i also get annoyed at the fairly common assumption in the fandom that monomas quirk "doesnt change his body" or that hes 100% incapable of copying mutant quirks as its like. loosely implied by his use of bakugos quirk (which requires mutated sweat glands to work) AND visually confirmed that he can via eris horn!
but one thing that does interest me about it is the fact that it IS a somewhat common interpretation of his quirk, despite, as far as i know, never having come up in the series at all. other than the typical game of telephone in fandom headcanons, my running theories for how exactly it started is some combinations of these:
A) the sports festival (and monomas intro) was pretty soon after the usj arc, which explicitly called out mutant quirks being a weakness of aizawa's quirk. fans may have drawn comparisons between erasure and copy being quirks that interact with other quirks, and then came to the conclusion that monoma couldn't copy mutant quirks since aizawa couldnt erase them.
B) also during the sports festival, he doesn't copy any visually mutant quirks. Yes he copied explosion, which has mutated sweat glands, but being an invisible mutation its easy to forget about. and yes he did also copy hardening which changed his body, but its a transformation quirk. both easy to write off as not altering his body via the actual copy quirk.
B 2) elaborating on that point, there just arent many examples of monoma copying quirks at all in the series, and most of which we do see are considered emitters. and then when he did copy eris quirk, he only had the horn for a few panels and it was paired with an (also often misunderstood imo) explanation of why he cant use certain quirks, which was what most fans latched on to in regards to his quirk.
C) im fairly certain that somewhere there was something written that classified copy as an emitter quirk, which would give the impression that it doesnt change his body. however the classification system is pretty loose in general and as mentioned, is directly contradicted by what we see in canon
D) in general, people like to give their faves powerups and their least faves more weaknesses, and monoma just wasnt a fan favorite for most of the run. it goes hand in hand with the also common depictions of monoma being weaker/worse at fighting than he is in canon. like there are so many fics ive come across that make him incapable of things he literally did on page/screen and its pretty often coupled with making him a generally incompetent ass for plot reasons. dont even get me started on how many fics switch out shinso to make monoma do the hallway scene before the sports festival instead! but thats more characterization then quirk lol
anyways that got long oopsie daisies. In Summary: Theres no canon backing for the common fanon idea that monoma cant copy mutations/change his body, but i can see how it possibly took root.
(since youve gotten this far: have a little headcanon! copy should technically be considered a transformation quirk by the (albeit flawed) quirk classification system. however, due to emitter type quirks being most common, thats most of what monoma copied in his first few months/years of having his quirk and therefore what copy got classified as. Monoma, being interested in quirks due to his own, learned of his misclassification fairly early and tried to make his doctor change it. the doctor however did not want to admit that a kid understood quirks better than they did and basically locked his quirk registration as emitter out of spite. by the time monoma could have changed it, hes learned enough about quirks to be more knowledgeable and opinionated about quirk science + laws that he decided that changing his registration to transformation type was pointless and there are far more interesting things to complain about regarding those classifications as a whole. any classmate who asks will get an inescapable lecture about this and whatever other quirk science has gotten on his nerves lately. and yes, he has presentations prepared.)
I never considered how one of the reasons for the fandom's perception of Monoma's quirk could be the comparison between his and Aizawa's quirks, but I can see how that paired with the little screen time he has might've made people forget/misinterpret how his quirk works. For the thing on Explosion working with mutated sweat glands –that secrete nitroglycerin-like sweat– I honestly thought this was pretty common knowledge, considering how Bakugou is the most popular character.
Didn't know about Copy possibly being classified as an emitter type, which like you say doesn't really make sense. It can be an emitter, if the copied quirk also is, but it can also be transformation. The one that trips up fans the most are accumulation quirks, which he can also copy, he just doesn't get the original user's already accumulated energy.
Your point about fans giving power-downs to characters they don't like is one I did notice and fully agree with. I'll also add that, for Monoma specifically, most of his fanbase also weakens him considerably, even completely disregarding canon and common sense. That's actually the reason why I don't interact much with monoma/mnshn fans, despite my blog being dedicated to them lol. I wasn't aware there were fics that switch them for that scene that's so ???
Anyways, I love that headcanon!! I always imagined that, due to the nature of his own quirk, he'd be very interested –and opinionated– in quirk mechanics, laws, history, theories, science, etc. And he's 100% the type to make presentations to argue on his opinions. He'd even pull out whole folders filled with academic papers and essays of his own to back up his arguments.
the aizawa connection ive only seen mentioned out loud a few times, but i think its enough of an influence and a fairly interesting one at that. if anything, its more of a subconscious connection rather than one people realize they make. and yeah the mutated sweat is fairly common knowledge, but ive seen some theories jump through hoops to explain away how monoma can use it. or it just doesnt cross peoples minds when thinking of copy, who knows.
As for copy being an emitter: i just checked, and its actually labeled as one on the fandom wiki! id assume that means that it had to be written down somewhere in the series, and my guess would be monomas introduction + quirk explanation in the sports fest. however its very annoying to try to find the right panels/scenes, so im gonna leave it there.
(also, having that assumption happen so early on in the series with nothing to contradict it for a long time is probably why people are so confident in saying it like its canon. its had a lot of time to settle in.)
and yeah monoma enjoyers also giving him downgrades is something ive noticed too. like, there are fics where i do like how they write him for the most part, but then will throw in a bit like "he cant throw a punch." maybe its from wider fanon trickling into how people characterize him, maybe its just jokes that dont land for me.
also im kinda surprised you havent come across that variant of the hallway scene yet (or maybe we just frequent different types of fics lol) i feel like its a pretty common change in aus, especially if they switch shinso into class a. although i have also seen monoma included in that scene even if shinso still is in it, so i think that may be another case of fandom not reading the source material lol.
(one of the most egregious versions of that i saw had monoma saying what shinso did in canon nearly word for word... just for the fics shinso to come up and punch him in the face. its petty but i closed the fic after that lmao.)
(also, the presentation part of the headcanon is in part inspired by a bit in a fic that i read :D i cant pull it up rn but once i can ill attach a link if youd like (its monodeku lol))
Omg you're right it's on the wiki T-T I totally forgot about that,, now I feel silly.
and yeah monoma enjoyers also giving him downgrades is something ive noticed too. like, there are fics where i do like how they write him for the most part, but then will throw in a bit like "he cant throw a punch." maybe its from wider fanon trickling into how people characterize him, maybe its just jokes that dont land for me.
