh jeez man I don’t know what’s happening at this point” then duck out. Well despite that, thank you for reading and I hope you have a great day.

((I am still fairly new to tumblr, so if there is any etiquette I am missing out on, whether it is sourcing things, tags, whatever that submission thing is in my options menu is, please let me know. I’d appreciate it. Ok. That’s it for real. Have a good one.))

[man-i-dont-know]

BNHA Chapter 167: Thoughts and Spoilers (emphasis on spoilers)

Well, I am on time for once, mainly cause I really want to talk about this chapter. So, let’s get into it. ((Fair warning, this one is long. Half way down is about where the important thing is discussed, it starts with a “...”))

Bakugou is clean up crew for the ice slide, he’s pissed but he likes to blow things up. The kids also help with the clean up and the tear is so thankful and promises to teach them well. Todoroki is there making sure kids are a safe distance from Bakugou while he is on demolition duty. The kids and high schoolers part on a positive note, promising to be friends, apologizing for taking stuff, and possibly agreeing to take up a hero role in the future (that kid who Todoroki said had a good quirk for rescue purposes). All the high schoolers leave the building some time later, which i was disappointed by, apparently this was just a lecture before the make up exam? I was under the impression that this was the actual exam... oops. Anyway they leave and run into a group of people outside.

 All Might, Present Mic, Endeavor, Meat Grinder and Meat Grinder’s teacher are all talking. It seems that the two schools wish to work together more closely due to the League of Villains sudden advances on both schools. Endeavor tries to act like a father to Todoroki, and Todoroki dodges a head pat (I know it sounds like he is a toddler, but in this situation it hardly seems immature). Endeavor says that he is proud of Todoroki, which provokes a look of shock, or at least that is what it seems like. Anger is probably a better word. Here is what I think though, since the emotion is hard to pin down immediately, it is probably meant to be confusing, or a mix of emotions. Which makes sense, Todoroki has never once seen his father be supportive in a way that hasn’t been fulled by ambition or hate. Endeavor then goes farther and says that he will be a hero that will make Todoroki proud of him. It is a step. I believe that there should have been other things that he should have talked about or apologized for first, but if Endeavor went straight to the heart-felt apology right off the bat, then that would have been terrible and unconvincing character development. I don’t know how I want his character to develop, but I am looking forward to whatever it is. 

Todoroki doesn’t seem impressed by what his father said, which makes sense. Then possibly my favorite reaction panels came up: Inasa watched all of this, punched himself, hard, and went straight back to his straight-face, all this has Camie in the background looking on with concern. I like this little add in cause right after, Inasa goes up to Endeavor, the only hero he has ever hated and says that he will root for him to improve himself. I love this cause it shows both Endeavor and Inasa are going to grow as individuals (which is weird to say an adult will grow as an individual, but people never really stop growing, maturing, or gaining wisdom). This is definitely a reoccurring theme throughout the series, growth. Learning from mistakes and making the best of the opportunities that are given to you. I really love that theme.

While I did just say I like that theme a lot, when everyone parted ways, Todoroki looked away from Endeavor smiling, and that doesn’t sit too well with me. I suppose the main reason is that Todoroki’s trauma probably relates to a lot of different readers, and I don’t particularly want to see Endeavor become nice and Todoroki forgive him while all those readers either lose sympathy/empathy or someone they can relate to. I also don’t like it because I would think it would take much longer for Todoroki to come to terms with everything, but instead he is showing signs of accepting already (that one smile). However, personally, I want to see them both grow, and to back up my argument I say this, it would have to be a whole family thing to do it. Todoroki was the one singled out by his father, his siblings were mostly ignored, which is painful in its own way (if the father was a good guy), so in the end, forgiveness would rely on Todoroki and his mother. The mother seems even less likely to forgive, but we don’t know her personality at all beyond her... mental break... I suppose you could call it, and that sure as heck is not her whole personality. I will be able to better judge where everyone’s  relationship in that family if I got to see some conversation between Todoroki and his mother, along with the siblings (ignoring the Dabi = Todoroki theory, cause Dabi might not be an abusive family member but he is a mass murderer/arsonist and in a family full of heroes, that is probably frowned upon by all members of the family).

