I channeled my inner Deku to do this fake analysis on Mineta Minoru for my bakudeku fanfic: Ripple. My background in reporting and research came in handy! Note: All of the text here is a false analysis I made up for this character and visual drawing of said character is not mine! The text is not canon! Made for funsies!
Ripple (67489 words) by MaliBMillie
Chapters: 10/15-Liplocked & Shellshocked
Fandom: 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia (Anime & Manga)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Relationships: Bakugou Katsuki/Midoriya Izuku, Bakugou Katsuki & Midoriya Izuku, Midoriya Izuku/Shindou You, Kaminari Denki/Shinsou Hitoshi, Ashido Mina/Kirishima Eijirou, Jirou Kyouka/Yaoyorozu Momo, Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead/Yamada Hizashi | Present Mic, Aoyama Yuuga/Mineta Minoru, Midoriya Inko/Yagi Toshinori | All Might, Bakugou Masaru/Bakugou Mitsuki
Characters: Bakugou Katsuki, Midoriya Izuku, Kaminari Denki, Kirishima Eijirou, Ashido Mina, Jirou Kyouka, Sero Hanta, Original Characters, Shindou You, Shinsou Hitoshi, Yamada Hizashi | Present Mic, Yaoyorozu Momo, Class 1-A (My Hero Academia), Midoriya Inko, Bakugou Katsuki's Parents, Yagi Toshinori | All Might, Bakugou Mitsuki, Bakugou Masaru
Additional Tags: Endgame Bakugou Katsuki/Midoriya Izuku, Pro Hero Midoriya Izuku, Pro Hero Bakugou Katsuki, Alternate Universe - Pro Heroes (My Hero Academia), Aged-Up Bakugou Katsuki, Aged-Up Midoriya Izuku, Bakugou Katsuki is Bad at Feelings, Bakugou Katsuki Swears A Lot, Pining Bakugou Katsuki, Canon-Typical Violence, BAMF Midoriya Izuku, BAMF Bakugou Katsuki, Midoriya Izuku is a Ray of Sunshine, They are gay your honor, Jealous Bakugou Katsuki, Angst and Feels, Fluff and Angst, Post-Graduation, Post-War, Bakugou Katsuki is a Dork, Bakusquad (My Hero Academia), Jirou Kyouka is in the Bakusquad, Bakusquad Being Idiots (My Hero Academia), Let Midoriya Izuku Swear, Shinsou Hitoshi is a Good Friend, Bakugou Katsuki Needs a Hug, Characters Are Pro Heroes (My Hero Academia), Aged-Up Character(s), Soft Bakugou Katsuki, Confident Midoriya Izuku, New Year's Eve, Bakugou Katsuki Loves Midoriya Izuku, Midoriya Izuku Loves Bakugou Katsuki, Midoriya Izuku Has One for All Quirk, Midoriya Izuku Needs A Hug, Regretful Bakugou Katsuki, Time Travel, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Protective Bakugou Mitsuki, Good Parent Bakugou Mitsuki, Good Parent Bakugou Masaru, Angst and Romance, Angst and Humor, Idiots in Love, Temporary Character Death, Bakugou Katsuki-centric
Summary:
When a New Years Party ends in tragedy and he fails to win Izuku from Shindo, Katsuki Bakugo falls into despair. However, an unexpected stranger? with a quirk called “Ripple” comes along and gives him the chance of a lifetime: three days to change the past. Will the explosive blonde succeed or will the Symbol of Victory lose…again?
NOTE: Entire Story is mostly completed until Chapter 9. I had WAY too much fun getting these images together for this fanfic. Thankful for Canva, that’s for sure! BTW, images provided are mostly made on my Canva Account, but any picture involving fanart of the MHA characters are NOT mine. When I know the artist, I make sure to credit them. If I have the wrong artist or am missing giving them the appropriate credit, please message me.