Yeah I've read many fics like that. Even if there isn't a fight, 9 out of 10 times he's described as small and skinny. The thing with this kinds of stuff in the mha fandom is that is not even characterisation, they genuinely think he can't fight to save his life, in canon. Even if canon tells you the opposite (he's canonically a combat fighter, sth I'm v annoying about). There are many Fanon things that fans truly believe happened, confusing what they see on the fandom with what happens in the source material. This is admittedly the thing I hate the most about his fans/portrayals. Seriously speaking, what do they think he does in the field? Talk shit until his ops give up? Limit his work to long-range quirks, avoiding the chance to use a combat oriented one? Moreover, did they forget he tried to 1v1 Midoriya? What do they think he'd do if he can't use a quirk?
also im kinda surprised you havent come across that variant of the hallway scene yet (or maybe we just frequent different types of fics lol) i feel like its a pretty common change in aus, especially if they switch shinso into class a.
(one of the most egregious versions of that i saw had monoma saying what shinso did in canon nearly word for word... just for the fics shinso to come up and punch him in the face. its petty but i closed the fic after that lmao.)
We def just frequent different fics lmao. That version is outrageous, but I totally believe you. I used to read those socmed aus on instagram back in the day (many of which had a "fic" part) and soo many of them had stuff like that. Although Shinsou punching Monoma for the same he did is so silly.
(also, the presentation part of the headcanon is in part inspired by a bit in a fic that i read :D i cant pull it up rn but once i can ill attach a link if youd like (its monodeku lol))
Ohh yk in TUM he does make a presentation on why Class B is better to the Class A students, including Deku, but they somehow come to the conclusion that he's asking them for help :o I'm curious on that fic soo if you want to give the link I wouldn't mind ;)
I'm very fond of rambles!! As you can probably tell, I'm one to rant a lot too. So, don't be afraid to ramble on my blog >◡<
hgfskl yeah i get that with wanting to see monoma portrayed as being as competent as he is in canon - hes a clever kid with a lot of potential, which should be very fun to play with! but whenever i open up a fic that has monoma in the tags i have to prepare myself for the signifigant chance that hes just an incompetent idiot used as a plot convenient asshole. like he could be so fun but fans would just rather write him in a way that it makes no sense how he would even get into ua in the first place, let alone stay there!
also i like. completely forgot about the presentation bit in tum lol. the fic i was thinking of was Luck of the Draw, its unfinished and being rewritten but its still fun to me :D
Genuine question: where did the strong belief come from that Monoma is canonically confirmed to be absolutely incapable of copying mutant-type Quirks? So far, the only arguments I’ve seen in favor of this are points I consider refutable, and I haven't found any official confirmation that this is the case, so I admit I'm confused.
I'll try to present my interpretations because that way it's easier to see where I might have gone wrong.
“We never see him copying a mutant-type Quirk in the manga. In other words, he can't copy mutant-type Quirks!”
Well, yes, but Monoma is a minor character. We see hardly anything of him, so it makes sense that we wouldn't see every detail of Copy in action, either. Why would Horikoshi explain something in detail if it serves no narrative purpose? In short, absence doesn't equal confirmation.
“He didn’t copy OFA, so clearly there are Quirks he can’t copy.”
Monoma copied OFA. This is not only explicitly stated in the main manga (chap 217) but also confirmed outside of it (Monoma's Relationship Chart from the *Ultra Analysis Book*). Even if it weren't stated in words, the fact that Monoma had the same visual effects as Deku makes it clear (chap 214), and this is even more noticeable in the anime, given the visible green lightning (ep 99). Yes, Uraraka said Monoma was bluffing about touching and therefore copying Deku (chap 214), but she isn't a reliable source. I mean, she didn't even know he had extended his Copy usage time (chap 215), so why would she be an authority on the matter? There was no way for her to know that Copy could be active without being used efficiently…after all, it’s not as if she had enough contact or closeness with Monoma to know that kind of detail! In fact, Deku realized Uraraka was mistaken even before Monoma explained the situation to him (chap 216).
So why didn't he succeed with OFA? Well, to put it very simply, OFA is the result of two Quirks. Yoichi, the first user, possessed the Quirk Bestowal, meaning he could pass his Quirk on to others. However, since Yoichi initially had nothing to pass on other than the ability to transfer his Quirk itself, there was a mistaken impression that he was Quirkless. Then, using AFO, [his brother] transferred "Power Stock" to him, a Quirk that allowed the user to stockpile power. Because both believed Yoichi was Quirkless prior to this, they didn't immediately realize he now possessed two Quirks, which combined to form OFA (chap 193, chap 407).
When Yoichi died and his blood splattered onto Kudo, he unconsciously transferred the power to Kudo (chap 369, chap 408). This was possible because the transfer relies on only two conditions: that the OFA user is willing to pass it on and that the transfer occurs via DNA, the latter requirement being met by the blood in this instance and by hair in more recent cases (chap 2, chap 414). Initially, not much changed because Yoichi didn't have much to pass on, but it marked the beginning of it all. Since Kudo already possessed his own Quirk, Gearshift, the OFA accumulation factor stockpiled his Quirk as well. And when he passed OFA on to Bruce Lee, who already had the Quirk Fa Jin, Bruce became capable of using Gearshift, and his own Quirk was stockpiled too. And so, the process continued!
Monoma copied OFA directly from the source, that is, he didn't receive it from someone else. For all intents and purposes, it was as if OFA were "new", similar to how it was with Yoichi. However, OFA on its own isn't useful to its first user because, precisely because they are the first person, there is no accumulated power that has been passed down to them. That is why, even though Monoma copied and activated OFA, nothing happened when he tried to attack Deku: no accumulated power had been transferred to him, so it was as if Monoma were Quirkless. It is similar to how Yoichi himself was mistaken for someone without a Quirk.
This becomes even clearer when he attempts to use Eri’s Rewind (chap 217). We know he copied Eri because Monoma has a horn just like hers. However, Monoma tells Aizawa that he cannot use Rewind because it is a Quirk that requires a specific resource to be stored and, in this case, it is something he lacks. Monoma illustrates this using Fat Gum as an example: he could copy Fat Absorption, but it would be useless because he doesn't have the necessary body fat to utilize it. In other words, the Quirk is there, but it is unusable. If Monoma were fat enough, he could use Fat Gum’s power without difficulty. Monoma refers to these as "Blank" or "Dud" Quirks, that is, Quirks he successfully copies but cannot effectively use. He explicitly tells Deku that the same thing happened when he copied his Quirk. So…it is explicitly emphasized that he did copy OFA.
In short: Monoma copied OFA, but he didn't have the necessary stored-up resource, which made the Quirk practically useless. It’s the same case with Rewind, and the same thing would happen if he tried it with Fat Absorption.
“Deku was worried about Monoma using OFA because of his physique. This proves that Monoma's body doesn't change with the Quirk. Since a mutant-type Quirk would require that kind of alteration, it cannot be copied”.
Personally, I don't think those two sentences have any connection to each other, but since I see people acting as if they do, I will argue as if that were the case.