We then see some repercussion of the last arc, Sir Nighteye had his funeral, Nighteye’s office was taken over by Centipede, the internship was suspended and Centipede and the other sidekicks are awaiting Mirio’s return. Eri has also woken up and her fever has gone down, her horn that seems to be the center of her quirk has shrunk and is little more than an adorable little thing that makes Eri that much more endearing. Unfortunately her mental state is still considered unstable, so Deku and the others haven’t had a chance to see her again, which suuuuucks big time. I want them to all meet and be happy. Is that too much to ask? Probably. But I will await that day to eventually come. And finally, we see them in an actually class setting (which is something that has always thrown me, lots of anime and manga take place in class rooms but I have never seen anyone actually doing classwork, with the exception of Light from Death Note in episode 1). Well they are learning Calculus it looks like, Kaminari is straight up dead (understandable), Jirou and Tokoyami seem lost but have good poker faces for the teacher, Momo is diligently working and Deku is feverishly working, even though he eventually gets it wrong (relatable). And even though Mineta is a little gremlin, his interaction with Deku after he got the question wrong was strangely close and seemed totally normal, like “hey man don’t worry about it.” Doesn’t change the fact that he is a gremlin though...

... Then the beginning of the true reason I wanted to write this one out. Aoyama appears out of nowhere during the break and starts feeding Deku cheese. The sheer effort put into the two panels where Aoyama feeds Deku is astonishing, as well as the closeness of these two dudes was... tense. The whole act felt intimate and Deku was blind-sided by this. Aoyama’s comedic timing is fantastic too. He has a whole panel to himself where he is just chewing on cheese, another panel of him trying to offer more cheese and a third whole panel of him just swallowing cheese, never once did he blink. Truly perfect timing and spacing. Then, just to be extra, he sets up his lunch, first with a tablecloth over his desk, then a wine glass, plate, knife and fork (does he carry those in his school bag?), and his wine glass is filled with juice more likely than not. So, ultimately, he is 110% extra.I’m not done there though. The narrator (future Deku) comes in and says that he never could understand Aoyama, and that his true colors would soon show. “True colors? What could that mean?” Well I am glad you asked! It means that in the last couple panels of the chapter, Aoyama is literally standing outside Deku’s window at night (since before 1 am) watching him do homework and watching him sleep. There are a couple things that are absolutely horrifying with this picture: Aoyama’s posture is so that he is leaned up against the window, palm flat against the glass, he is staring down at Deku while he is in bed, his facial expression is the same as always (meaning a tight smile), and he has some wacky bootcut type pants that flare way out at the bottom below the knee. So.... what the hell? Where did this come from? Where is the explanation? Do I want an explanation?

Here is how I see it, there could be three things happening here, I will list them in from most understandable to least understandable. 1.) That is actually Toga, which would explain why she feed him earlier and is watching him so closely, she wants to as close to him as humanly possible since she “fell in love” with him, and it also makes sense that the League of Villains wants to keep a close eye on him. 2.) Aoyama is the traitor, so he is watching Deku for the purpose getting information for the League. 3.) He is... just... “deviant.” Somehow got into U.A. so that he could do the same thing Mineta is doing, to get close the attractive people. The problem with why this is so shocking is that the feeding and the watching at night are intimate and stalkerish actions respectively, which hasn’t really been talked about so far. Abuse, extreme violence, careless violence, and even arousal/excitement from violence (Toga/Muscular) have all been discussed, but crimes of a seemingly sexual nature is particularly uncomfortable to consider especially when most of the cast are great, pure-hearted high schoolers.  Heck, Deku has nearly fainted from dealing with Mei, how would he react knowing that someone is watching him while he sleeps with possibly indecent intentions? All of what I just said was about option 3, I won’t go into option one because that one is the most understandable of the three, so I will just discuss option 2.

