The Interesting Existence of Stars and Stripes 1. Late-Game Introduction With No Prior Foreshadowing
Star and Stripe (Cathleen Bate) doesn’t appear until just before the “Final War” setup.
There’s no prior hint of her existence or role in the story, despite being the U.S.’s No. 1 Hero and supposedly one of the strongest people alive.
The sudden urgency to fight Shigaraki before his “completion” only emerges right before her appearance — almost as if her presence was written in to create a temporary roadblock.
2. Purpose-Built to Weaken the Villain
Her quirk New Order is an incredibly versatile, high-concept ability capable of altering reality within rules she sets — the kind of thing that could break the power scale if she survived long enough to team up with Deku.
The narrative makes sure this doesn’t happen:
She gets in one big fight with Shigaraki.
She sets her final “order” so New Order self-destructs while destroying some of his quirks.
She dies immediately afterward, removing herself and her quirk from the board.
This allows Shigaraki to be weakened for the finale without having to show him losing to an active hero before facing Deku.
3. Vague & Arbitrary Nerf
The number and type of quirks she destroys inside Shigaraki/All For One is deliberately unspecified.
Shigaraki still has enough abilities afterward to be almost unstoppable in the Final War, making it hard to tell whether she meaningfully changed his power level.
Because the damage is nebulous, her entire sacrifice feels mechanically hollow — the stakes of her death aren’t tied to a clearly visible change in the threat.
4. One-and-Done Impact
In spite of her huge status (No. 1 U.S. Hero, All Might’s biggest foreign admirer), she:
Has no significant build-up before her arc.
Doesn’t affect any other villain or plot thread.
Leaves no active allies behind who change the war’s trajectory.
She leaves a “mental scar” in Shigaraki that Deku exploits much later, but this is more of a thematic callback than a tactical game-changer.
5. Emotional Weight vs. Plot Function
Her backstory, admiration for All Might, and bond with her squad are all emotionally charged to make her sacrifice feel noble and tragic.
But mechanically, the plot could have had any temporary powerhouse arrive, damage Shigaraki a bit, and die to the same effect.
This gap between emotional presentation and plot necessity makes her look like a narrative tool more than a fleshed-out player in the war.
Bottom Line
Star and Stripe reads as a narrative stopgap — a “speed bump” for Shigaraki that:
Arrives late.
Weakens him in a vague, unquantifiable way.
Dies immediately after.
Leaves the battlefield essentially unchanged for the real final fight.
Her role feels like a heroic sacrifice, but in terms of long-term strategy, she might as well have been a self-destructing status effect written into the script to make sure Deku’s final battle wasn’t against an unbeatable, 100% loaded Shigaraki.