the “undo” button: eri in bnha (aka me trying not to scream about the todorokis before the translations come out so here have eri instead)
so with mirio back in action and the knowledge that eri’s quirk is now capable to be used by our heroes (at least sometimes), i wanted to talk a bit about the type of plot device eri is. because while she does have room for personality and development, her main purpose in the story up to this point has been predominately focused on her quirk.
and there seems to be a lot of mixed opinions — largely because eri’s quirk does seem to operate as an undo button now for our heroes. and i’m not mad about mirio getting his quirk back, and i’m not even mad that eri’s quirk is part of this story now.
“undo” buttons by themselves aren’t inherently bad, like a lot of other plot devices it largely comes down to how exactly they are handled and executed. a good usage of the device can improve the story by putting the characters in difficult positions, giving false hope and quite frankly raising the stakes. a bad usage does the exact opposite.
so how should you use an “undo” button and how does is it being done in bnha?
when introducing the “undo” button, the redo optioon, the get out of jail free card, into your story, you have to set the terms that the button can be used in. we’ve already started to see this with eri — we know her quirk is based on the power that comes from/is stored in her horn and can rewind people.
so it’s not necessarily an instant redo power and while i am wary of it — i hope it can be executed well. how can it be best executed? there’s a few options.
give both heroes and villains access to the power. admittedly this has already been done kinda of as eri started with overhaul and is the source of the quirk erasing bullets. having said that — if both sides get too much access to the ability than it becomes ineffective. so this alone doesn’t really help. nonetheless by allowing both the heroes and the LOV to have some degree of access to eri’s abilities, it serves to help balance the scales between the groups and keep tensions high.
set hard limits on the power. make it clear as to what exactly the power can do — for example: can eri rewind the dead? as well as setting either that it can only be used so many times (ie there’s a limited number of quirk erasing bullets) or that it can only be used so often: as eri’s horn grows and shrinks as she uses her power — establish that she can only use her power to do one big rewind for a certain duration. however there is a caveat to that working, namely:
put time constraints on the effectiveness. establish that the further back you have to rewind someone — the more dangerous it is. make it so that to some extent the degree of effectiveness isn’t unlimited. this cam lead you to situations in which…
force your characters to choose who gets access to it. if eri can only use her power on let’s say one person from the whole war arc: who gets it? who do they prioritize and who do they leave to the side. who is fundamentally important enough that they get to be rewound while everyone else is left as they are. this is most effective if the last point is implemented because then there’s no waiting line. it’s now or never.
have situations that it doesn’t cover. for example: while eri could in theory rewind any injuries (ie aizawa’s leg, deku’s arms, hawks’ wings), she can’t rewind dabi’s video/reveal. so it’s not a universal undo.
there’s more but the point is, in general the more restrictions set on the ability and the more those restrictions force characters to make difficult decisions the more interesting/beneficial the power is. the less restrictions — the lower stakes are, and the less tensions there is because a reader (and the characters for that matter) know that it won’t stick.
that’s why “undo” buttons are such dangerous plot devices. look at deku’s final fight with overhaul — deku could use OFA at full power without consequence, he was basically invincible. in fact the threat by the end wasn’t even overhaul — it was eri’s control.
and the thing that worries me about eri is there is a lot of restrictions on her abilities now, because her losing control is disastrous and she doesn’t have too much control at the moment. however, bnha likes to train up its heroes. so if the more eri improves, the more restrictions on the ability disappear, that could make the “undo” button fears founded.
personally: i don’t really enjoy giving characters access to “undo” buttons. it’s why i don’t like time travel plots. i’m not a fan of giving characters get out of jail free cards, unless they’ve really really really worked for them and can only be used once. and it’s hard to predict where eri’s role in the story is going. but it’s not always a bad thing, so for the time being. she’s got my benefit of the doubt.
i just hope she can be utilized well. also i’m happy power boy mirio is back so i guess we can only see where it goes from here.
(disclaimer time: these are pretty general comments based on my own opinions and study into narrative. by no means are they universal though! good stories can use this plot device freely and still make it work -- bad stories can put restrictions on it and it doesn’t work at all. that’s part of why it’s such a difficult device to work with and anyone who does always gets my standing ovation - i really hope this story is one of them.)
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(next time on yelling about bnha 29-whatever chapter we are on: more todoroki family ranting — ft. deku! i promise i’ll be back on my todoroki rants soon: i just have to cry about the attempted murder hug and wait for translations.)