He is the traitor. If this is the case, then it was/is brilliantly executed. Aoyama’s personality is so over the top all the time that it would probably be easier to describe it as someone role playing as a stereotypical French person. Since his whole persona seems to be a character, it is so abstract that it is hard to understand even if you spent a lot of time with him, which he hasn’t with anyone. Plus his natural dramatics would make it easy to lie, since dramatic lying would look the same as dramatic truth telling. If that is confusing imagine this: “hey did you do the homework?” “!!!! Oh Non!!!! I started to do so!!!! Until I saw a stain my suit or armor!!!! I simply had to polish the suit!!! It would not be nearly SpArKlY enough had I left it!!! My ImAgE!!!!” “... ok dude.” Obviously an exaggeration, but that is the gist, if he is normally like that than how could anyone tell if he was lying? Then there is the fact about his quirk.

A while ago (I forget which post), I talked about who the traitor could be based on the usefulness of their quirks, but Aoyama has such a straight forward quirk, how could it possibly help? After this chapter I started to wonder something, how come we only ever see Aoyama using his quirk with his belt on? Sure it could be a safety measure (like X-Men Cyclops’ shades), but what if the belt was just a tool? And we don’t actually know what Aoyama’s quirk is? Truthfully, that would have been hard to get by the design company, but I like the theory so I an gonna bypass that fact for a moment. If Aoyama’s “quirk” is simply the belt, imagine the potential of him having a hidden quirk, or worse yet, he could give the belt to someone like Toga and boom, suddenly the shape-shifter also has the original’s “quirk.” Toga would be indistinguishable from Aoyama, and since his personality is so wacked, have small/major changes in personality probably would be overlooked, the same way that Toga was able to replace Camie so well. ((this could also mean that Aoyama isn’t the traitor but simply had his place switched based on the recommendation of the real traitor. Basically the Six Braves situation where “oh you are the traitor, now the number is good. Oh wait there’s another? Then there is another traitor?”))

Ok. I’ve tired myself out. I’m done, tapping out. Thank you for reading, sorry it was a long post, but I feel that it was needed to get my thoughts out there. So thank you again for reading, I hope you all have a great day.

[man-i-dont-know]

Wow this is amazing! Thank you, every one of my followers for bringing the number this high. I will do my best to continue putting out content that is worth that many people's time. So thank you all again and have a great rest of your day!

[man-i-dont-know]

BNHA Chapter 166: Thoughts and Spoilers

Hello again, this was a quality chapter that pulled on the heart strings a bit. So let’s get into it.

Everyone gets right into it. The high schoolers and the elementary kids get ready to throw down while the spectators are thinking, “are they really gonna fight?” One kid nearly hits Bakugou, I think Bakugou dodged it easy since there were no exclamation marks, but it seemed like a close call, ripping his mask off. Then Todoroki and Inasa get swamped with large amounts of dust. Then the rest of the kids tag in and the three of them seem totally overwhelmed. The kids show such a display of power that even Present Mic is impressed with the raw strength, and we get some explanation from meat-grinder dude. Since quirks are becoming more and more common, and blood lines keep mixing, future generations of quirks are going to become stronger and stronger, until the point that some fear, they will hit a “singularity.” This is frightening dude to the potential danger in something like that, but it is not something we will have to worry about in the near future (plus Chisaki managed to find a counter on low funds illegally, so I think if the government needed to, they could figure it out as well).

