#:sba

[ignitification]

You fucking wish the villains were leftist revolutionaries. They're basic bitch shounen sadboys that get redemption arcs because they cried.

Man, you’re so right. Like, look at them.

[ignitification]

i’d think it’d be pretty interesting if we were cut to class 1a next chapter and we compare deku and bkg actions and see how they flipped. deku rn is angry, pushing ppl away, and only relying on his quirks the way bkg was and if bkg is more sympathetic, team working, emotional like deku was like two sides of the same coin

Well, I think that more than Bakugou, now Deku resembles Shigaraki?

I think the message in these panels is both the same: (also please notice the contrast between Izuku having only the lighter part of his mask showing, while Shigaraki's lower part is dark, and on the contrary Izuku's eyes are pitched in darkness, while Tomura's are very clear) "you can't tell me what to do". And it's a stark message. Both Izuku and Tomura here are dissociating from 'higher loyalties' or higher wills that controlled them until this moment (and for which they are grateful) - and this is the moment where we see both of them refusing to be controlled. Shigaraki refuses AfO, Izuku 'refuses' All Might. They don't need a 'safety net' anymore, but rather they need to make their will known and acknowledged. They want to fight on their own, FOR their own and for their own objectives (which are highly different - because both AfO and AM would like for them to 'step down' and rest, albeit for different reasons). This is their 'independence moment', and it's strikingly both dangerous and chilling, because both lose their compass, and the entire vibe they give off becomes a dreadful aura around them (which is then expressed by the energy/Quirk wires surrounding them). So I'd say you are correct in saying that we see a drastic change in Izuku, but rather than reflecting Bakugou, it reflects Shigaraki (almost alarmingly so).

At least, that's what I personally think it is happening here (but I see why you would think this has some relation to Bakugō!).

[ignitification]

What do you think Shouto will do in this final next? I hope he isn't sidelined for Endeavor again like in the first war..

A thousand dollars question, isn’t it?

Shouto, for better or for worse, has had his own development arc, that has been mostly that of ‘becoming the hero of his family’, in stark contrast to Endeavour, who fails on the family and the hero account (as seen in the last chapter).

As you see portrayed here, Shouto’s theme of breaking through the hate of his family, and the fear of failing at not becoming the way his father is (therefore someone who has made of his mistakes his biggest achievement) is made through the motion of becoming a ‘family hero’ and saving Touya. Perfunctorily, he fulfilled his aim and purpose.

While Touya’s faith and how their relationship will evolve is still under question (not the end result, just the process), I do not think that Shouto will be sidelined when it comes to Touya and the ending of the Todoroki’s family plot line, and not even in the final fight against AfO, as likely Endeavour will be too injured to fight, as he is currently fighting through all his might to fend off AfO or he will just be unable to fight more (interpret that as you wish).

I think that the confrontation between Dabi and Shouto has ended: their values are still at odds, as Touya did not think to get out of it alive, one. And two, he is still stuck on the idea that there is no turning back for him, now and that Shouto’s will to fight him stems from the fact that he is a villain, rather than his brother.

But, Endeavour being sidelined from what is one of the most important confrontations in his life (namely the one between his ‘masterpiece’ and his ‘failure’) is exactly the point; look at the panel down here, Endeavour is accepting his faith as a burden, an obstacle to his sons’ future: he does not want his sins to colour the path of the youth, and therefore he is leaving Shouto to deal with Touya.

He is clearly in want to make amends, but that does not mean that atoning or making it up to Touya will be enough, or will get Shouto on the sideline: Touya and Shouto are foils for a reason, and while Endeavour’s arc is centered around them - as their is around him - they are still independently interwoven with other characters (Touya with Tomura and Toga; Shouto with Midoriya and Bakugou; while Endeavour with Hawks).

They are all walking to the same point, and there is no way to tell who will get there first; however, what I can tell is that there would be no point to have Touya and Shouto fight now, only for it to be eclipsed by a Touya/Endeavour fighting encounter. They’re all well in it; but then again, what Touya says here (which is basically a reboot of the Plus Ultra, mind you) is also true: they are the absolute limit, and so who knows what awaits us next.

[ignitification]

Oh wow. I guess my explanation wasn't good enough 😕

But why are villain stans so determined to have villians babied for being sad but murdering people. Hacks like Kishimoto and Horikoshi seem to want criminals to be babied and kissed up. You would probably defend or fuck a serial killer or mass shooter🤷

It’s not about babying someone, but to understand that sometimes it’s not only the act in itself, but what it tells about the person committing it. It reflects how poorly we know ourselves and even less the people surrounding us: the reasons behind committing atrocious acts sometimes it’s the reason that you empathise with a character, which in turn makes you empathetic to their behaviour and impervious to the criminal side of it.

