tfw fans treat you as dumb comedy relief and ignore the fact that you work three jobs, know at least 2 languages, have a 5/5 in intelligence and a devastating quirk that could topple cityscapes:
Because tumblr likes to force characters into boring character tropes that take away the depth and complexity of a character in order to fit their personal head cannons regardless of what canon information has to say. Esp when it comes to shipping with other characters. Its just low hanging fruit at this point and overdone to hell tbh.
There is a lot explored in canon about the separation between a hero’s public persona and thier private life. In All Might, this is discussed through the lens by which to spread hope and peace in troubling times despite his own personal physical and emotional pain. We are starting to see Endeavor taking a look at this as he begins to grapple with being number 1 and a desire to examine his relationship with his family.
I see Yamada Hizashi as Present Mic in this same light. He is clearly skilled and intelligent yet he presents himself as a bombastic and emotional guy who seems to check the moron boxes. But that’s the point of his character. He is exaggeration to its fullest potential.
A villain isn’t going to take him seriously whether that means in his intelligence or his capability as a fighter. That makes it far easier to catch them off guard. Like what’s mentioned above, he’s obfuscating stupidity. You wouldn’t be pressured to be very careful about your plans if you think you’re smarter than the guy you’re talking to. I get the impression that he’s this way around other faculty precisely because he thinks there might be a traitor among his peers. Who knows how long he’d been sitting on that theory before he made it known? No clue. Obviously it isn’t like this would be an idea he’s had since he started working there, but it’s really easy to just dial it up and lay into that kind of role.
But it serves another purpose as well. Like All Might, Present Mic is a positive force in the community. He’s an entertainer. He brightens moods and gets people smiling and it seems that he doesn’t truly mind being the butt of the joke to do it. His radio show is extremely popular, a venue where he can talk directly to the general populace and share himself with them, even if it’s just to share his taste in music. It makes him seem accessible in a way that All Might really isn’t. That really does the world a lot of good.
The Present Mic persona also means that it’s easy to step out of. If he wants to blend into the crowd, either for an undercover mission or just to take a break for once, all he really needs to do is wash out the gel, switch the sunglasses to regular ones, and to wear more chill clothing. Maybe the mustache can be a giveaway, but it’s small enough to cover with something else or he could shave it and not wait for a full face of hair to grow back.
It may seem like he’s bad at acting because of the training exercise, but there’s an important distinction. That wasn’t Yamada Hizashi playing a character, that was Present Mic playing a character. In other words, how would someone as exaggerated as Present Mic is supposed be actually attempt to act? Just as obnoxiously exaggerated as himself. And that’s what we got.
I assume that there are an extremely low number of people who know the “real” Hizashi, because of all of this in order to keep his options as open as possible. Aizawa, having known him since high school and at least a strong platonic relationship with him (not shippy, but they are paired up multiple times and Hizashi somehow gets Aizawa to commentate with him at the Sports Festival?) is likely one of these people.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS GOOD ADDITION BECAUSE ITS T R U E.
Ontop of whats already been said, I wanna add that Present Mic is probably one of the most flexible heroes in the series. In terms of what he can do because of his quirk and how hes designed his present mic persona. He has so many ways to approach any hero mission compared to other heroes tbh. Ontop of his intelligence he also has a 5/5 on the cooperativeness scale as well so whatever strategy works to his teammates advantage hes 100% down for. Hes invaluable as a team mate because he can fill in for multiple roles where Endeavor, the number one hero only hits 2/5 on cooperativeness scale. And it shows. Even Aizawa only has 3/5 on the cooperativeness scale and can only fill a small amount of roles, i.e ones where he isn’t the main focus and can be overwhelmed. Bnha’s hero system is a mess currently, esp with the fall of All Might. So just because Mic isn’t in the top 10, or even the top 50 heroes doesn’t make him any less of a threat/less powerful. Heck it actually plays into his favor that he isn’t ranked so high because then villains would treat him alot more seriously if they see him show up.