Back on topic, the high schoolers obviously shook off the attack because they are soon-to-be pros. Bakugou is pissed, Todoroki takes in the situation and Inasa wants them to all be friends. Then the leader (which was who I thought, heck yeah) told the kids to redouble their efforts and the girl that called Camie a “hussy” attacked Todoroki, who in turn spouted the most cheesy, romantic, shoujo (I believe that is the term) line about the girl being beautiful and having already fallen in love with her. She immediately stops the attack and this prince of romance Todoroki turns out to be an illusion by Camie. Comedy reasons aside, I am glad we got to see what her quirk is, because it confirms that she is not Toga, which we already knew but I like getting confirmation. SO back to the present Bakugou is genuinely laughing at this fake Todoroki. Like, genuine, hand-over-the-mouth, snorting, trying not to make a scene laughing, even going as far as telling Camie that she did good. Todoroki, with his minimal social skill, is trying to figure out why that was as funny as it was. (I am also interested in why Camie’s character box it is specifically stated that the illusion quirk is forbidden to be used abusively, Bakugou can literally blow things up with his hands, why does the illusion warrant this caution? Maybe due to its versatility and general subtlety?)

The leader of the kids starts to freak out and the high schoolers start to enact their plan. Which is absolutely amazing. They make a small theme park out of ice with the occasional rings of fire, Inasa is ferrying people to the top with his wind and Camie is bringing the northern lights into the building just for special effect. Inasa is saying that the kids are great and Todoroki is complimenting the kids on their quirks and for helping make the structure. They really did a fantastic job of being really cool while simultaneously are making the kids feel good about helping make this great structure. Not only are the kids stunned, but everyone watching is stunned as well. All Might put his hands together like he was really pleased and even Endeavor went a little wide eyed. We get to see in a minor flashback the process of coming up with the plan, and it is Bakugou that seemed to understand the most that this wouldn’t be something about winning or losing and Todoroki wants to broaden their outlook (which he says with one of the most heartfelt smiles I’ve ever seen him put on).

Bakugou goes straight up to the leader kid and tells him to participate. He tells the kid that “if all you ever do is look down on people, you won’t be able to recognize your own weakness.” He says this with a straight face, I wouldn’t go as far as saying it is vulnerable, but it isn’t his typical face of rage. He tells “Baldy” and Todoroki to take the kid to the top of the slide. These words actually reached the kid, who had seemingly stopped believing that anyone had the right to give him advice anymore. Beyond Bakugou’s interaction with the kid, I was also intrigued by how he has addressed people during this chapter. He called Camie “Ms. Illusion” and Inasa “Baldy.” While I can not read Japanese nor did I see any other translation for “Ms. Illusion,” it struck me as something oddly respectful, which Bakugou is not known for, it could be that her humor is what made Bakugou rank her so highly, but to start off with that level of respect (even though -san is pretty basic I believe) is odd. “Baldy” is about normal, taking a trait from someone and just using that as a name, so that does not surprise me, but what did surprise me is that he straight up calls Todoroki, Todoroki. I could be wrong but I don’t think he has even done that with Kirishima. I am not saying that Todoroki is closer to Bakugou than Kirishima, but I think it is worth noting that Bakugou cares enough to do that (I can’t seem to remember if Bakugou calls Uraraka by her name or not). **Also Camie is in the corner with the young girls dancing with an illusion Todoroki who seems to be jamming too**

Then we come to the last page. Inasa wants to make a bigger and better slide that  is more a roller coaster than anything. The elementary teacher is so grateful that she seems ready to cry (though if I had to deal with those kids, crying would probably become real easy). Then the combination of the last three panels really gets me. All Might asks Endeavor a rhetorical question, “for what reason are we equipped with our powers,” or something along those lines. Endeavor has a look on his face that I would describe as open, contemplative thoughtfulness, and this expression comes from All Might’s words while watching his son entertain a girl with fire, keeping her hands warm. In these two panels, we can see some really important stuff on both sides. Starting with Todoroki, his panel is incredibly important because he is using the quirk he associated with hatred, violence and pain to entertain a child, he is using the quirk that he had suppressed out of hate to make someone else happy. He is growing so much and so well, his development is really amazing. Endeavor on the other, we are starting to see the first steps of something good. Endeavor approached All Might to find what he was missing, and received an insufficient answer (in Endeavor’s opinion anyway), but then saw in his own son what he was missing. Whether he puts it all together and acts on it is another thing, as much as we all hate him, he is intelligent, and after this, he will more likely than not try to take baby steps in a new direction.