An important detail, established from the very beginning of the story is that Deku didn't have the ideal body at the start either (chap 1). He literally had to train before the power was passed to him, because All Might feared what would happen to Deku's body if he used OFA without having a reasonably good physique (chap 2). The fact that Monoma doesn't have the ideal body when copying OFA has nothing to do with OFA itself, since the power transfers Vestiges and Quirks, not physical conditioning. And in any case, the Vestiges are linked to Quirks, as noted through the plot involving AFO.
Furthermore, there are other instances in the main manga proving that Copy literally alters the user’s body. Monoma used Bakugo’s Explosion without blowing himself up or suffering any burns, so he clearly copied Bakugo’s resistance to his own Quirk (chap 29). He used Kirishima’s Hardening, which is a body-altering Quirk (chap 29). We see him with a horn after copying Eri’s Rewind, and that horn could only be there because Monoma’s body was capable of growing it (chap 217).
Clearly, Monoma is capable of altering his body, as long as it's something related to the copied Quirk. Bakugou's resistance to explosions is part of his Quirk, altering the body to harden it is a crucial aspect of Kirishima's Quirk (It is not without reason that it is classified as a Transformation type of Quirk), and Eri's Quirk requires her horn for activation. On the other hand, Quirks like Yanagi's Poltergeist or Kodai's Size do not require any physical alteration, so nothing changes about him physically (chap 210).
Furthermore, we literally have an example of what happens when someone possesses a Quirk but lacks the necessary physical or biological prerequisites: Aoyama. He was born Quirkless and received Navel Laser from One For All (chap 336). This made him capable of firing a laser from his navel, but because he acquired only the Quirk itself, without all the original user '’'s essential genetic traits, it harmed him physically (chap 168). On the other hand, we’ve never seen anything of the sort happen with Monoma, so we can only assume that he copies not just the Quirk itself, but also its biological requirements (such as Bakugou’s resistance to his own explosions).
“Mutations are permanent, but the Copy is temporary. It's a contradiction!”
Well, in theory, Bakugou's resistance to explosions is also kind of permanent, even though it isn't a mutation-type Quirk. If he had to consciously activate it for it to work, he would have blown himself up as a child, no? After all, he didn't have any training or knowledge about his own Quirk back then. And yet, Monoma copied it. So, the fact that a trait is permanent for the original user doesn't prevent it from being temporarily acquired via Copy. It is true that Bakugou might have only developed that resistance at age four rather than having it from birth, but that doesn't change the fact that, at least since the age of four, it has been permanent.
“That would require an immense effort from Monoma’s body. In other words, it wouldn't make sense!”
It would require it, sure, but why does that make it impossible? I mean, imagine the changes needed for a Quirk like Mt. Lady’s to work! Her entire body changes size in a way that doesn't harm her! Yet, not only is it possible, but the size change doesn't even take that long. Toga transforms into other people using her Quirk until she is physically identical to them, and depending on the situation, she can even use the target's Quirk…all of which requires even more extensive alteration than "Copy," which simply copies the Quirk itself!
You could argue that it isn't always worth it because, for example, the effort involved in sprouting wings on your back only to use them for ten minutes seems disproportionate. But it’s just a matter of Monoma weighing whether the headache is worth it. It’s a limitation that affects the duration, not the success of the Copy itself. This still doesn't confirm that mutant-type Quirks can't be copied.
Furthermore, why are we assuming that Monoma's limit will be 10 minutes for the rest of his life? We’ve already seen that the time limit can be extended through training: in the Sports Festival, Monoma had a five-minute limit (chap 29), but by the Joint Training arc, that limit has increased to ten minutes (chap 215). What prevents Monoma from increasing time even further by training even harder? Eventually, the time limit might become long enough to make undergoing that kind of transformation worthwhile. I mean, the guy became a top 10 pro hero in the future (chap 431), and I think it would be difficult for him to reach that point with the exact same skills he had in his first year, so something must have improved. What prevents time limit from having been one of those things?
“Erasure cannot interact with mutant-type Quirks. So, Copy doesn't interact with mutant-type Quirks either”.
First of all,let's assume that's definitely the case…what does that have to do with Copy? The way one Quirk functions isn't necessarily the same as another. The Quirks of Toga, Monoma, and AFO are more similar to each other than Aizawa's is to any of them, yet they all have quite obvious differences; so why should Copy be prevented from having different limitations than Erasure?
Secondly, I admit I have my doubts about this. It is true that Erasure couldn't handle the Nomu during the USJ Invasion, but Aizawa himself makes it clear that this is because the Nomu's physical strength isn't the result of a Quirk (chap 17). It would be like Aizawa using Erasure on Endeavor and expecting it to make him physically weak, even though his physical strength has nothing to do with his Quirk. Furthermore, among the invaders was a woman with snake-like hair, which appears to be a mutant-type Quirk (for instance, Shiozaki, who also has a hair-based Quirk, is a mutant), and Aizawa had no trouble dealing with her (chap 14). In the anime, it is even clearer that the snakes in her hair stop moving (ep 10). Aizawa also explains in detail how Erasure works. Despite the name "Erasure”, Aizawa doesn't actually erase Quirks! In fact, he merely deactivates the Quirk factor expression. The example used is notably a mutant type, by the way. More specifically, a person with a tail, similar to Ojirou, whom we know to be a mutant. In that example, Erasure doesn't make the tail disappear but prevents it from moving (chap 135). This also aligns with what happened to the aforementioned snake-woman, since Aizawa didn't remove the snakes from her hair, but merely rendered them unusable.
In short: Erasure interacts with Quirk factors, including Mutant-type ones. Aizawa cannot, of course, erase the physical appendage itself, but he can make the factor be inactive, that is, he can inhibit its expression. Let's say he used Erasure on Pony, for example. Her horns would remain, so if she wanted to impale someone with them, she still could. However, she wouldn't be able to use her "Horn" Quirk, that is, she couldn't produce new horns from keratin or manipulate them. Likewise, if he used Erasure on Ojirou, it would be just like the example from Chapter 135... the tail would still be there, but Ojirou couldn't control it.
“Copy works solely through the expression of a Quirk factor, just like Erasure.”
The idea is that if Erasure interacts with the expression of Quirk factors, then Copy does too, and therefore couldn't truly copy Mutant-type Quirks. Following this logic, if Monoma were to copy Ojiro, for example, he would gain the ability to control a tail, but that would be useless since he doesn't actually have one. This makes more sense than "Erasure and Copy don't interact with Mutant Quirks at all”, yet it still doesn't hold true when it comes to Copy.
Again, we saw Monoma grow a horn when copying Eri. If Copy only replicated the Quirk expression rather than the genetic aspects of the necessary physical structures, he would possess the power to rewind living beings (even if he couldn't actually execute it due to a lack of stored energy) but would lack the horn required for the ability. Yet he does have the horn, so we know his Copy interacts with Quirks in a “deeper” way than Erasure does.