Darlene Alderson is the deuteragonist of the series Mr. Robot. She is the younger sister of the protagonist Elliot Alderson and a fellow hacker in fsociety. In the beginning of the series, she remains much of a mystery but later we get to know a lot about her, especially her importance in the series, especially in Elliot’s life. (Spoilers and Trigger Warning)
Early Life
Darlene was born in 1990. When she was 4, she remembered watching a news report about E Corp being cleared in the Washington Township trial and seeing the lawyer Susan Jacobs become delighted about that news. Unbeknownst to her, Elliot was being sexually abused by her father Edward and Elliot tried to protect her from being his next victim. And when Edward died, her mother Magda began to physically and emotionally abuse her and Elliot, but Darlene got the brunt of it the most. She even adopted a kitten once named Moonpie and built a secret house for her. Her mother found out and forced her to drown it in the lake but Darlene ran away with it instead and gave it away to a woman.
At the age of 5, she was kidnapped by a woman during a family trip to an amusement park. Over there she was treated very nicely and like a princess and it made her feel special. Until the police came in and rescued her. Both her and Elliot’s favourite movie was The Careful Massacre of the Bourgeoisie, which they would often watch with their childhood friend Angela.
How we meet Darlene
Darlene is introduced as a typical rule breaker MPDG who takes a sudden interest on the resident broken bird Elliot, who is constantly freaked out by her advances at first. She is a fellow hacker working on a hack against E Corp. She slowly becomes Elliot’s sidekick and best friend. She helps Elliot restart the hack with the help of the Dark Army one month after the death of Shayla and as they both celebrate, Elliot accidentally kisses her and it is revealed that Darlene is actually his sister, which then leads to a reveal that Mr. Robot is actually Elliot’s split personality.
Taking control of fsociety
After Elliot ends up in prison for hacking into Lenny Shannon and taking Flipper, Darlene ends up taking control of fsociety and picks up from where he left off. She has taken over Susan Jacobs’ house as the base of operations. We even see her having multiple breakdowns, showing that despite having a brave facade, she hasn’t really gotten all of this figured out. She even makes a rousing speech to the members, which would also foreshadow her own position in the future episodes: “We are in a war, and we are on the losing side of it. We are on our knees with guns to our heads, and they are picking us off one by one.”
She even tries to make decisions for the good of the team and is shown to be extremely determined in taking down E Corp. From prison, Elliot helps her out and she recruits Angela to use her position in E Corp to hack the FBI and find out who killed Romero. Fsociety later uncovers the operation Project Berenstain and exposes the FBI for it. But things get out of control when Susan returns and Darlene kills her out of spite for what she did, causing Trenton and Mobley to go on the run.
Then it gets worse when the members get into an accident and get caught and arrested, with one of them escaping and taken to the hospital by Darlene and Cisco, and then as Dom finds them at a diner, A Dark Army shooter kills Cisco, which drastically changes Darlene. After Darlene tries to escape from answering Dom, Dom takes her to the board where she reveals the FBI knows everything. With no other choice, Darlene decides to give in and become a mole.
From badass leader to Dark Army’s prey
So how did this badass hunter become the docile hunted?
Darlene ends up becoming more paranoid for her life, believing the Dark Army is now after her. And side by side she even tries to help Elliot stop Stage 2. She even finds out about Angela gaslighting Elliot for helping the Dark Army, but in vain and realises that she has truly gone mad. She and Elliot then team up to undo the 5/9 hack and in the process tries to sleep with Dom to get the credentials but develops feelings for her in the process. And when she gets kidnapped by the Dark Army along with Elliot and Dom, this is when she becomes their constant prey/butt-monkey.
In Season 4, Darlene seemed to get worser and weaker after Angela’s death when she became a jaded washout who took in drugs and alcohol to deal with her death, a complete opposite of what we used to see her as, with Elliot having to handle things on his own now. She later tries to get a hold of herself slowly as she tries to help Elliot with taking down the Deus Group and Whiterose, but Elliot constantly pushes her away, but he still lets her help him because he cares for her and is grateful for her.