This chapter was a great example of character development on Todoroki’s, Bakugou’s, Inasa’s and even Endeavor’s part. I am really amazed with how these characters change and adapt to new situations, growing as people in general. I find it greatly comforting, because a lot of stories in books, movies, comics, manga, whatever, the characters always seem to be trapped in what they were and don’t do a whole lot of growing. Seeing angry characters mellow out, seeing ruthless characters empathize, seeing narrow-minded characters take a step back is so reassuring to me. Becoming who you want to be or becoming a better version of yourself can be a hard thing to properly show in characters that are two dimensional without the author pointing at what is happening explicitly. This chapter was rejuvenating after the emotional turmoil that was the last arc, and I am so glad that this arc is happening.

Well, that is about it. Thank you all for reading, and I hope you have a great day.

[man-i-dont-know]

BNHA Chapter 165: Thoughts and Spoilers

This chapter is lacking on action, so bombastic commentary won’t be present, sorry, but this chapter is interesting to think about, and I did do quite a bit of thinking. Anyway, getting into it (this chapter is a gold mine for background character faces, so I recommend going through it once just to see them).

This test is exactly like what we thought it would be, a test of personality. The teacher fears for her students, because they are going through the years that form who they will be, and right now they are turds. The high school students are here to set an example and to help settle the kids and make them more understanding, though the people suppose to be setting the example are not exactly.... ummm... role models? That is probably the best term, and we’ll get more into that later.

Bakugou immediately devises a plan, and I love seeing this, it really solidifies his character for me. In the past he has been described as a ball of instincts, reflexes and battle knowledge, and his standing in class also proves his intelligence. Due to his personality however, I came to the conclusion that he thinks like this: “What? Of course I got the answer right. Show my work? Well isn’t it obvious?” This kind of intelligence seems to sprout straight from the mind, but Bakugou’s plan showed that his thoughts are grounded in logic. He immediately realizes that they lost the initiative, and that there is a “boss” lurking within the crowd somewhere. This knowledge was probably gained from first hand experience of being the “boss,” but the fact that he understands and can verbalize this dynamic impressed me greatly. Knowing and verbalizing are two very different skills, and I assumed that Bakugou could not verbalize his intentions quite like that before. It is possible that this is proof of growth, that he is actually talking with comrades and setting down some base work (even though his ultimate plan is to humiliate the boss... he still has a ways to go). Though I personally believe that the boss is, pretty obviously, that weird side-part kid who has already dissed Bakugou. Bakugou is put on the side after the supposed boss says that violence won’t work and accurately guesses about his upbringing, stealing the advantage once again.

Inasa then tries, and he makes considerable progress compared to Bakugou. He starts with something safe, heroes, and works from there. His personality is much better for this type of thing (as the meat grinder guy says in his 100% necessary narration), and starts telling the kids what type of people they should be. This gets shot down too however, since the kid he was talking too pointed out that he wasn’t in any place to talk from either. This made me think some. Inasa took a good approach, no B.S. and just told them what a good person should do and two thoughts hit me. 1.) If Inasa admitted his mistake and continued to push the thought, would he have succeeded? Would humility work in this scenario or would the kids see that as completely destroying his credibility? And 2.) Was lecturing them in the first place a good idea? This could very well be showing that lecturing about something good with good intentions is still lecturing and no one really has any moral high ground, so a fundamentally flawed approach. Inasa apologizes for overstepping his bounds and he tags out (with a fiery flare).