It’s not about babying someone, but more about understanding the reasons why and going beyond the act to see the person who is standing there, and most often than not needs (or needed desperately) help they did not get / could not get. It’s the desire to empathise with a character that has experienced many things similar to your own and going: maybe I would have ended that way if the circumstances were different.

You and I are not above becoming criminals, and we do not stand on a higher moral ground from which to look down upon those who do. Especially in fictional settings, where trauma and misunderstandings, grief and pain are the scorching origin of a villain. I’d like to present you with the examples of Obito / Kakashi (even the same Hashirama / Madara) and that of Dabi / Shouto as two sides of the same coin, with the only difference being the ones around them. Isn’t it uncanny how Kakashi has killed way more than Obito (technically) and that Shouto was way more disillusioned than Touya at a young age?

[ignitification]

To be fair, Tobirama did sound low-key like Uchiha clan deserved to be killed in that moment. And he was the one who put their clan to the outskirts of Konoha.

Tobirama is one of the most grounded and realist characters in Naruto, and given their history - Tobirama was wary of the Uchiha, because of the intense emotions they were likely to feel; but also the knowledge that he hated the Uchiha or thought that they deserved to be killed has no ground in the canon narrative, as not only he personally trains Uchiha Kagami but he is also the one to give a relevant role to the Uchiha in the village (because, their power as police does not apply only to the ANBU and the Hokage himself). The Uchiha clan however has been repositioned in Konoha not by Tobirama, but by Hiruzen after the attack of the Kyuubi and because of the suspicion they might have been behind it? There were suspects of the Uchiha planning a coup because they felt marginalised by the village, as notwithstanding being a noble and powerful clan, none of them were not given prestige positions (Uchiha Fugaku not being considered as the possible Fourth Hokage), but how is that any of Tobirama’s fault? The man had his own quirks, and as a realist he just saw the Uchiha as powerful in their own stead, but if he did hate them and wanted them dead stay sure that he would have made it that the clan was extinct (I think I do have to remind that Tobirama was a genius, and creators of Jutsus that shinobi currently use). But then again: imagine you’re summoned from the dead by your own forbidden jutsu and an Uchiha wants to attack the village you helped nurture and grow.

[ignitification]

I hate Shigaraki but please let him kill Bakugou he fucking sucks 🙏

Do you know that the person you are sending this to, has Bakugou AND Shigaraki as her top two? Apparently not.

Also this is BNHA, I am afraid there will not be a lot of killing, especially of students!

[ignitification]

Obito and Shigaraki are creator's pets and failures of writing. People call Deku a cuck but Naruto is a bigger one for forgiving his family's murderer

You’re both right and wrong.

Obito and Shigaraki are characters that indeed have been given a lot of relevance, and fairly enough so. They are focal points of the plot, without which the narrative would feel empty and unfocused. It would feel incomplete; and actually, both of them have been written greatly. Shigaraki IS Horikoshi’s best written character, and the most compelling one narrative-wise; Obito is certainly in the top five, because of obvious reasons, as Kishimoto could not top anything after having wringed out a character like Itachi and consequently Kakashi. But the point still stands: the failure you see in writing of them (which I assume comes from the fact that you think the author coddled their characters without letting them suffer through ‘consequences for their actions’), is the evidence that tells us that actually the writing for them was great.

Consider that most narratives, especially in shounen respect both tropes and archetypes which are peculiar and subjective to the manga for sure, but are also part of a general theme that is common to find in this type of writing; one of them is the ‘cuck protagonist’: first, it does not make sense to call Obito the murdered of his parents because he wasn’t (indirectly, sure - but then again, Naruto was also the indirect cause of Kushina, Jiraiya and Neji’s death at the least; so it has very limited significance in a world where power system is made out of chakra and luck), and Midoriya is certainly not one just because he has empathy towards someone in pain. Naruto and Midoriya are similar, but also different in a way that makes their stories different: their values. Naruto has always believed in himself, knowing that at one point he would gain the necessary strength to become Hokage, on the other hand Midoriya has always been taught to look down on himself and that he was inherently weaker than the others, putting him in the position of a martyr, rather than the heroic position played by Naruto. This also reflects then on the role Shigaraki and Obito play: both are reflections of their own counterpart, but where Obito was subconsciously more mature and had no direct responsibility (he choose to help Itachi killing the Uchiha) for the massacre, except for him actuating on it - by playing into Madara’s scheme , and following up on his attempt to create in Obito the fool proof certainty of Tsukki no Mei happening, as his own journey into brainwashing was caused by external factors and Rin’s death (both Madara AND Zetsu), Shigaraki’s beginning journey IS the death of his family and consequent society’s refusal to save him (making him end up in AfO’s hands). And yes, both are similar when one thinks about the paternal, saviour role both Madara and AFO play for Obito and Tomura respectively.

