Endeavor shouldn't be the benchmark for bad parents since he's literally an extreme case. I don't know why MHA fans use him whenever someone criticizes Bakugou's parents, as if every bad parent has to be as awful as Endeavor to deserve criticism.
Bakugou's parents are terrible parents for the simple fact of how bad he had become at the start of the story. You can blame society and the lack of proper guidance from adults, but guess what? He still had to go home to them at the end of the day. His parents were and should have been the adults guiding him.
Horikoshi released drawings of Hagakure as an adult — and surprise, she now has a “hero costume”… that looks like lingerie. And the worst part? This implies that before, she was basically fighting in nothing or just underwear for years. YEARS. Even though this universe has shown — multiple times — that it's possible to design support items and costumes that adapt to individual quirks. So, why wasn’t she given one earlier? Why didn’t anyone care?
With Momo, it's the same pattern. The second she’s shown as an adult, her costume suddenly covers more — especially around her chest. It's like their dignity only matters once they're no longer teenagers. That’s not just lazy design. It’s deliberate.
People can try to justify it all they want with “quirk-based limitations” or “fanservice is part of the genre,” but at this point, it’s tired. Transparent. And honestly gross.
The message this sends — both in-story and to the audience — is that it’s fine to oversexualize young girls for years… until it’s no longer “funny” and starts becoming “awkward”. That’s not just a bad trope. That’s a creative problem.
And how the phrase "[insert character] is the man in relationship" is reductive. There is a serious conversation that needs to take place in fandoms, especially regarding the phrase above. This was once a statement I used to find somewhat amusing but after considering the implications i now find it to be unsavoury. I would like to shed light on how harmful it is to parrot these sentiments but through the examples of two characters and their respective ships.
Maki Zen'in- Jujutsu Kaisen
MaoMao- The apothecary diaries
Firstly, I would like to acknowledge that the majority of these types of comments don't necessary form out of malice but rather an attempt to break free of the restrictive gender binaries but often ends up perpetuating the very thing they tried to avoid.
Secondly, I most see this being said about straight ships to make them more digestible, not to say that Queer relationships/ships don't face the issue of applying gender norms into their relationship. I am merely talking about misogyny often bleeds into way people talk about straight ships and stoic woman despite being the society ''norm''
Just because a woman tends to fall on the more stoic side does not equate that's she's masculine. I have seen this type of characterization happen in time and time again. Not all woman display upbeat personalities. let's use Maki and Maomao as examples of how reductive this sentiment is especially taking into account the themes their respective media deals with.
Maki
(jujutsu kaisen S3 spoilers and manga spoilers)
Gender is a big theme in jujutsu especially when regarding maki's storyline. We see Maki get criticized for not fitting into the stereotypical woman, whether it be for her physical appearance or personality.
Maki's story shows how she defies the odds which can be the physical manifestation of her heavenly restriction or the acknowledgement of her feats despite being in a male dominated field. What really irritated me was how people recieved the announcement of YutaMaki becoming canon, i would often see tweets showing how Yuta got Maki as a 'Prize' for helping kill Sukuna which to me come across as willfully ignorant especially considering what themes Jujutsu Kaisen deals with.
A lot of the Times people tend to project their own biases onto Maki. People masculinize her purely because she is good at sparring and has more male dominated interest. This type of rhetoric really erases the issues jujutsu kaisen tries to highlight in its manga. why should they be gender roles in a relationship.
Let's refer to the manga shall we...
(source: Jujutsu Kaisen volume 16, page 82)
Characters like Naoya who constantly invalidate maki's sense of being a woman just because she is is not confined in the stereotypical ideas of what a woman should be. Her appearance is not the main focal point of her character in contrast to Mai who is positioned as the better looking sister from the jump
(source: jujutsu kaisen volume 3, page 13)
obviously I do not support two women being compared to one another but this showcases who appearance is often tied with a woman's value, also linking about the the previous panel i showed of noaya speaking. We must acknowledge that this is the type of environment Maki and Mai grew up in. an environment where being submissive and beautiful is a requirement where as men are praised for mediocrity.
(source: Jujutsu Kaisen volume 5)
to me personally this panel shows the acknowledgment of the issues in society especially regarding women however it also represents the complacency in Jujutsu society. Unlike Maki and Nobara, Mai and Momo do not challenge the status quo but rather recognise it. Perhaps not everyone has the willpower to change the system but rather to critique, I still its interesting panels to analyse.
