Afo straight up craning his neck to the side to look at yoichi while yoichi is just side eyeing him is so sad and hilarious at the same time. Oh zen you lonely mf💀too bad you can't be next to yoichi because of YOUR OWN actions. All he can do is long for yoichi, never touch or talk to him again.
about the shigaraki brothers childhood development...
It still baffles me to this day how the two brothers managed to integrate themselves into society, or more like a broken yet currently being rebuilt one. Obviously we don't have enough information to make sense of how they did a few things on their own, like feed themselves right after their mother's corpse was flushed away by the rapid rivers, find an area warm enough for them, food for nourishment, moving around just days after they were born. So many questions unanswered and wacky theories.
They're feral children in a ruined concrete jungle filled with people like them yet not. Maybe that's what made it easy for them to slide right on in as adults as if they weren't incoherent beings eating trash all day😭the adults were too busy running, stealing, arguing and fighting for their lives to pay attention to two strange and contaminated kids. AFO and Yoichi had nobody to teach them basic knowledge and skills for their age like the ABC's and how to write, read, and speak.
But then yoichi is shown being able to speak and understand certain actions first in regards to afo in their early days. Its Even hinted that yoichi learned to speak first in their facial expressions and certain scenes. Like when afo beat a group of thugs and yoichi crawled out of the shadows in tears, seemingly from not only pain, but empathy as he's probably thinking those men are hurting just as much as he is, and acknowledges by getting afos attention by throwing an empty can at him and telling his brother to stop and that it hurts only for afo to kick him in the face instead of replying back verbally, or when afo approached the group of men, who, when they spotted afo, debated on helping him or just leaving him there. Afo had every chance to make an attempt at speaking to them to ask for help, etc, but didn't and just killed the group right after they turned away from him. He's a non verbal child only running on instinct, actions and survival as it's all he's ever known.
Meanwhile, yoichi is forced to be cooped up somewhere where afo hid him as to not endanger himself. Yoichi is small and weak, the runt of the twins, so there's not a lot of options when it comes to him in battle. The only thing yoichi could do was listen to the beat up radio and pick up the tattered books around him. This is how yoichi was able to teach himself how to read and speak their native language. It wasn't afo who taught him to do all those things as he was out often doing God knows what and never spoke around those times. I'll add more, specifically about AFO'S quirk when I have time but I gotta go yall
The narrative insists he is a brave hero, or at least that he has the right heroic philosophy, but I don't see it. Don't get me wrong, his intentions are good and he clearly is the good twin, but intentions aren't everything.
Yoichi wants great justice, but does he ever address systematic injustice? Does he ever talk about racism, corruption, quirk discrimination, quirkless discrimination, the bystander effect or the causes that turn people into villains? No.
The narrative portrays him standing up to his brother as a heroic deed, but think about it. What if Yoichi didn't have a transmission quirk, which he got by total chance? Then he would've been completely forgotten and his actions wouldn't have contributed to saving even a single person. The sole reason OFA got passed down was by pure dumb luck.
After this the next generations simply train the quirk they already had and pass it down until Midoryia gets all former quirks. How does Yoichi help then? By giving vague information about his brother and he doesn't even mention that his brother was a killer ever since he was a baby. He doesn't give any important information on the rest of the quirks, he doesn't come up with any plans nor really help come up with others. The most he does is emotional support, and even that would be a stretch to call heroic.
Even as a child, he was shown in certain scenes reading comics while his brother was killing people. Granted, he tried to change his brother for the better and there wasn't much he could do, but seriously, reading comics while people die and you call yourself righteous?
Oh, there's also the scene where all OFA users together with Deku and Tomura kill AFO, but he clearly wasn't on his own and they would've managed it without him anyway.
I've seen worse characters than Yoichi, but he is one of the most useless characters I've ever seen and the narrative gives him way too much credit.
as someone whose favorite character is Yoichi Shigaraki, I was bewildered reading this BUT I’m going into it with an open mindset.
the thing that struck me the most is how little you think he attributes to the story/the moral of my hero academia.
So, let’s remind ourselves the two biggest messages of my hero academia:
Anyone can be a hero
its all about cultivating the new generation
or at least, that’s been two of my BIGGEST takes on my hero academia as a whole.
And for that second message, does Yoichi not represent that immensely well?
if it wasn’t for Yoichi, all of his efforts, Izuku Midoriya (representing that new generation of coming heroes) would have NEVER been able to reach his full potential.
