#mha 246

[fluffyrainbowbutterfly]

Hawks when he wakes up and sees everything that happened

(based on chapter 246 where he said)

(and also thanks to @autumn-foxfire​‘s post that inspired me to make it!)

[julijasm]

[earlysignsofineptitude]

Edit: (for accuracy, thank you to @grapegodperson and @agentkane)

So our teams are:

Kirishima, Tetsutetsu, Fat Gum, and Best Boy Amajiki

Uraraka (ft new viser?), Tsuyu, Nejire, and Ryuko

Tokoyami + Random birds

Edge shot, Kamui Woods, Mount Lady, Kaminari, Sero, Ibara and Mineta

Iida + Manual

Hagakure, Aoyama, and Ashido

Momo + Setsuna (OMFG YESS RECOMMENDED GIRLS!!)

Manga, Wash, and Koda

Jiro, Shoji, Gang Orca (hell yes)

Shishida, Ojiro, Satou, Shoda

Pony + Monama (Ponama, if you will)

Awase + Hiryu Rin

Komori + Kuroiro

Togaru + Kaibara

Honenuki + Kodai (shipppppp)

Bondo

Yo Shindo + Tatami (confirmed couple)

Cami, Shishikura, Inasa

Kendo + Yanagi

ALSO FEATURED:

Mirio

Nedzu

Kurogiri

Best Girl Eri, Best Teacher Aizawa, Present Mic

A praying Fuyumi

Grand Torino, Tsukauchi, and a Tartarus Guard (who may or may not be Shishikura’s old man, considering the data book)

Deku, Todoroki, and Bakugou

[hamliet]

Caterpillar Shigaraki

Ouch.

Tenko, honey, no.

Anyways, in light of the latest BNHA chapter, I’d like to take a minute to discuss Shigaraki’s dehumanization, both by himself and at the hands of others, as well as how this relates to the butterfly/moth imagery we see later on in the chapter (nb: it might be moth imagery since Deku has been comically drawn as a moth before, but I’ll refer to it as butterfly imagery because the two are interchangeable within this context).

The chapter literally opens with Ujiko telling Shigaraki that he is destruction incarnate:

He’s not a traumatized person; he is, instead, according to Ujiko, defined by his power. His destruction is all he is. Yet, it’s not enough, because human beings are about so much more than their quirks:

The reason Shigaraki seeks more power is because he’s been raised to see himself as a tool for All for One--one might even say as an extension of All for One. All for One gathers useful quirks for himself, and Shigaraki is one of those. It’s a repeat of what happened to Shigaraki as a child, where no one is seeing him as a traumatized child who needs help, but instead just his destruction.

But it isn’t just a reflection on Shigaraki. Hero society as a whole values usefulness, which is why Shigaraki is pushing himself to the limits of his quirk and beyond. (As much as Shigaraki claims to hate society, he’s certainly bound by it to an extent.) We see it in how society ranks their heroes, creating enmity among them (Endeavor), in all the contests at UA. Winning, usefulness, is very important in BNHA. So Shigaraki wants to be useful, wants to see himself as a quirk more so than as a human, because human beings have pain. He wants to see his pain as only physical and his rage as a useful channeling of that pain, but it’s not (notice also how Tenko refers to his anger as an “itch” that was finally scratched when he killed his abusive father).

As a human being, too, Shigaraki is emotionally stuck in the same stage he was when his trauma occurred. This is actually extremely common in real life psychology as well: that children who experience trauma, especially trauma that is not dealt with, will in some ways emotionally try to subconciously revert to the age they were right before it happened. We see that this chapter in how childishly Shigaraki responds to Ujiko:

“You said you’d give it to me, so of course I expect it” is a very childlike mindset. And Ujiko calls him out on it later on as well:

And there’s that tragic disparity: Shigaraki is not a child, but he acts like one because no one has encouraged him to healthily cope with his trauma. He doesn’t have a child’s hopes and dreams. He’s miserable.

We also see Shigaraki’s dehumanization in how AFO groomed him into a useful tool rather than as a person. When he was a traumatized child who needed help, AFO decided to mold him into a tool:

AFO teaches Shigaraki that the only way to express his pain is through lashing out at others, which tragically is also how Koutarou handled his pain:

And it’s how All for One encouraged him to handle his pain, but by channeling it towards someone AFO wanted to destroy.

Shigaraki is willing to harm himself in the belief that it will help him make his pain worthwhile. If he just suffers physically for the sake of destroying what makes him suffer emotionally, he’ll be okay (and yes, his own choices are part of what makes him suffer emotionally, which is why he’s self-harming). It’s actually fairly standard as a coping mechanism for abuse, but with like, superpowers.

The butterfly symbolism is twofold: firstly, it refers to his dehumanizing himself. Shigaraki does not see himself as a human, but as an insect, as a lab rat.

Secondly, the butterfly is a very, very obvious and well-used rebirth symbol. Rebirth is associated with redemption.

Ujiko’s words can even be taken hyperliterally, in that, while it is surely not Ujiko’s intended meaning, this is basically what Shigaraki’s arc is. Unimaginable pain leading to a rebirth. The problem is that currently Shigaraki is making his pain only physical, when it is very much emotional.

So yeah, things are very ominous right now, and I’m not saying I see great things ahead for Shigaraki for the next few arcs (I’ve always said he’s going to get far darker before he gets better), but I am saying that this metaphor is unlikely to end in his demise. He needs someone to acknowledge that he is a hurting child and actually treat him like one.

[physicalturian]

Let's train the next generation

[big-deku-energy]

I’m really curious why Endeavor addresses the three of them so differently.

Shouto: Given name

Bakugou: Family/formal name

Deku: Hero name (also nick name)

I mean obviously he’d address his own son by the given name and also it’s his hero placeholder name but it’s interesting that he addresses Midoriya and Bakugou as what he did. Granted, Izuku’s the only one with a real hero name so Endeavor just calls him by that but it feels weird in the middle of calling Shouto and Bakugou by their own names. Possibly a sign of respect?

[clyde-wy]

[big-deku-energy]

Love these collage panels!