Maki is representation for woman who do not fall under the stereotypical confines of both beauty and personality. She is the embodiment of defying the odds stack against a woman.
Maomao
(light novel,anime and manga spoilers)
the way people characterize Maomao makes me laugh. Despite what the fandom says Maomao is stereotypical feminine, whether she paints for nails or wears dresses, knowing this people have the gall to portray masculine simply because she's more on the stoic side then she is bubbly.
The reason as to why she does not portray herself in a more feminine way is because she is aware of how it can be weaponized against her. She literally grew up in the pleasure district, a place where r appearance and talent mattered most.
(Apothecary diaries manga volume 1, page 46)
Maomao intentionally uses the beauty standards to her advantage, she is aware of how vicious woman's desire is for beauty even at the cost of their own lives. Maomao simply is responding to her environment, she intentionally makes herself look "unattractive" to avoid getting exploited.
The whole reason why maomao is even in the rear palace is because she got kidnapped for her abductors monetary gains. The light novel/manga/anime clearly demonstrates how beauty is needed in order to thrive as a woman.
Beauty is something she INTENTIONALLY does not perform in order to survive. This goes back to my point of audiences projecting their own biases onto the characters. Now let's take in the ship, Jinmao into account, their relationship is extremely complex and dumbing it down to simply Maomao being the man in the relationship is harmful. It is like the critique of certain issues in the rear palace flies over people's heads.
A lot of audiences wish for more complex relationships but when they are awarded with one they cannot even enjoy it the ship without projecting gender norms onto them.
In conclusion parroting this statements remove woman's ability to not be bound by conventional norms. just because these two women do not fall under your idea of femininity does not make them any less of a woman. These two characters are actively attempting to handle the issue of Gender and by masculinizing them you undo the work the authors tried to portray.
A lot of obsessive shipping behavior — the kind that rabidly defends underdeveloped or one-sided relationships — stops being about the characters a long time ago. It’s not literary analysis. It’s not even romance. It’s cultural conditioning.
In many parts of the world — Latin America, parts of Asia, Eastern Europe, and beyond — girls are still taught that love means waiting. Enduring. Fixing the broken, distant man. That emotional neglect is just “mystery.” That silence means “depth.” That if he doesn’t say he loves you, well, you just have to believe harder.
And when a character like Orihime is passive, self-sacrificing, and consistently deprioritized by the male lead — but fans twist that into a “true love wins” narrative?
That’s not critical reading. That’s programming. That's why it's so relatable to to people like @theuchihalawyer (from Argentina) and @cinderserra (possibly from a part of Asia where patriarchy is just as prevalent). Hence the obsession, or defending of this concept.
It’s not about Ichihime as a ship. It’s about what it represents to people conditioned to think:
The quiet girl wins by being loyal, not seen.
The man doesn’t have to try (guys from those countries also think Ichihime is a great pairing for this reason). Just existing is enough.
The emotional labor of love is a one-way street.
This isn't just fantasy. It's familiar. Especially in societies where men are still treated like gods and women are expected to orbit them quietly.
So when you criticize that dynamic, you're not just critiquing a ship. You're threatening a worldview. You're pointing out the cracks in the lie they were raised to swallow:
“He doesn’t have to say it. You just have to believe.”
“Be patient. You’ll be chosen.”
“He doesn’t owe you affection. You owe him loyalty.”
And that’s why the fandom meltdown happens. You're not insulting Orihime. You're poking holes in the story some people built their entire sense of love around.
Ichihime isn’t a romance. It’s a comfort blanket for people who were taught to accept less.
And that? That’s not love. That’s a system.
And it needs to be questioned.
"oh no, here comes the Steel Ball Run larpers", "SBR larping boutta be insane 💀"
Man, I'm glad I barely use Tiktok nowadays...
First off, who the hell decided to use the term "LARPing" in reference to the act of putting little effort in pretending to be part of a community they don't care about in order to look cool? The term "poser" is right there??
The term itself means "Live Action Role-Playing", pretending to be a fictional character, something that actually takes effort and something that has been mocked before... And it sucks that it is now being used in a derogatory sense...
Yes, since Steel Ball Run is an extremely popular JoJo part (and the 2nd highest rated manga of all time), there will definitely be people trying to use that popularity for clout.... But don't like how this term can extend to someone simply liking the thing or only recently getting into the thing. "This person bullied me for liking this before but now they glaze it" yeah that sucks and the person should apologise, but people can just change their minds??