Another detail is that we know for a fact Erasure works this way because Aizawa explained it (chap 135). On the other hand, whenever Monoma's Quirk is explained or exemplified (e.g., chap 29-30, chaps 209–217, chap 344, chap 347, Ultra Analysis Book), there is no mention of anything of the sort. So, it hasn't been confirmed that Monoma's Quirk copies only the expression of the Quirk factor.
And again, why are the limitations of Erasure indisputable evidence of the limitations of all Quirks that interact with other Quirks? Hawks' Fierce Wings is a mutant-type Quirk, and we saw that AFO was able to steal it (chap 385). In other words, we know that AFO is also capable of affecting mutant Quirks on a physical level. That alone contradicts the idea that, just because Erasure only affects the expression of mutant Quirks, all other Quirk-targeting Quirks must operate the same way. It is true that AFO received only the wing stubs, but that is because Hawks's Quirk factor was already damaged after Dabi burned him (chap 267, chap 354), not because AFO's Quirk was incapable of stealing mutations. If Dabi had never damaged Hawks, AFO would have obtained the complete wings.
In any case, this limitation maybe doesn't seem to affect Copy, since Aizawa, like Hawks, had his Quirk Factor damaged (in his case, the eyes) to the point where Erasure was unusable, yet Monoma was still able to copy it as new, rather than copying the damaged version of it like AFO did with Fierce Wings. I say "maybe" because the difference might be that what Aizawa damaged were normal eyes, which Monoma has. Hawks, on the other hand, had mutant appendages damaged. In other words, something AFO himself didn't originally possess and relied on a stolen Quirk to obtain. Perhaps if Monoma copied a damaged mutant-type Quirk, he would face the same problem as AFO.
Other materials
Now, moving away from the arguments, I want to talk about material other than the main manga because, as mentioned in the first point, there isn't much about Monoma there, and I wanted to look at the other material. I would prefer not to have to rely on them, since they aren’t written by Horikoshi and I particularlly consider their canonical status questionable, but in this case, it is necessary.
Firstly, there’s the manga spin-off Team-Up Missions. In chapter 29, Monoma uses Kendou’s Fist And, well, her Quirk involves increasing the size of her hand! That certainly counts as a bodily alteration! Yet, Monoma used it without any problems. In other words, Monoma is literally capable of altering his own body. He also used Tetsu’s Steel in Chapter 44, which, like Kirishima’s Quirk, is a Transformation type that requires bodily alteration.
Secondly, the School Briefs novel, specifically in sections II.5 and V.5. The Quirks copied by Monoma, in no particular order, are:
Erasure (Aizawa Shouta).
Tape (Sero Hanta).
Softening (Honehuki Juzo).
Half-Cold Half-Hot (Todoroki Shouto).
Here, I want to draw attention to two Quirks: Todoroki's Half-Cold Half-Hot and Sero's Tape.
First, let's start with Todoroki. In the main manga, there are story arcs centering on the theme of physical compatibility, with the Todoroki family's Quirks being examples. And that is relevant here.
Endeavor believed that his Quirk, Hellflame, had a problematic disadvantage because it offered excellent fire resistance but lacked the ability to regulate temperature. Consequently, although he rarely suffered burns, he would overheat if he used his power for too long (chap 188). This fact, combined with his apparent inability to surpass All Might, led him to believe that a Quirk limitation might be holding him back forever; he concluded that, in that case, he should produce a child capable of achieving what he could not (chap 31, chap 165). Seeking a child without this disadvantage, he pursued a "Quirk Marriage", that is, finding a partner whose Quirk, when combined with his own, would theoretically result in a stronger genetic combination. Since Endeavor’s problem was overheating, he wanted a wife with an ice-related power from the Himura family to counterbalance it. In short, the fire gene came from the Todoroki side (Enji) and the ice gene from the Himura side (Rei). Thus, an ideal Todoroki-Himura child would possess the benefits of both (chap 31, chaps 301-302).
This idealized child is Shouto, who indeed needs to use both aspects of his Quirk to achieve balance, as evidenced by his fight against Deku (chaps 38-40). But before him, there were children with genetic combinations that Endeavor considered less than ideal. Fuyumi and Natsuo are easy to understand: they inherited Rei’s Frost from the Himura side of the family, but did not inherit the fire aspect from the Todoroki side. Therefore, they "failed" to possess both aspects that Endeavor wanted.
But Touya/Dabi presents an interesting case. His Quirk, Blueflame, is a combination of genetic factors from both parents, yet it lacks the balance found in Shouto’s Half-Cold Half-Hot. He possessed the ability to generate and manipulate fire like his father, but his flames were more powerful, as evidenced by their blue color (chap 291). However, while he did possess resistance to fire like Endeavor (otherwise, he would have been burning himself constantly, rather than only after prolonged use or abuse of the Quirk. Like, the first time he manifested his Quirk, he would have lost his hand, at the very least), Touya primarily inherited his mother's resistance to ice. Touya’s fire resistance might suffice for ordinary flames, but it is inadequate for the intensity of his own blue fire. Consequently, he burned his own body during prolonged use (chap, 291, chaps 301-302, chap 349; chap 374; Vol. 36 Touya sketch). At a certain point, he also Awakened the ability to use ice (chap 387), which finally gave his ice resistance a practical purpose. He even was able to use Phosphor, the same attack Shouto uses, which combines both ice and fire.
In other words, the main manga makes it clear that, although both Shouto and Touya possess ice and fire powers, their Quirks are not the same:
Half-Hot Half-Cold: a basically ideal balance of both fire and ice, if used correctly. The user can employ ice to prevent overheating and fire to avoid freezing. When Shouto faced difficulties during the Sports Festival, this was because of his strategy rather than an inherent disadvantage of the Quirk itself. He possesses resistance to both fire and ice, though he is not immune. This is primarily evidenced by the scar Shouto bears after Rei, in a desperate attempt to soothe a scalding water burn, applied ice directly to the wound, resulting in a scar. This is further reinforced by his need to defend against Dabi, which makes it clear that Blueflame has the capacity to injure him. It makes sense, given that Endeavor could also be harmed by Dabi despite his own fire resistance. However, it is worth noting that those specific Quirks belonged to Rei and Dabi, not Shouto. In fact, Shouto has never injured himself using his own power. The user can also combine both aspects, as demonstrated by the use of "Phosphor."
Blueflame: it has both genetic factors, but in an unbalanced way. The user's fire resistance is low compared to the power of the fire itself, which is hotter than ordinary fire. If Dabi produced ordinary fire, I imagine it might cause less harm. The user possesses great resistance to ice, a trait not particularly useful for someone who primarily uses fire. Dabi actually had the capacity to use ice, but it manifested late as a desperate measure to stave off death (Awakening). Perhaps if it had manifested earlier, he might have suffered less damage over the course of his life. He could also use Phosphor, which means he was also capable of combining both aspects of the Quirk.