“Not Acceptable” and “Request Timeout” is when her status as the Dark Army’s “personal butt-monkey” comes into play. First Dom tries to blow her brains off and then knocks her out, then Janice tries to blow her brains off but then Darlene wipes her phone, then she gets tied up with Dom and is about to be tortured with some tools before getting forced to watch Dom get stabbed by Janice. Wait. This doesn’t end there. Then she hears Janice’s tale about how she is so happy to be evil, then Janice makes her cry into giving up Elliot’s location, makes her cry again into thinking Dom’s family will be killed before Dom pulls a gambit and kills Janice and her men. Phew.
Breaking Out
When Elliot suffers from a mental breakdown thanks to the PTSD caused by Vera’s psychological abuse in 4x07. Darlene breaks out of her “butt-monkey” mould and decides to take matters into her own hands and steps up. She makes a new fsociety video doxxing the Deus Group and commits the biggest hack in the history with the help of Elliot and steals all of the money from the accounts of all the members, including Whiterose.
Elliot even acknowledges this when he tells her to complete the last phase of the hack: redistribution of the wealth as the hack is her win, not his. She is elated to celebrate her win with Dom and this is the first time we’ve seen her actually happy in a long time. She then tries to run away with Dom from the Dark Army, but when Dom decides to stay, Darlene becomes vulnerable and explains how she can’t handle on her own, before they part ways.
When Darlene tries to leave for Budapest by herself, she ends up having another panic attack. When a woman asks her if she is okay, Darlene decides not to go to Budapest after all and that she can handle herself.
Being a key to Elliot’s reality
It is revealed at the end of the series that the Elliot we’ve been seeing throughout the series is actually another alter known as the Mastermind and that the real Elliot is trapped in an alternate word he created for him. And the reason why Darlene isn’t in it is because she is said to be his only link to reality. Though it does kinda fall into the “women are the dependant caregivers” trope, it does give a really meaningful and hopeful ending to the series. It means that Elliot and Darlene have only each other and love each other and can heal together after going through so much for past one year. We’ve seen Darlene as a lot of things throughout the series, The MPDG, The Fsociety Leader, The Dark Army’s Butt Monkey and finally the key to Elliot’s reality. And we applaud her for being the heart of the series.
I know I don’t post but I wanna praise My Hero’s world building so bad / a Bakugou Katsuki appreciation post.
I wanna talk about society, specifically it’s views on heroism.
Bakugou and Deku are products of their society obviously. But what I don’t think people see is that they’re meant to be different extremes of the same problem.
Hero worship.
The problem is that society has given a specific set of criteria that defines a hero... ie a Licence. It’s the whole thing Stain despised, the idea that a hero no longer can be defined by their deeds or who they save but by a government issued card for passing a test. It completely takes away from the concept of a hero existing for the people and turns it into straight capitalism.
There’s a quote that I heard and can’t remember where it came from that goes along the lines of ‘A villain can exist without a hero, but a hero cannot exist without a villain.’ Which I think is true, being a hero revolves around the existence of villains but that’s entirely ignored in BNHA’s world.
And those heroes are glorified. Put on a pedestal by civilians, and I’m not saying they shouldn’t be, they’re heroes but what it results in is expectations for the next generation to live up to. So children are encouraged to be like those hero’s and unwittingly the parents place value on children based on their quirks. They’ve internalised this idea that Good quirks = greatness. And it’s not something new, often times fiction is a reflection of reality, because reality gives context for the issues within that fictional world. You’ll always find things that remind you of the real world. Here this idea that what you’re born with biologically determines greatness reminds me of how Chinese family’s used to value male babies over female babies, simply because that’s part of my culture. Others might read into it differently. These issues are transcendental, that is why there can be so many interpretations.
Anyway, willingly or not, the adults perpetuate this idea of Good Quirk = Greatness, thus stigmatising No Quirk/ bad Quirk = Failure.
