Hello everybirdie!! I've finally posted in the lost media wiki forums about hatoful Boyfriend! I hope we can come together and find everything! I've also made a discord all about archiving everything hb related. I'd like to make a full comprehensive archive of all hb media, I'll be posting things I find/translate on this blog and in a Google drive. If you have any leads please let me know💖
Hatoful Boyfriend (yes the game where you date pigeons) has a number of lost and unavailable medias I would love to see found. Damurushi, a
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Ok but I want to talk about Tokoyami’s speech because it flew over some people’s heads.
The point tokoyami is trying to make is that “darkness” is different for everyone (“it comes in many shades”). For him it is safety, security, connection, and love. Because darkness to him has always been associated with dark shadow and dark shadow makes him feel that way.
While all for one (and most people) think of darkness as fear, confusion, destruction, and chaos. He uses darkness to for its worst, he is the boogie man and monster under your bed.
But for tokoyami the darkness reminds him he will never truly be alone and offers comfort. When tokoyami has flashbacks to him and dark shadow as children and to his classmates he is thinking about the people he loves and wants to protect. He is showing that darkness is very powerful but he wants to use that power to save.
When they said they had “devoured his darkness” it meant they had erased the negativity tied to the dark (“that muddied darkness you brought about”). They changed the meaning of darkness to be something that protects. THIS why they want to be a hero. When people think of darkness they will think of tsukuyomi and how they will keep you safe.
Even his new move is called light of baldur. It is a reference to his “light” destroying AFOs darkness. Maybe dark shadow having golden eyes ties into that. Because even though they are made of darkness there is still a part of them that glows brightly.
I would LOVE to hear about your thoughts on shinso (his relationship with tokoyami or just about him:) )
Shinso and tokoyami are very similar and seem like they would get along. The only issue is that shinso (much like monama) will bring up sensitive subjects to try to get under someone’s skin and make them react.
Tokoyami and dark shadow have a telepathic connection which means they technically have a minor psychic ability. Tokoyami has specifically trained his mind to be able to resist dark shadow taking control of his body. I don’t doubt any attempt shinso would make to brainwash tokoyami would be sensed by him and negated, even if tokoyami would verbally respond to him. This “immunity” to his power would startle shinso and make him obsessed with knowing how tokoyami does it. Tokoyami says it takes carful training of the mind, usually with mental imaging, his quirk has always worked on others because they have no defenses. Shinso’s brainwashing is like a spy, trying to sneak into another’s mind when their guard is down, but he needs to learn other tactics to get into different minds. Dark shadow uses brute strength to take over, when tokoyami feels emotional it makes cracks in the wall and dark shadow can tear the whole thing down (if they want). Shinso would need to employ the same tactic by making his opponent emotional he could find a way in and take them over.
Tokoyami warns shinso never to try to enter his mind in his usual cryptic manner “Sometimes when one stares into the abyss they will see something they can’t take back”. Shinso of course doesn’t head this warning and tries to brainwash him during an exercise by bringing up Tokoyami’s past mistakes. Toko doesn’t fall for it until he starts insulting dark shadow directly and saying they are an uncontrollable, villainous quirk. Tokoyami slips up and when shinso slips into his mind dark shadow slips into his.
Dark Shadow is very protective of people they care about, especially tokoyami. They are like the guard dog to Tokoyami’s mind, a sacred place, NO ONE is allowed to enter without THEIR permission. Usually tokoyami can negate their instinctual response to kill anyone that enters their territory…but the second he becomes brainwashed by shinso his mind goes blank. Now shadow has no reins holding them back, and they are ANGRY. Shinso feels pain in his head like something is trying to claw it apart from the inside, all he can see is writhing darkness. Luckily there is a physical distance between shinso and dark shadow so he isn’t instantly dead but dark shadow does attack his prone form. The attack breaks his ribs and knocks him unconscious before tokoyami regains control from dark shadow breaking the brainwashing. Tokoyami is devastated that he let shinso’s words affect him and lost control, he should be better than this, has he allowed his safety from being surrounded by kind people to weaken his heart? This cannot stand, he needs to be better, stronger. He surprisingly gets in little trouble with Aizawa, by his own words, “shinso needs to understand the consequences of his recklessness” :/ “Not every villain he meets will react the way he thinks, he is not always going to be the one in control” his only punishment is to help shinso train.