Both stories are trudged and ailing, and the fact that the protagonists developed ounches of empathy for their villain counterparts because it could have been them - is not bad writing, nor coddling nor cuck protagonists-having. It’s the explanation and the criticism to a world that does not like kindness as much as it does not enjoy violence. There is no way to do right by everyone and that is exactly the point.

[ignitification]

What are your expectations and\or hopes on how the rest of BNHA's current arc is gonna go?

By current arc I’m going to assume that you mean this war arc - possibly the ‘final arc’ of the story; and more than hopes (at this point, the only real hope I have is for the villains’ redemptions to be handled throughout in a detailed manner) and expectations (because let’s be honest, my expectations are all likely to fall through), I have things I would like to see addressed that in my opinion would give more nuance to the story and give Hori back a little of the dignity he started losing in the last arcs (some chapters were plainly terrible).

Playing a little bit on foresight, I’d say that two are the things we are very likely to see in this arc (on which I hope HK will not disappoint): 

The Villains’ Resolution/Redemption, or better yet, the talk between the main trio and their hero counterparts, in this order: Toga, Dabi, Shigaraki. It might seem obvious (because the main, last and most dramatic and difficult part will likely go to the main characters - in this case Midoriya and Shigaraki, while the most prone to even listen to her counterpart is Toga), but in here are factored two different variables: Toga has Twice’s blood, which she will almost certainly end up using as a way to counter Hawks (currently with Endeavour, but likely to have an encounter with Dabi as well) - from which we can deduct that or Toga is going to have time on her hands after talking to Ochako (which seems unlikely) or that before that, the heroes and the villain will be going to be shuffled around a bit, mainly because of lacking support in certain areas or another events (my guess is there are going to be a lot of evolutions in terms of Quirks, leading to many of the current active pro Quirk-users to either lose their own or to evolve past their own capacity to manage the quirk - a bit similar to what we see happening to Shigaraki in this chapter with his hands); and AfO’s consciousness is still mingled with Tomura’s, and that will be a hard bundle to dissect (people with whom I discussed this with know on what my hypothesis on how this one is going to go, but I am ready to throw it around just yet, just know that Eri will probably be involved).

Change in BNHA Quirk-Supremacy Society. Well, I am probably the biggest advocate of ‘BNHA’s real villain is its rotten and elite society’, which is why I am also surreptitiously waiting for Horikoshi to finally address on how exactly he plans to implement the ripple presented by Midoriya’s change in perspective about the villains and their reasons, on a bigger scale. Certainly, saving the villains is a first step for it, but it is also not nearly enough: the public at large is distrustful at best of the villains, and disillusioned about the heroes, therefore things will not be certainly going back to the status quo, but there have not been steady steps made so that a change could be implemented (Dabi’s broadcast could have been an extremely good basis for that to happen, but it feels as if after the Hospital Arc it has been forgotten, so I am hoping for this point to be picked up again when Shouto will reach out to Touya for the umpteenth time, until he accepts and we will likely get to see Touya’s missing years and Dabi’s birth). In this perspective, this process will be slow and will have a steady pace (and also the point which makes me assume that we are going to get a time skip during the last chapters of the manga, in which we are shown the spoils of war and how society has adapted to a new truth: that there is ugliness in it, and there will always be people who are affected by it more than others). 

Now, both of these are very broad and vague, but I think that at this point, everything will either go down very quick, or what is going down will just be a build-up for the last leg of the manga (Shigaraki and Midoriya VS AfO), and as I already extensively talked on what I would like to see in the finale, I am going to repeat myself. Furthermore, we have still three points which have not been addressed by the narrative that might slightly change the course of the finale: All Might’s prophecy (I said this many times, but All Might will be one of the characters to go during this arc), Nii-Sama Quirk (looking forward to see the backstory in the Vestiges of him and Yoichi’s encounter and memories) and Midoriya’s paternal ties (is AfO his dad in the end?). For the rest, I think the bed has been made and one way or another, (we and) Horikoshi will have to lie in it.