Then we get a handful of panels that show... something. Bakugou wants to settle this with violence (shocker), but Todoroki stops him, and says that there is a better way. Bakugou claims this was how he was raised, but he remembers when he accidentally eavesdropped on Todoroki confessing to Deku about the abusive upbringing he had and the overwhelming hatred that Todoroki still carries. Bakugou stops, and lets Todoroki do it his way. This is improvement, this is consideration and empathy. Bakugou has impressed me twice this chapter, and his growth and improvement may appear small, but it is certainly there, he is growing and learning.

Endeavor is also growing in the stands slightly. He admits to All Might that he understands the difference between them as heroes, but in his words it shows that he also rejects the part of All Might that made him the Number One Hero, Endeavor rejects the so-called “crowd-pleasing,” because he wants to be the strongest. I have already shared my opinions on why All Might was ranked higher (a general feeling of security), but All Might took the conversation in an unexpected direction (at least it was nothing I predicted, though it makes sense). All Might states what made him want to be the symbol that he was, he spoke about wanting to be hope for the innocent and a warning (”warning,” is not aggressive) for criminals. He spoke about the sacrifices that he made for it, which Endeavor knows about Sir Nighteye, but he says it passively, with no meaning, for such a terrible guy, being respectful of the dead was surprising. All Might also shares some understanding, he knows the situation Endeavor is in and tells him this, “you don’t have to be the same type of symbol.” This struck me. I always wanted Deku to grow into something different than All Might, but I feared him falling into All Might’s legacy, but here is All Might, telling a man who hated him for years to be a different symbol. A different symbol was something I hadn’t imagined for anyone other than Deku, I suppose I imagined a symbol-less place until Deku matured. As much as everyone hates Endeavor, I see genuine potential from him. He is already growing and maturing and seeking advice, he won’t be any symbol of hope, but he certainly could become a symbol of strength. If he mellows out, becomes calm, confident, swift and determined, he could set people at ease, or at least ward off crime for a time. A good analogy would be this: Endeavor is a standing army, scary yes, but it would be comforting to know that it stands with you rather than against you. We might have a couple symbols before Deku takes the stage, and I am okay with that, plus, the fan art could be really cool. Blue background All Might, “Peace,” Red background Endeavor, “Strength,” some other primary or secondary color background hero, “some abstract idea.” It could be cool.

Unfortunately, Endeavor does not comprehend the word “chill,” and whips around when Todoroki steps up to bat and screams his support once more. Todoroki understands the generals of what you have to do to get people to trust you, but he can’t seem to execute it. He basically gives a character description of himself and the kids lose interest, or they are amazed by his total lack of social skills. Todoroki is forced to retire and try again later.

The next idea is brought up by Camie, and Bakugou agrees. Show off our quirks and show them who we are. This is a good take, “lead by example,” but those leading kinda don’t know restraint... so this could get rough. But once again, the kids steal the initiative. They activate their quirks as well, but only after a brief discussion that explains where all this confidence comes from. The live in a world where they hear all the criticisms of heroes all the time, and with the fall of the symbol of peace, the raise of the League of Villains, and several other social factors, to them, this generation of heroes can not be trusted or that they are unreliable, thus, they believe that they can be better. This is good in moderation, but it seems that the presence of this “boss” has jacked up their pride one hundred-fold. The boss probably took advantage of this social criticism of heroes to wreck havoc, meaning, the boss is a turd. The display of quirks by the high schoolers is the best way to show that they are competent and that their unease and pride are... unfounded? That seems a little harsh, maybe just the realization that they are safer than they believed will settle their spirits.

Well, that’s all. I said this my last post, but I am glad that this arc is right after the raid arc. It is a good change of pace and it looks more closely at the specifics and technicalities of what it means to be a hero instead of just punching villains. The only other comment that I want to make is this: I am curious as to what Camie’s quirk is, we haven’t seen her use it yet since last time we saw her do anything was actually Toga. So I am curious as to what it is, how well she can control it, and what her role will be in appeasing the children. Thank you for reading this and I hope you have a great day, and happy new year.