Shinso is physically fine after seeing recovery girl but definitely a bit rattled from losing the mental battle to dark shadow so easily. It’s definitely a wake up call to understand there are higher power people in this world that can take him out. He apologizes for saying those things to tokoyami and tokoyami apologizes for losing control. Shinso said it was kinda scary but still cool and he respects him more now. Tokoyami thinks this guy is crazy (this is the start of a friendship). Dark shadow does not show face.
Of course after this training exercise tokoyami is distraught. He might withdraw from his friends for a awhile but of course they pull him right back. He tries to focus on the fact that progress is not linear and accidents will still happens. He trains with shinso with mental exercises like meditation and visualization. They also start to talk more because of this. Shinso gets a little nosy about Tokoyami’s life (we both have villainous quirks right?) and tokoyami will shut down his questions by saying something cryptic, or straight up lying. Shinso thinks his brooding nature is fun and wants to unravel his mysteries. Dark Shadow tends to stay away when shinso is in the room. Until it’s night time of course.
Dark shadow is most active (and aggressive) at night. It’s true tokoyami stays up late with shadow but only so much for training and to help them get their energy out. While tokoyami sleeps shadow is restless. Dark shadow has a hard time relaxing, they are a bit paranoid due to all the things they have been through. They roam the halls checking on people like “patrolling” to make sure everyone is safe. Shinso is an insomniac and also will be up all night. This infuriates dark shadow to some degree. At first when shinso would try to leave his room dark shadow would threaten him to return and stay there. Shinso listened at first (because a truly pissed of dark shadow will frighten even the unshakable to their core) but eventually he said fuck it if I want 2am coffee I’m gonna get it. Dark Shadow’s issues with shinso stem from many things some of the most prominent are his “obvious” disregard for other peoples feelings. They thinks shinso is just some villain playing as a hero because he is just looking for power and will hurt other people to get it. It’s not necessarily his quirk that they hate, but his character, he has no morals. Once again dark shadow is actually just projecting their own insecurities onto someone else. They are worried that they are actually some megalomaniac and they will hurt people without care. They are upset because they have taken control over tokoyami before and thinking about shinso brainwashing people makes them feel guilty. They can also empathize because as much as dark shadow has taken control from tokoyami, tokoyami has taken control over them, they know what it feels like to be under someone’s thumb and trapped.
This leads to shadow bullying shinso quite a bit but shinso thinks of it as competition and banter. Dark shadow knows how to hit you where it hurts though and will call shinso villainous. Shinso doesn’t have much to say back because he doesn’t know much about dark shadow nor have any opinions about them, to him they are nothing more than a quirk. Even when dark shadow starts genuine conversations about shinso’s motives and his behavior shinso doesn’t say anything because he doesn’t need to explain himself to a mindless creature. So the tension continues until dark shadow loses control again. In their anger at not being taken seriously they attack shinso, as a reflex shinso tries to brainwash them…and it works.
Believe it or not I think shinso could successfully brainwash dark shadow. Shinso doesn’t quite understand dark shadow’s sapience so he has never tried it. While shadow has trained their mind like tokoyami they don’t have the concentration to keep up a mental barrier. Dark shadow is an emotional creature, and their rage is their strength to resist. Unfortunately shinso’s brainwashing works better the more upset you are so dark shadow would fall easily to him. Of course tokoyami would easily break this spell over them like shadow can break it for him. If tokoyami were incapacitated and unable to help it would take some time but dark shadow could possibly break free by attacking shinso mind from the inside once again and wear him down.
When shinso successfully brainwashes them it surprises him. He plays around with shadows body for a bit because he’s never been able to control someone’s quirk before. It makes him feel odd, like guilty almost. He released dark shadow and they are immediately frightened and guilty and run away. Shinso thinks it over and comes to the logical conclusion that dark shadow is more alive than he thought…which carries more connotation than he likes. He might need to apologize or something, ugh emotions -_-
Dark shadow is reclusive when tokoyami awakes and it is startling. He’s more concerned as the day progresses. Dark shadow does participate in training but won’t talk to him. They usually act like this when they have done something wrong but nothing seems amiss so tokoyami is worried someone said something rude to them. He doesn’t notice shinso’s contemplative glances.