I especially hate how this can be used to target newgen fans, like... "We need to gatekeep this" ok, what if someone didn't grow up reading the manga or watching the anime but heard about it and wanted to start? Are they """larping""" or simply showing interest?
I'd consider myself a newgen fan of JoJo's, an old friend from secondary school constantly talked about it but I wasn't interested in watching the anime until Stone Ocean finished releasing, I watched every animated part, I read SBR way before the adaptation was announced, i read Jojolion and I'm catching up on The Jojolands, I fell in love with the series when I actually started it!! We shouldn't gatekeep just because SOME people pretend to be fans for attention, because what if someone is genuinely interested? Are you gonna bark at them or encourage and recommend stuff from that media to them?
We need to talk about Yamato, Kozuki Oden, and the nuance of trauma-informed identities.
Okay, I’m breaking my silence on the endless Yamato discourse because it feels like two completely different sides of the fandom are watching two completely different shows, and we are completely losing the actual narrative tragedy of this character in the process.
Let’s talk about why reducing Yamato’s identity solely to a modern, real-world trans narrative actually skips over some of the most heartbreaking, beautifully written psychological trauma Eiichiro Oda has ever put on paper.
1. The Contrast: Okiku vs. Yamato
If you want to see how Oda writes a beautifully realized transgender character, look no further than Okiku.
Kiku is Kiku. Her identity comes entirely from within—she is "a woman at heart." She isn't trying to copy a specific historical figure, she isn't roleplaying, and she isn’t using an identity to escape her own name. Her identity remains consistent regardless of her trauma, and the narrative respects her completely for who she is.
Yamato’s situation is fundamentally different. It is entirely external and borrowed. It doesn't stem from an innate, personal feeling of "I feel like a man," but rather from a desperate, literal proclamation: "I want to be this specific hero, and that hero happened to be a man."
2. The Trauma Suit of Armor
Look at Yamato’s upbringing. It’s horrific. Kaido didn't just abuse Yamato; he completely rejected and crushed Yamato’s actual self. Imprisoned, chained with exploding handcuffs, starved, and beaten for decades—Yamato had no space to safely develop a personal identity.
In that environment of absolute despair, Kozuki Oden’s journal wasn't just a book; it was a lifeline. Oden represented the exact opposite of Kaido—absolute freedom, heroism, and strength.
To survive the psychological toll of Kaido's abuse, Yamato essentially discarded "Yamato" (the despised child of the Oni) and wore Oden like a psychological suit of armor. By literally stepping out of her own skin and trying to inhabit a dead man's ghost, Yamato could endure. Oden wouldn't break.
3. The Tragedy is Supposed to Be Jarring
When Yamato looks at a literally grieving, deeply traumatized child like Momonosuke and says with a straight face, "Since I am Oden, that makes me your father!"—it is meant to be jarring. It’s played for a mix of dark comedy and deep tragedy. It shows just how disconnected Yamato is from normal social reality due to two decades of isolation.
Yamato is hyper-fixated on a roleplay because it is the only way she knows how to express her desire for freedom. Yamato literally doesn't care about the logistics of "manhood"—she cares about the legacy of Oden. If Oden had been a woman, Yamato would be emulating a woman.
Why the Fandom is Constantly Fighting
Look, it’s completely understandable why the LGBTQ+ community latched onto Yamato. Media representation is scarce, and when you see a character use male pronouns, get called "son" by the main cast, and literally walk into the men's bathhouse with Luffy and Brook without the story making a cruel joke out of it, that feels amazing and validating.
But when we focus only on the social outcome (the pronouns, the bathhouse), we accidentally erase the textually canon reality of Yamato's backstory. The official Vivre Cards listing Yamato’s gender as "Female" (while Kiku's is "Female at heart") isn't Oda or the editors "backtracking"—it's a confirmation of what the text already told us: Yamato is a traumatized individual clinging to a heroic persona.
Conclusion
Yamato’s journey isn’t a standard modern transition story, and that’s okay! It’s a tragic, compelling narrative about a survivor of severe abuse who had their identity stolen by their parent, and chose to borrow a hero's identity to survive.
The real triumph of Yamato’s character arc moving forward isn't going to be about confirming a gender label—it’s going to be about Yamato finally taking off the Oden mask, dropping the ghost of a dead man, and figuring out who Yamato actually is.
I love it so much when fandoms pile on headcanons that basically become canon to everyone onto female characters because the writers couldn’t be bothered to write women with meaningful personalities