In short, one thing is clear here: the physical resilience of the Todoroki and Himura bodies is part of their Quirks. Dabi’s greater resistance to cold than to fire is part of Blueflame, just as the inability to regulate body temperature more efficiently is part of Endeavor’s Hellflame. Conversely, the fact that Shoto suffers from neither of these disadvantages is part of Half-Hot Half-Cold.
Now, Monoma did copy Shouto. Granted, it was brief and for silly reasons, but he did copy it. He struggled to use it, leading him to rely heavily on the fire side (much like how Shouto tended to favor ice), but that was due to a lack of training (similar to how he tells Aizawa he would need to train to truly use Warp Gate efficiently in the main manga). Even with that initial lack of control, Monoma didn't injure himself while using the fire. Clearly, Monoma's body was altered to possess the same level of resistance as Shouto's. That being the case, I imagine that if Monoma had copied Dabi, he would have faced the same drawback where the "Blueflame" was far too powerful for his body's resistance to handle. In other words, Monoma's body still undergoes changes, but only regarding factors directly tied to the copied Quirk.
Now, Sero's Tape. I don't even need to say much about this one. Suffice it to say that Sero is classified as the Mutant type. His body is physically structured to accommodate his Quirk, and that is a constant state. He can't just make his distinctive elbows disappear at will, they are like that all the time (and if Aizawa used Erasure on him, Sero’s elbows would likely remain the same, though he wouldn't be able to control the tape). Yet, Monoma copied Tape and used it. In other words, he successfully copied and used a Mutant-type Quirk.
However, an interesting point is that Sero's mutation is directly linked to the copied Quirk, Tape. Without the elbows modifications, he wouldn't be able to use it. If Monoma copies Quirk-related factors (such as Shouto's heat resistance and Bakugou's resistance to explosions), it makes sense that he would copy the mutation inherent to Tape.
Personally, I prefer to specially avoid merchandise, since it tends to focus even more on fanservice than on lore compared to the spin-offs, but there is one specific official merch that I feel answers all the questions. It’s this one:
Monoma is evidently copying Pony's Horns. We know it is indeed Copy because, in the original image, Tetsu and Kendou are also imitating Pony, but merely making a horn gesture rather than actually having them like Monoma and Pony do. Pony is a heteromorph, meaning she has a permanent equine appearance, whereas Monoma does not. And why is that? Because Monoma only copies Pony's Quirk, which is the ability to produce keratin horns and control them. The only physical alteration Monoma requires is the horns, and the equine aspect has nothing to do with the Quirk itself. Thus, he did not copy Pony's equine mutation…not because copying mutations is impossible, but because that specific mutation has no correlation to the copied Quirk. For example, in a hypothetical scenario... if Monoma copied Tokoyami, he would likely have a Dark Shadow but not the crow head, since the latter isn't necessary for the Quirk to function, meaning the mutation aspect wouldn't be copied. On the other hand, if he copied Jirou, he would necessarily have to alter his ears because her Quirk requires them to work, meaning the mutation likely would be copied. I think it makes sense, and although that merch was probably created with cute fan service in mind rather than lore or world-building, I feel like it worked well in this specific case.
BONUS: I don't consider games because they have to be more liberal in their mechanics for the game to be more fun and It also has visual limitations (imagine if they had to create different models to accommodate all the possibilities of Monoma's copies), but I find it funny that one of Monoma's lines to Shiozaki, who has a mutant Quirk, in MHUR is "will my hair get longer too?" and Shiozaki replies "you're on unknown territory". Apparently, the game developers had the same doubts as the anime/manga fans lol.
So…
So, I got the strong impression that Monoma can copy mutant-type Quirks, but the level of the copy is limited. But that’s no big deal, since Copy is limited for other Quirk types as well, whether due to time constraints or training limitations. Like, he won't copy just any mutation, only those directly related to the Quirk copied. But I always see the idea that Monoma can't copy mutant-type Quirks treated as an unquestionable fact, so I'm wondering if I got something wrong. Or maybe, since it's been years since I read the manga, I just forgot? I don't know. Anyway, I'm posting this, and if anyone knows the answer, I would love to know!
Incidentally, my uncertainty also extends to the other Quirks here (such as my explanations of AFO, OFA, Erasure, Half-Hot Half-Ice, Blueflame, and Hellflames), because I admit I had to re-read specific chapters to be sure precisely because it had been years since I last saw their Quirk explanations. And in that process, I might have left out other relevant chapters.
i also get annoyed at the fairly common assumption in the fandom that monomas quirk "doesnt change his body" or that hes 100% incapable of copying mutant quirks as its like. loosely implied by his use of bakugos quirk (which requires mutated sweat glands to work) AND visually confirmed that he can via eris horn!
but one thing that does interest me about it is the fact that it IS a somewhat common interpretation of his quirk, despite, as far as i know, never having come up in the series at all. other than the typical game of telephone in fandom headcanons, my running theories for how exactly it started is some combinations of these:
A) the sports festival (and monomas intro) was pretty soon after the usj arc, which explicitly called out mutant quirks being a weakness of aizawa's quirk. fans may have drawn comparisons between erasure and copy being quirks that interact with other quirks, and then came to the conclusion that monoma couldn't copy mutant quirks since aizawa couldnt erase them.
B) also during the sports festival, he doesn't copy any visually mutant quirks. Yes he copied explosion, which has mutated sweat glands, but being an invisible mutation its easy to forget about. and yes he did also copy hardening which changed his body, but its a transformation quirk. both easy to write off as not altering his body via the actual copy quirk.
B 2) elaborating on that point, there just arent many examples of monoma copying quirks at all in the series, and most of which we do see are considered emitters. and then when he did copy eris quirk, he only had the horn for a few panels and it was paired with an (also often misunderstood imo) explanation of why he cant use certain quirks, which was what most fans latched on to in regards to his quirk.
C) im fairly certain that somewhere there was something written that classified copy as an emitter quirk, which would give the impression that it doesnt change his body. however the classification system is pretty loose in general and as mentioned, is directly contradicted by what we see in canon
D) in general, people like to give their faves powerups and their least faves more weaknesses, and monoma just wasnt a fan favorite for most of the run. it goes hand in hand with the also common depictions of monoma being weaker/worse at fighting than he is in canon. like there are so many fics ive come across that make him incapable of things he literally did on page/screen and its pretty often coupled with making him a generally incompetent ass for plot reasons. dont even get me started on how many fics switch out shinso to make monoma do the hallway scene before the sports festival instead! but thats more characterization then quirk lol
anyways that got long oopsie daisies. In Summary: Theres no canon backing for the common fanon idea that monoma cant copy mutations/change his body, but i can see how it possibly took root.