Deku is quirkless, he’s the opposite of what society wants and therefore suffers at the hands of hero worship. He’s pushed aside as the minority, and if you think about it that 20% of the population being quirkless is going to mainly consist of the older generation since quirks are genetically inherited so he’s really insulated, I wouldn’t be surprised if the first person he met his age who was also quirkless was Melissa (From The Two Heroes movie). His own mother telling him she’s ‘Sorry’ after he finds out that he’s quirkless only backing up this idea that he’s different and that he should be pitied. And we look up to our parents, so coming from Inko, Izuku was on the way to internalising that view also. And in some ways he has, I might be wrong about this but when he finds out that Melissa is Quirkless he apologises to her also, he’s doing to others exactly what had been done to him because that’s what humans do, we replicate behaviour.
Bakugou is exactly what they want and from the moment he’s gotten his quirk he’s not only been put on a pedestal by peers but by adults too, adults who should be his superiors are putting him above themselves, no wonder he gets an inferiority complex. He’s told he ‘will be a hero’. Unfair expectations to ever put on a child who hasn’t had the real world experience to decide his own career just yet. And so it manifests into an inferiority complex that the show actually admits to him having. He was never given any other option than to be a hero.
He was told for his whole life he’d be the best so to see someone who was always behind him move forward made him feel inadequate obviously, his lashing out isn’t excused by society’s involvement but can explain it. He’s working on it though. Working with Deku. Helping him improve. He’s shown character development. And it’s not just that, he’s driven solely by the idea of ‘winning’ which some might see as conceited but ‘winning’ is vague, it has no meaning, he chooses the challenge, he’s the only one who can define what ‘winning’ means to him. Some might think ‘winning’ means glory, or money or fame and he wants to be No.1 so there’s an aspect of that but it could just mean no casualties, everyone surviving, everyone being saved. Which I think is interesting.
Something else I think is admirable is that in his mind all opponents are just that, opponents. That’s why he goes all out when fighting Uraraka during the Sports festival, he said it himself. That it doesn’t matter that she’s a girl, she’s a girl that shouldn’t be underestimated. He doesn’t see her as weak. Even when the crowed and Present Mic got mad at him for being rough while fighting her. A fucking feminist Icon.
And he’s not just the typical 2 dimensional bully. He’s canonically got the best grades in the class, above Iida even. He goes to bed at reasonable times (8:30) most of the time. He studies, he even helped Kirishima. He works hard and it’s not just a natural talent which makes his character even better.
He feels guilt for being the catalyst for All Might’s down fall. They both idolised the hero and he felt like a fucking BURDEN. The self awareness he has is impeccable, understanding that he cannot control everything and being so angry about it, and why? Because he was told he could do anything he put his mind to, and he was discovering for the first time that that was a lie, that those adults were liars.
And when the villains kidnapped him he told them to fuck off. He was a hero through and through. He wouldn’t join them.
He’s a hero. A terribly misguided hero born from unrealistic expectations of children
He’s the epitome of gifted kid syndrome. He’s got a complex and major anxiety issues because of it. Imagine being told that they’re better than everyone else your age as a kid? You’ll believe it. Of course you’ll think you’re better bc the adults told you you were.
And it contrasts so well with Deku, Because their issues are due to the same societal pressure albeit different sides of that same scale.
That’s why ppl like him. He’s trying but just like Deku he was given an unfair disadvantage
He’s as much of an underdog. He’s a child who’s unlearning everything he’d been taught about himself.
As defined by Oxford Languages, a hero is “a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities”. However, in mythology and folklore, another definition of hero emerges, again defined by Oxford Languages as “a person of superhuman qualities and often semi defining origin, in particular one whose exploits were subject of Ancient Greek myths”.
So: Why is there a difference in definition?
As society expands and modernizes, people’s view on things often change. Something that was socially acceptable before is now a crime, but then again, there are old traditions that are lost to time. An example can be found in Ancient Greek traditions where even if your enemy was sleeping under your roof, you could not harm them. In theory, that principle remains today but under the umbrella term of murder, but, people still have the liberty to do it under their own roof without getting attacked by the gods from breaking the laws of hospitality.
That sounds really bad.. wait..
Never mind that, I hope what I’m trying to convey in understandable.