After school shinso finally approaches to ask about dark shadow. He had actually asked kaminari about dark shadow and since they are close friends he straighten things out. So shinso apologizes for not realizing but it wasnt even something that occurred to him could be possible for quirks. Dark shadow has had enough. They break down saying he shouldn’t be the one apologizing when they have been nothing but awful to him and they lost control, they were just so angry. They cry a lot and shinso is uncomfortable, he really had no clue any of this was going on and dark shadow was so complex. He says all is forgiven despite being confused and that it would cool if they could “be friends” or whatever (Midoriya got him good). Dark shadow agrees.
Shadow has to have long talks with tokoyami (and hound dog) about how they were feeling but now the three of them are besties forever. They enjoy late night conversations with denki. They probably have similar training together and maybe end up dabbling in a bit of spy work with Hagakure. Jiro and the three of them end up being the emo team of 1-a. Shinso is the only other person in 1-a that ends up having a night time patrol in the future like tokoyami so they end up seeing each other the most as adults. And don’t get me started on a team up with monoma, Shihai, Shinso, and tokoyami.
I wish tokoyami would be someone who is willing to open up more because I want them to have a conversation about how they were treated as villains growing because of their quirks. Unfortunately anything emotional tokoyami talks about with shinso can be used as future canon fodder to brainwash him. Shinso isn’t trying anything like that any time soon after the previous results but tokoyami isn’t taking any chances. It’s more of a silent understanding and solidarity that they are kindred spirits.
I do support the common headcanon that shinso is an orphan; it’s just an interesting matter to deal with to me. His parents weren’t killed they just gave him up after he developed his quirk. While Tokoyami’s parents didn’t abandon him there is a huge divide between them because of dark shadow. So tokoyami understands how it feels to be alone without an adult to guide or support you. Shinso, tokoyami, and shoji should all stay at the dorms over Christmas break and play poker. Eri can join too. Dadzawa has his hands full.
I hope once tokoyami is older he will have built more trust with shinso (because shinso isn’t really bad!! He is nice to his friends!) and they can talk about these things.
(This went a bit more into a story plot than I intended it to but I just wanted to express a scenario that would explore their characters more especially when it comes to their quirks. Brainwashing is so fascinating in its functionality and mixing that with dark shadows ability to take over tokoyami and their telepathic abilities leads to many possibilities for results. Of course the results I think were most plausible are the ones I described. I hope this is satisfactory anon!)
There is manga spoiler under the cut because I want to mention one more thing—>
I already mentioned in Aoyamas post that dark shadow takes out their anger about him leaving on shinso. But to reiterate it, yes dark shadow sees shinso as a “replacement” for Aoyama and they don’t want a replacement. They don’t blame him for Aoyama leaving but they are highly offended that he thinks he can fill yugas place. shinso doesn’t think that at all of course. He doesn’t want to be seen as Aoyamas replacement, in fact it offends him. He has been working hard to get here before Aoyama even decided to leave and wants to be seen only as himself.
Do you think you can do a deep on Tokoyami’s character? I don’t see a lot of depth in to his personality due to him being mostly off screen. I wanted to know if you could headcanon his flaws and his strengths as a character! I really enjoy your input! Thank you for your time 😄.
Wow this is gonna be a lot haha I’ve never really tried to make write all this down in one go before but let’s give it a shot.
Secretive/Mysterious
On the surface tokoyami is a chunibyo goth kid with a penchant for dramatic speech, this is all true of course and what you see is exactly what you get, but there is also a hidden secretive side we do not get to see. Each little comment and interaction can reveal small details about his true personality that is hiding underneath.
Tokoyami obviously has a mysterious persona that is maintained by the fact we know little to nothing about his past or motivations for becoming a hero. It can be inferred that he tends to keep people at arms length. During the summer camp we saw what happens when he becomes enraged and loses control. He thinks he is dangerous and has a fear of getting close to people who will only be hurt because of him. It’s also heavily implied that he has hurt or even killed someone before in one of these rampages. That sort of trauma can be paramount to one’s character and influences their thoughts and behavior in many aspects.