(since youve gotten this far: have a little headcanon! copy should technically be considered a transformation quirk by the (albeit flawed) quirk classification system. however, due to emitter type quirks being most common, thats most of what monoma copied in his first few months/years of having his quirk and therefore what copy got classified as. Monoma, being interested in quirks due to his own, learned of his misclassification fairly early and tried to make his doctor change it. the doctor however did not want to admit that a kid understood quirks better than they did and basically locked his quirk registration as emitter out of spite. by the time monoma could have changed it, hes learned enough about quirks to be more knowledgeable and opinionated about quirk science + laws that he decided that changing his registration to transformation type was pointless and there are far more interesting things to complain about regarding those classifications as a whole. any classmate who asks will get an inescapable lecture about this and whatever other quirk science has gotten on his nerves lately. and yes, he has presentations prepared.)
I never considered how one of the reasons for the fandom's perception of Monoma's quirk could be the comparison between his and Aizawa's quirks, but I can see how that paired with the little screen time he has might've made people forget/misinterpret how his quirk works. For the thing on Explosion working with mutated sweat glands –that secrete nitroglycerin-like sweat– I honestly thought this was pretty common knowledge, considering how Bakugou is the most popular character.
Didn't know about Copy possibly being classified as an emitter type, which like you say doesn't really make sense. It can be an emitter, if the copied quirk also is, but it can also be transformation. The one that trips up fans the most are accumulation quirks, which he can also copy, he just doesn't get the original user's already accumulated energy.
Your point about fans giving power-downs to characters they don't like is one I did notice and fully agree with. I'll also add that, for Monoma specifically, most of his fanbase also weakens him considerably, even completely disregarding canon and common sense. That's actually the reason why I don't interact much with monoma/mnshn fans, despite my blog being dedicated to them lol. I wasn't aware there were fics that switch them for that scene that's so ???
Anyways, I love that headcanon!! I always imagined that, due to the nature of his own quirk, he'd be very interested –and opinionated– in quirk mechanics, laws, history, theories, science, etc. And he's 100% the type to make presentations to argue on his opinions. He'd even pull out whole folders filled with academic papers and essays of his own to back up his arguments.
the aizawa connection ive only seen mentioned out loud a few times, but i think its enough of an influence and a fairly interesting one at that. if anything, its more of a subconscious connection rather than one people realize they make. and yeah the mutated sweat is fairly common knowledge, but ive seen some theories jump through hoops to explain away how monoma can use it. or it just doesnt cross peoples minds when thinking of copy, who knows.
As for copy being an emitter: i just checked, and its actually labeled as one on the fandom wiki! id assume that means that it had to be written down somewhere in the series, and my guess would be monomas introduction + quirk explanation in the sports fest. however its very annoying to try to find the right panels/scenes, so im gonna leave it there.
(also, having that assumption happen so early on in the series with nothing to contradict it for a long time is probably why people are so confident in saying it like its canon. its had a lot of time to settle in.)
and yeah monoma enjoyers also giving him downgrades is something ive noticed too. like, there are fics where i do like how they write him for the most part, but then will throw in a bit like "he cant throw a punch." maybe its from wider fanon trickling into how people characterize him, maybe its just jokes that dont land for me.
also im kinda surprised you havent come across that variant of the hallway scene yet (or maybe we just frequent different types of fics lol) i feel like its a pretty common change in aus, especially if they switch shinso into class a. although i have also seen monoma included in that scene even if shinso still is in it, so i think that may be another case of fandom not reading the source material lol.
(one of the most egregious versions of that i saw had monoma saying what shinso did in canon nearly word for word... just for the fics shinso to come up and punch him in the face. its petty but i closed the fic after that lmao.)
(also, the presentation part of the headcanon is in part inspired by a bit in a fic that i read :D i cant pull it up rn but once i can ill attach a link if youd like (its monodeku lol))
Some other thoughts about quirks that interact with other quirks (i think ive heard these types be called "meta quirks" before so i might use that) and how they slot in to horror:
transform: easy. impostor/doppelganger/body snatcher type of horror. honestly doesnt even need to blood drinking aspect to be terrifying.
copy: somewhat similar to transform in the sense of not knowing if you can trust the people around you. could easily be used to frame/cast suspicion on others while the actual user fakes a different quirk. i can see it being used as a twist in a slasher, like one of the ones where it seems that a bunch of others could be the killer until the final (rather convoluted) reveal.
search + scanning: grouped these two together bc they both have a "looking right into your soul" sorta thing going on. (esp with search's weakness-spotting thing) its a you can run but cant hide situation, being hunted by a villain who will always know who you are and how to find you.
forced quirk activation: this was one that afo had, i believe he used it during kamino to get the league out via warp gate while kurogiri was still out of commission. but yeah violating body autonomy and free will to use the core of your being for someone elses gain. also i think that he literally had to stab kurogiri to use it.
i skipped erasure and afo cause it was already mentioned, and ofa because that would probably have doubled this ask lol (sure its very chosen-one-legacy-hero coded, but ive seen some awesome horror worked out of that. granted the ghosts definitely help) also i think the new movie had some quirks that would fit, but i havent really been paying attention to that one so idk
Shoutout to the bit in World Heroes' Mission where the Trigger bombs killed people with their own Quirks.
Going off of the discussion of horror movies in the mha-verse, something video essayists have noted is that horror movies are usually representative of the fears of the time when they are made. So, in my opinion, during the dawn of quirks, what movies are being made would represent the fear of the quirks emerging or the fear of being discovered to have a quirk, so largely apocalypse horror, movies where one day you wake up different as examined through horror, and movies about governmental atrocities committed against innocent civilians. On a related note, I could see the HPSC banning/attempting to ban these movies to get them out of the cultural zeitgeist. During the era of chaos Inko grew up in, you would have had horror movies with themes inspired by the era of chaos. Moving away from quirks being these monstrous things and to how they enable the worst among us to become monsters. Ironically, the horror movies made during Izuku’s time might be relatively tame, considering how there isn't any big fears. Maybe a couple of predictor horror movies about what might happen if All Might suddenly disappeared one day, or maybe one where a thinly veiled All Might becomes evil, or a Brightburn-esque one. But I do think that the collapse of society during the war arc would inspire a new wave of horror.
The society in My Hero Academia collapsed way too fucking fast to not have any kind of major fears happening. And considering pretty much everyone middle-aged or older was born during the ongoing apocalypse, there's probably quite a bit of horror related to that, and to generational trauma.
yeah there are always fears in a society - given how hard the mha society clung to the status quo during peacetime and how it fell apart, there was very likely a widespread fear of any perceived instability (and by extension, change.) they just got out of massive global upheaval where the very definition of what it means to be human was rewritten (well, physical/biological and legal definitions at least. mileage may vary on the more philosophical side.) no matter how hard they try to ignore it, they know how close they are to sliding back into another era of chaos. any perceived threat to the shaky foundation of peace they have would be a pretty big source of fear.
honestly, its kinda what ive been going for with my "meta quirks as in-universe horror" asks. part of the era of peace is based on the acceptance of quirks as not only normal, but as an intrinsic part of ones self. granted, many in the society interpret "intrinsic part of ones self" as to mean that some people are intrinsically superior/inferior in some way, or that the quirk determines the person but thats a different problem. and as for why this makes meta quirks scary: those quirks disrupt that idea, by ways of severing/hijacking a persons connection to their quirk and/or having it used against them, or by blurring the lines of or altering the identities theyve come to rely on. it would prey on both personal fears regarding identity and the wider societal fears of losing the stability that theyve only just built.