Yet, even if there is a difference in the definitions, all heroes go through the same cycle, some a little easy to detect than others. This cycle was first defined by Joseph Campbell, author of The Hero with a Thousand faces.
In simple terms, the cycle is as follows :
00. Status quo - where the story both begins and ends
1. Call to adventure - The hero receives some sort of invitation, challenge, or message
2. Assistance - the hero receives help in the form of either a companion (aka sidekick, friend, etc.) or a magical item!
3. Departure - The hero now leaves the comfort of his home (the ordinary world), and enters the special world (where the quest *really* starts)
4. Trials - Meant to test the hero’s strength and will, this section can include puzzles, fights, etc.
5. Approach - The hero is forced to face their biggest fear be it the big bad villain or an inner conflict which sometimes results in the swapping of sides.
6. Crisis - This is the point in the story where the hero faces their darkest hour. As stated by Matthew Winkler, some heroes die at this point and are reborn both physically and metaphorically.
7. Treasure - The hero gains something from his journey be it new knowledge, an item, or power.
8. Result - Depending on the direction of the story this can vary. Perhaps the hero is hunted down, or they leave untouched. The result does not always have to be good!
9. Return - The hero crosses the boundary back into the ordinary world
10. New Life - how has this adventure changed the hero? Are they someone better? Are they someone worse? Is there no change?
11. Resolution - every aspect of the story becomes clear.
00. Status Quo - The hero has reached a new level; the cycle may potentially restart.
Of course the hero does not have to follow this cycle strictly, after all, some of the heroes choose to deny the quest at first (ex: simba refusing to return to pride rock). Sometimes this cycle is not clear until after, or, the reader/watcher does not understand who the hero is until later.
However, the hero cycle can be mocked by villains because in their own sense, they are the heroes of their own story. If you follow the perspective of the “lesser” person then your own perspective might change. As an example, I’ll be using David Haller from FX’s Legion.
(so, if you haven’t watched and don’t want spoilers, don’t look!)
Through the entirety of season one and most of season two, the audience is led to believe that David is the hero of the story, only to be revealed as the villain. What happened? How did we suddenly change sides?
The revelation that David is the one who would bring about the end of the world comes at the end of season two, where Division 3 in unison with Farouk stage an intervention in attempt to help David, where he escapes and ends the season. When it became understood what had occurred, many turned their faces from David because of it, now, they were cheering for Division 3 (who had started as a villain), Farouk (someone “mistaken” for a villain but in the end, he was just playing them all), and new faces (Jin-Yi/Switch, Lenny free from Farouk’s grasp).
Despite being a villain, David went through his own hero’s cycle. First, the discovery that the voices in his head weren’t from an illness but rather the side effect of one of his abilities, from there, David embarks on his journey. His treasure? Beating Farouk in a fight, losing Sydney, finding out the truth about his father and arguably, being revealed as the villain. Season three would place David in step.10 of the cycle, New Life, as he begins to build his own cult and recruits Switch to help him.
Through Legion, it is proven that a villain can follow the hero’s cycle so that begs the question if just because someone follows these steps, does that make them a hero?
As Oxford languages defined it, a hero needs to have courage, be someone admirable, outstanding achievements and outstanding qualities.
Take a look at your favorite heroes, do they fit this description? What about the villains? Do they for this description as well? What stops them from reaching these qualities if you look at things through their sides?
Is batman’s brutal treatment of criminals something you should admire? What about Booster Gold’s selfish nature, is that something you should aspire to mirror? Heroes may have their flaws, but by those standards, the line between hero and villain becomes blurred. It becomes impossible to tell apart the good from the so called evil, and vice versa.
Is anyone who goes on a journey a hero? Or do they *have* to met the standards society set in place as good and evil? If majority disagrees, does that make you a villain?
David was 100% sure his decisions were that of a hero (he claims multiple times he is a hero, he keeps painting himself as a god who should be trusted), yet, as an audience we are suppose to view him as the villain. Division three who was supposedly bad became a hero based on the sole factor that they wanted to go against David, again restating that David was the villain. Yet, if you look at things through David’s eyes, you can sympathize with him. His father left him, lied to him, didn’t come to his aid, living most of his life in a mental institution because no one cared to tell him that he was a mutant and not schizophrenic. Can you blame him for his decisions? Is he truly a hero?