The sports festival is when Tokoyami’s character really gets to shine. Here is where we learn about dark shadows weakness to light and their increased strength in the dark. There is already something impressive about him being able to keep that a secret for several months. I don’t think we even saw dark shadows face until the sports festival arc meaning tokoyami was probably keeping to the shadows and scoping out the class’ reactions before revealing dark shadows true nature. He is naturally skeptical of trusting others but also cunning to keep secrets to get an edge during training. This can be a sign someone has broken his trust before and he might have developed a complex that people will betray him. Of course he is willing to break this rule when it is pertinent like how he willingly told koda and Midoriya about his weakness when it was important to their teamwork.
He is also very closed off and private like how he didn’t want anyone to see his room. This can be because he is shy and it’s likely a result of being teased because of his interest in the dark ways. Despite his reclusive personality he isn’t actually off putting, he is actually very agreeable and gets along well with everyone and has been described as having maxed out communication stats. I think his ability to work well with others, even difficult and aggressive people, comes from learning to cooperate with dark shadow. He has always had to compromise to make them both happy and is willing to concede some things to get better results.
Disciplined
Tokoyami has been described on several occasions to have strong self-control. This is obviously due to his fear of losing control of his emotions and causing dark shadow to go on a rampage. I would think he was raised with strict rules and had to maintain a “perfect” persona. Suppressed emotions are unfortunately the source of his issues because they have to get out eventually and usually all at once. He didn’t have a safe space to express himself until he came to UA and that’s why he is suddenly making so much progress and developed Ragnarok so quickly.
He also seems to have a competitive spirit. He will join in on competitions and accepted kuroiros challenge. This could also be a result of how it was push for him to be perfect. While it means he’s determined and willing to put effort and practice into winning, unfortunately it also gives him a complex about failure. When faced with a task he thinks he will lose he will often give up like how he surrendered to bakugo at the sports festival. It takes him a while to get over a defeat and realize it’s not the end of the world (so dramatic). This can also be a sort of survival instinct, if you loose a fight in real life you will likely die, so he needs to win every time because he sees it as life or death.
Logical
One of Tokoyami’s strongest traits is that he’s a logical thinker. He doesn’t let his emotions influence his decisions and will do what’s best in the moment even at his own discomfort or sacrifice. Even during a crisis he thinks calmly and rationally to figure out the next move. He omits his true feelings to make teamwork easier and even will lie to avoid a negative situation. Obviously he is able to avoid conflict through logical deception but it’s at the sacrifice of his emotions. He is incredibly repressed and will go to far out of his comfort zone which could lead to a breakdown. Even when he is upset he won’t tell anyone due to this nonconfrontational nature and fear of upsetting them.
Another aspect of his cooperativeness is that he’s a very good listener. He is full of wisdom beyond his years and can come up with solutions to his friends problems. This is applicable to training because he will prioritize a team win over his own success. Unfortunately it also means he tends to stick to the shadows and follows other people’s lead to allow them the spotlight. He needs to stop acting as support and use his strength to the fullest.
Protective
Tokoyami’s motivations for becoming a hero are unknown but what we do know is that he is fiercely protective of his friends. There is no direct explanation for tokoyami to be so protective of his friends other than the fact that he is probably quite lonely and becomes easily attached to someone like his relationship with hawks. He will value other people’s life more than his own due to his insecurity and self hatred and belief that he is not good enough for them, like he has to prove himself. There is also the fact he could have developed a protective bond with dark shadow. Tokoyami had to become mature and calm very young to help take care of shadow’s needs. This is something like how the oldest sibling is expected to help take care of younger siblings. Tokoyami takes care of shadow and protects them from the light (Of course dark shadow also protects tokoyami and is even more protective than him). In the end though there really doesn’t have to be a reason for him to be a protective person, it’s just one result of someone who is completely selfless. Selflessness it’s-self isn’t to bad but tokoyami will actively throw himself into dangerous situations that could kill him like trying to save hawks from dabi. There is also the problem that this protectiveness makes him angry when someone does get hurt and led him to lose control in the forest with shoji.
The prompts are vague so that you can creatively interpret the themes!
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Also thank you @gavinom123 for helping me with the prompts! >o<
[ID: digital black and white gif, Tokoyami in foreground with his guitar looking exasperated, Dark Shadow behind him playing with a tambourine. 2-frame animations alternating between shaking and banging the instrument. /end ID]
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