Characters like Monoma, Kendou, Shinsou are funny because they certainly had more character development and relevancy in the story than most of the class 1a characters. Like okay, i like Kaminari, Sero and Ojiro etc, but what did they even do in the story or narrative? They are only 'lovable' characters on the surface, but their roles aren't pivotal. Heck even Shinsou, who joined the class later in the story after Aoyama's exclusion, had a better handled and focused arc and characterization. He had to deal with societal prejudice regarding his quirk, tried to find creative solutions to work on how to use it and was directly trained by Aizawa.
Meanwhile, for example, Kaminari kinda stayed as a gag character for most of the time instead. Most of the characters like Sero, Ojiro, Sato, Mineta etc were given surface level moments. The female characters were already shafted anyway besides Ochako. I wish Monoma and/or Shinsou were female characters tbh
I don't disagree with you on the lack of depth on a lot of the 1A characters. It hurt the themes later when 1A as a unit became so crucial to the plot when the characters of about half of them were never truly fleshed out.
To be fair, it seemed like Horikoshi was attempting to do something with Momo in the first few arcs, but it never went anywhere substantial. BNHA is usually good with the set ups and questionable on the execution, but Momo's arc is different in that it was flubbed before they finished the set up of her arc.
I don't like the idea of Monoma as a woman with this author. There is no way BNHA could have handled a woman with a brash, underhanded attitude on the hero side without butchering her with twenty levels of shrimp misogyny.
Shinsou on the other hand could have worked well as a woman. I've said previously that it would have helped the story if it included more women/girls harmed by hero society in ways unrelated to motherhood or romantic love. Shinsou's experience with a villainous quirk would still work well if he was a woman. It would have improved the storytelling to have Izuku relate to a girl character in an early arc like the Sports Festival. Early Izuku had a bit of that cringe attitude of viewing girls as inherently different in his early interactions with Ochako. So, it wouldn't have harmed Shinsou's arc and would have improved Izuku's personal growth if Shinsou had been a girl.
Monoma can copy the bare bones of the quirk, even if it is a blank/bad card.
So what Monoma received when he copied One for All should have been what it was when Yoichi's Transfer combined with Stockpile. One for All at its origin was the ability to stockpile and the ability to transfer the compiled energy through having the successor ingest the existing wielder's DNA.
So, theoretically, could Monoma create a new One for All from scratch by transferring the ability to another person before the end of his time limit?
Something that I think is weird about Quirklessness decreasing over generations is how it isn’t just Quirkless parents having Quirked kids, but how two Quirked parents can somehow have a Quirkless kid. We know this is absolutely true for Midoriya, and we can presumably say that all the other Quirkless kids had two Quirked parents, though who knows for All Might. I suppose genetics is just weird like that.
Quirks are weird in generally, but with two glaring exceptions, they're consistently weird, so it's fine
There is some fantastic dramatic irony going on with the placing of Monoma's dialogue about dreams becoming curses right next to Izuku losing control of One for All. Monoma clearly sees Izuku as someone who could always achieve his heroic dreams. But the narrative knows that Izuku is the most cursed of them all. Before One for All, there was no way their society would have allowed Izuku to become a pro hero. On top of that, One for All itself is a wellspring of hopes that cursed their wielders.
Yoichi had a childhood hope that All for One could be the kindest quirk. He was killed by that quirk's wielder, his own brother, and his spirit was sealed in a quirk space vault for more than a century. Kudou hoped to end All for One's rise to power and fulfill Yoichi's will. He was killed along with anyone who could have remembered him. Shimura hoped that Kotaro would live a peaceful life if she left and removed all evidence of their connection after obtaining One for All. She also hoped that All Might would end All for One and create a new era. All for One still hunted down her family and technically survived the era All Might created.
One for All gave All Might the hope that his dream of creating a peaceful society through a show of force could become reality. All Might succeeded in becoming a Symbol of Peace for about 30+ years. He completely lost connection with Yagi Toshinori in the process and nearly accepted certain death once it was clear that his role as symbol was going to end. One for All also gave Izuku hope that he could become a hero like All Might. He nearly lost connection with himself as a person outside of his role as One for All successor in the process.
As a whole, these panels establish at least 3-4 ways childhood hopes and dreams of heroism turn into curses. The curse is the reality of the inability to meet expectations/achieve the goal in the face of childhood dreams. Monoma was told he couldn't become a hero because he couldn't do everything alone with his sidekick quirk. Shinsou was discouraged from heroism because his quirk is perceived as better suited for villainy. Izuku was prohibited from heroism due to his lack of a quirk. After obtaining a quirk, he was saddled with the expectations of becoming an impossible ideal of heroism and defeating the ultimate supervillain.
Monoma's speech here says so much about their society's concept of a hero. A hero is a one man show who can save the day on his own. Depending on other people is unheroic. A quirk that depends on others like Copy is unheroic as a result.
Copy is in a narrow category of quirks with Erasure, All for One, and Yoichi's Transfer where the quirk is only noticeable because other people have quirks. If no one else has quirks, there are no quirks to copy, erase, steal, or transfer. In terms of reliance on others, Copy is most similar to Yoichi's Transfer. Aizawa and All for One don't need cooperation to erase or steal quirks. One for All could only become powerful after Yoichi entrusted it to others. While Monoma doesn't necessarily require cooperation of the people whose quirks he copies, he is most effective working with a team he trusts with a diverse range of quirks. Because he has a short time limit, it makes more sense to primarily rely on quirks he deeply understands from people he can count on to have his back.
Momoma's philosophy on leaning into the bad parts of his personality and focusing on what he can't do in order to find an alternative solution is such an interesting contrast with Izuku. At the end of the day, both were told they couldn't be heroes (though to be fair in Monoma's case, he was told he had a sidekick's quirk, and sidekicks still have hero licenses).
Izuku refused to accept the reality where he couldn't be a hero like All Might because he was quirkless. Because he put that into practice, All Might eventually recognized his efforts. However, as a result, Izuku stayed on a rather traditional path forward as a hero for the first 2/3 of the manga.
Monoma never gave up on being a hero either. What he did give up on was achieving that goal by traditional means. Leaning into a strategy that undermines and aggravates others by playing up the worst parts of his personality while having deep cooperation with his allies was Monoma's chosen path towards heroism. That is also why he immediately tried to form a friendship with Shinsou.