He helped Switch escape her father, is that not something admirable? Or is it a ploy to convince us that David was nothing but a villain using people to his advantage (which, he does use Switch but at the benefit of freeing her from the shackles her father placed around her).
On that note, I end my little speech. Feel free to add your comments and offer input! I’m happy to hear your ideas and beliefs, even a counterargument. My ask box is also open if you have any requests!
Hope you enjoy your day and thank you for taking the time to read this!
Preview of my two-page spread for @heroanalysisdekudition This piece had some hardships cause I tried a lot of different things, but I’m very proud of it!
If you like Izuku Midoriya, please consider preordering this zine! The money will go to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Preorder here!
Other Previews or check in once in a while to see the other reblogged previews!
Villain!Deku Mini Zine with this project!
I did hero analysis in class and got in trouble because I picked the Devil.
Basically, I did a hero analysis of Lucifer Morningstar from the hit show Lucifer on FOX. I was really upset when I was told that he wasn’t a hero and that I had to redo the assignment. (You can read it below)
Lucifer Morningstar-
I admire him because, while being the Devil, he isn’t that bad of a guy. I sympathize with him (great song by the way -sympathy for the devil-) but I can also empathize in a way. He was cast down to Hell, and when he called out for help, everyone turned their back on him. Now after all of this time, he gets some fresh air in the city of angels, when his human friend (who sold her soul to him) gets murdered, and instead of being the devil and reeking havoc, he wants justice for the girl. Now at this part, he meets Chloe Decker and blah blah blah we know there will be some sexual tension as Lucifer has all the booze, girls and money anyone could ask for. Long story short the way Lucifer has evolved since the first episode makes me proud because I feel he represents the Devil (if he be real or not) in a better light, because, in the end, he isn’t making anyone commit sins, no that is on us, he is just the one punishing us for them. Adam and Eve didn’t have to eat the apple, the snake was there representing the want to rebel, and the bit in. I quote Mark Twain “But who prays for Satan? Who in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most, our one fellow and brother who most needed a friend yet had not a single one, the one sinner among us all who had the highest and clearest right to every Christian's daily and nightly prayers, for the plain and unassailable reason that his was the first and greatest need, he being among sinners the supremest?” [sic] and in simple terms, out of all the sinners there ever was, why has no one prayed for the one who is a sinner like everyone else. Lucifer isn’t a bad guy, he wants justice and happiness and love just like the rest of us, he has overcome stuff none of us can even comprehend, although not always honorable, he has his heart in the right place.
Picture--- Cullinan, Heidi. "Heidi Cullinan Recaps 'Lucifer' Episode 'St. Lucifer': And Now He's Naked, in More Ways than One." USA Today. Gannett Satellite Information Network, 12 Apr. 2016. Web. 07 Feb. 2017.
Elliot Alderson is the main protagonist of the series Mr. Robot. He is portrayed by Rami Malek. He is a cybersecurity engineer by day and a vigilante hacker by night. He then gets invited by a mysterious anarchist only known as Mr. Robot to an underground hacker group known as fsociety, whose goal is to take down the company ECorp, who is responsible for the death of Elliot’s father and redistribute the wealth. (Spoilers Alert and Trigger Warning for Child Sexual Abuse)
Early Life
From what we know so far, Elliot, along with his sister Darlene did not have a very good healthy family life. After the death of their father, their mother had gotten very physically and emotionally abusive of the both of them, but she mostly abused Darlene. And then in the later episode we find out that his father wasn’t a perfect saint as we thought, he was a monster who molested Elliot as a child, which physically and mentally scarred Elliot, which caused him to develop a plethora of mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety, PTSD and DID. The DID even gave birth to the following split personalities of Elliot: Mr. Robot (The Protector), The Mother (The Persecutor), The Child, The Audience (Voyeurs) and The Mastermind (The Elliot we’ve been following throughout the series).