Shinsou cannot become a traditional flashy daylight hero and was unable to enter the hero course initially because of the set up of the entrance exam. First of all, Monoma would be effective at using Brainwashing given his typical aggravation strategy, so Shinsou would make a good long term ally. But also, Monoma was trying to give Shinsou a path forward to achieve his dreams because he believed the traditional path towards heroism excluded people like Shinsou.
It looks like Monoma was anticipating that Izuku would be a blank.
He's one of those characters, like Izuku and All for One, who really has to have a complex understanding of quirks overall in order to be effective. Monoma probably suspected that a quirk that does the kind of damage Izuku received at the Sports Festival was more likely to entail storing something and releasing it.
The official translation did a better job with calling the quirks he can't copy "bad cards" instead of "blanks". It fits well with the street performer magician aesthetic of Monoma's hero costume. His costume actually suits him. Since he can copy most quirks, he could pull almost anything out of his bag of tricks. The watches both fit the vibe and could help him keep track of his time limits, especially if he has to remember multiple countdowns simultaneously.
I think hes also taking into account the very real possibility of being hurt by the quirk, too. the specific panels being used for his thoughts/memories are focused on midoriyas broken fingers, and one of them seems to be the moment he broke out of brainwashing - whatever was really going through his mind, i think that monoma was very aware of the fact that there were a lot of unknowns and risks regarding copying midoriyas quirk.
as you can probably tell, the isf has gotten stuck in my brain. random thoughts for you now.
i was thinking of how the actual format of the isf would work, and i feel like the first thing to figure that out would be to figure out approximately how many students are in each year, and possibly the number of hero schools that would take part.
fortunately, the provisional license exam is an event that includes every hero school in japan, along with some helpful numbers! there are 1540 examinees at 1-a's location, and three locations in all. assuming that the students were split evenly, that makes about 4620 students taking the exam at that time.
given that there are two exams a year and that this is the first in this academic year, the vast majority of this number is likely made up of second-year students taking this test for the first time. however, we know that there are first years who are taking it ahead of time, and very likely third-years who failed the first two times. so that means that the approximate number of hero students a year is likely less than the 4620 found from the exam, but its hard to gauge about how many students could fit in each of those excluded categories. im just going to round down and say that the likely amount of second year heriocs students in the country is around 4000!
although, thats for second years. given the intense nature of heroics, there are likely dropouts typically occuring in the first year, so my guess is that the first years isf has more students than the second- or third-years. and i believe you mentioned that non-heroics students have the option to join, likely for the chance of a transfer, which pumps the first year number even higher!
so, in conclusion, my guess for the amount of students taking part in the first-year isf would be at minimum 4000, possibly getting up to the 5000s. would that be a good estimate?
We can make a few more inferences. For one thing, the one we see is the second one in that year (June and September, this is the September exam). We also know that only one class per school is at each site, so we can presume that no Hero School has more than three classes. UA only has two.
We also know that the pass rate used to be 50%. We also know that it's mostly second and third years, as you mentioned. However, we can infer based on the text on Midoriya's license that you can take the test without being a Hero School Student provided you have a sponsor.
I think that 50% number is what we should focus on. Because this is the September test, this could be, at most, the fourth time a Third Year is taking this exam. For the sake of sanity I'll be evenly applying the 50% statistic to every class in attendance.
So unless my logic fucked up somewhere, if we ignore anyone beyond the second and third years, the math comes out to:
2X + (2X/2) + (X/4) + (X/8) = 4620, where X is the size of a single, second-year class across all schools.
(Two classes on their first attempt, two classes on their second, one class on their third, and one class on their fourth attempt)
Now we can take that number and reduce it by, at minimum, 41. We also inferred that some of these are people who didn't get licensed in school but are doing so later on in life. For fun, I'll say that's 289 people (which is how many people would fail this exam within their school career. The real number would be different, but this is a decent estimate.)
That means the real equation is 2X + (2X/2) + (X/4) + (X/8) = 4290, or a grand total of 1,271 Hero students per year across Japan
I'll round that to 1,300 Hero Students per year across Japan. Approximately. (side note, this means there are somewhere between 22-33 Hero Schools in Japan, depending on how many classes they have)
And I haven't even factored in dropouts! God help me if I try to figure out how to factor in dropouts!
oh your math is much better than mine! plus, 1300 is far more manageable for the isf rather than my estimate lol
and oops youre right, the exam we see would be the second one in the year. I think i got it mixed up with a fic i read that specified that there was still another chance within the year, but yup in canon the other is in june!
i just realized. this au doesnt have all might teaching at ua, so its unlikely anyone will draw connections between him and midoriya other than "oh your both strong" type comments, and thats pretty loose. which means that theres a chance that todoroki wont challenge midoriya. does he get his "its your power" moment? or does he get his sense knocked into him some other way?
WAIT. the isf has all the other schools. inasa is gonna be there. somethings gonna happen either way,
Yeah since All Might is teaching Midoriya out of class, there is much less of an obvious connection between them. Todoroki therefore wouldn't even notice Midoriya until the character development sets in.
Speaking of which.
Yoarashi showing up when Todoroki is at his worst to call him out on it might be good for him.
honestly, inasa hitting todoroki with the "youre just like your father" does make a lot more sense in an arc where he is. well. acting like his father,
This Tetsutetsu dialogue is so much better at setting up Kendo's parallel with Momo than that whole beauty pageant and commercial nonsense. Why is this initially built up as some catty girl rivalry, especially when it doesn't make sense with either of their personalities. This is a fight between two hero course leaders that could have been 75% improved by scrapping the random misogyny.
The crux of their parallel is this: Momo might be a genius with more theoretical knowledge and strategist potential, but Kendo is a level-headed thinker who can make sound decisions in the heat of the moment. Momo gives the vibe of a hyper-competent technocrat while Kendo is a charismatic down to earth type.
Kendo achieved what Momo initially wanted in her class - Kendo is the class president of Class 1B. She has an easygoing charisma that makes her the role model and leader for her class. Momo has a leadership role in Class 1A as vice president but was never seriously considered for the top of the ticket. Momo missed the opportunity to have that kind of leadership role in Class 1A because pre-Sports Festival Momo thought she would make it to the top through demonstrating her individual superiority over building relationships with her peers. She became more of a team player after the Sports Festival, but she lost self-confidence. This lack of self-confidence prevented her from stepping into a leadership role in dire moments in the first half of the story.
The narrative could have gone farther with this parallel. Take their respective roles in the Forest Training Arc/Kamino for example. Kendo defeated Mustard and saved everyone in the forest from the poison gas cloud. But Momo provided the gas masks that allowed Kendo and Tetsutetsu to win that fight and she put a tracker on the noumu. The Forest Training Arc could have been highlighted more to demonstrate that Kendo is the type of leader that rallies the troops to go into battle with her while Momo is the type to consider the logistics and contingency plans.
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