His Traumatic Journey
Throughout the series, we see him as a vigilante hacker take down men who are the worst parts of the society such as abusers, cheaters, rapists and pedophiles (a role which is usually filled by the “angry woman” vigilante). He then joins fsociety to help take down E Corp. But unfortunately, he goes through a series of traumatic events to achieve that goal, he loses his girlfriend Shayla when she gets killed by her psychotic ex, he finds out that Mr. Robot is his split personality and Darlene is actually his sister. Then we he went to prison, Mr. Robot psychologically abused him, he was then beaten up by prison guards, nearly raped by neo-nazis and when he got out, he was shot in the stomach by Tyrell Wellick just because he refused to be a part of something that would kill millions. He then was psychologically abused and gaslighted by his former best friend/crush Angela Moss and failed to stop a terrorist attack that cost millions of lives. He then tried to kill himself and almost lost his life at the hands of the Dark Army along with Darlene’s. Then he lost Angela to them, nearly overdosed on heroin, was stalked by the same psychotic ex of Shayla’s, who then forced him to find out about his childhood trauma. Then he was trapped in a nuclear meltdown, which he was finally saved from thanks to his hacking skills shutting it down, but unfortunately at the same time, he found out that he himself wasn’t a real person the whole time, he was just another personality of the real Elliot Alderson.
But what is so remarkable about him is that no matter how much he goes through, he always finds a way to stand back up and keep going no matter what life throws at him. While other characters in the series go through the similar things and easily break down, Elliot had it the worst but survives and is still able to live through it the best.
Subverting the Revolutionary Anti Hero trope
While Mr. Robot was first said to have picked up some elements from movies such as Taxi Driver (cynical narrator plot) and Fight Club (the season 1 plot twist), as the series progresses it completely subverts those narratives and makes the portrayal more humane, tragic and relatable. Travis Bickle and The Narrator represent the misguided and misrepresented trope of mental illness and masculinity and depict the “white male angered by the society” trope while Elliot completely subverts those tropes and gives a more human and humble perspective. He mostly represents the more “strong feminine” characteristics without being ridiculed or emasculated for it. As a poc man with mental health issues, he shows a more relatable struggle as he battles both his inner and outer demons and finally is able to prevail. While most white male anti-heroes would use their anger towards society for selfish and violent reasons, Elliot uses them for good reasons and to help others. His pro and con is that he cares so much for others and their needs but he forgets about his own safety most of the times.
Beauty Equals Goodness
One of the remarkable things about Elliot is also his beauty. He is mostly shown to be very pretty and gorgeous. TV Tropes defines “Beauty Equals Goodness”: “If a character is beautiful, then that means they must be a very good person.” Unlike Travis and The Narrator who are shown to be very average and entitled-yet-crazy and violent, Under his black-hooded figure, Elliot is shown to have extremely angelic beauty, which represents his kind-heartedness and selflessness towards others. He has innocent blue eyes which shows his innocence and naivete but doesn’t mean that he is not smart and clever.
Living in state of Victimhood
Most of the times, Elliot ends up being constantly victimized by anyone he comes across, even if it’s someone he knows. Tyrell ends up being obsessed with the idea of him and begins to believe 5/9 made them gods. Ray uses Elliot’s skills for his Dark Website and tells him how much he reminds him of his dead wife and calls him his saviour. Angela ends up psychologically abusing him and gaslighting him due to Whiterose’s machinations and Vera becomes disturbingly and instantly obsessed with him the minute he sees him. We do know that Elliot has a really good soul who has a gift for hacking and uses it for good reasons and is portrayed as a really beautiful and kind leader, but then there are a lot of people out there who begin to use and abuse him for their own selfish and personal gain, which is also one of the most heartbreaking aspects of his life.
Conclusion
Despite all the hell he’s been through, Elliot had finally found his strenght and peace through the love of others such as Darlene, Leon and Krista and has learnt how to love himself and stay strong. Elliot Alderson/Mastermind is one of the most inspiring characters out there and is one of the most best ones ever.