So in my opinion, the start of One For All, all of the previous users cultivating it is ABSOLUTELY a huge piece of the story in how we are suppose to reach our own full capability to then help the next generation reach THEIR full capability.
Yoichi was a sick man and his full potential was his WILL (not his physical ability and the accomplishments he achieved with physical strength) his HOPE, as we see Yoichi earlier on defend Izuku from Tomura’s hatred. Yoichi’s will was DETRIMENTAL for One For All
and Yoichi also gave Kudou the will and spirit to (Rememeber the one manga panel in that Kudou says Yoichi’s will now lives inside him) fight back against All For One and to bestow the quirk onto the next user.
Yoichi was not USELESS in any shape or form, if you take the show at face value, then yes, it could seem as though he never actually did anything to fight his brother,
but the will, the passion, the hope, the courage, THATS what makes Yoichi stand out, THAT was Yoichi’s potential
Yoichi’s WILL cultivated the next generation of heroes to stop his brother, his own BLOOD, Yoichi refused to bend to All For One’s ways despite the struggles they faced and THAT is why Yoichi is so important.
It was never about his physical power, it was about his will to do GOOD (not to be a hero, but for justice and RIGHTEOUSNESS) and Yoichi ABSOLUTELY completed that task/role.
To call him useless to the story is… really just.. to put it nicely, ‘not right’.
I’ve always admired Yoichi’s character because of his will and passion to continue going on, i know his character has certain flaws (don’t we all??) but I’ve grown to LOVE those flaws, for instance, his naivety
he is naive but it’s something I cherish.
I liked his character because I was able to relate to it in so many ways, with an abusive relationship with my own brother, codependency, and still wanting to HELP PEOPLE, wondering if my relation to my brother meant by default ‘I was destined to hurt others too’. Yoichi’s character spoke to me and comforted me in ways I needed
I know you may not understand that, but we’re not suppose to understand every character or agree with every side, but just because you don’t understand or like his ideology/character doesn’t MAKE him a bad character.
first off I want to say that I believe yoichi should have been more developed and should have gotten more screentime, but at the end of the day we can't decide how much screentime/development he gets. So I'm basing this entire rant on what we do see from him. So here's my take on yoichi's heroism.
Yoichi was born with a strong sense of justice, though I don't think that the narrative insists that he's a brave hero - I moreso agree with the point that it was pushing that he had the right heroic philosophy. And I agree that intentions aren't everything. Yoichi's sense of justice is an innate trait of this quirk (quirks are linked with personality - something mha has shown countless of times). But yes just because it's a trait he was born with doesn't mean he is heroic - actions have to be taken, or at least raising awareness.
Yoichi doesn't address all of these things and yeah it would be better if he did more to prove that he had a strong sense of justice. But he also doesn't really have to talk about these things. There are many characters who bring those issues up - though it may be rushed (that will be for a different rant).
Personally I believe that talking about systematic injustice, racism, discrimination, the problems with hero society shouldn't be things yoichi comments about. Why? Because even if he said anything - he's a vestige now. What will he be able to do about any of these things? What will izuku do about these things? Surely if vestige yoichi talks to izuku about this it would be with the goal of getting him to do something about it? Right?
But even if he talked about all of this and brought it up - I don't think story wise that it would be a good idea for the main character who only faced discrimination for being quirkless to talk about and fix all of the other issues in the show.
Also, yoichi could have very well brought those things up while he was alive - if. He had a different life. I don't think that yoichi would have made a difference yapping about all of this in the vault he was locked in.
And tbf - some of the things you pointed out yoichi never experienced or saw because they weren't a part of society at that time. Does this mean they aren't issues and shouldn't be talked about? No. But someone who doesn't have this experience can not talk ot commentate about it. Just like how it is in real life.
Your second point is a little weird. Idk if you just got the quirks mixed up but yoichi was born with the transferance quirk. And this is significant. Yoichi and all for one have similar quirks. If yoichi didn't have transferance all for one wouldn't have had his quirk, why? Because quirks are genetic. Yoichi's quirk was underdeveloped but it most likely would have been the same as all for one's since they are twins. So no transference isn't just some random quirk horikoshi picked out. .
The quirk he got from all for one also isn't by chance or something random. All for one specifically picked stockpile because it was a quirk that wouldn't harm yoichi. I'm pretty sure all for one himself said that he picked it on purpose.
OFA getting passed down is also more significant than it just being passed down by luck. Yes it was a slim chance that yoichi would be found by kudo and bruce but dumbing down the transfer as happening by "dumb luck" is just wild to me.
OFA can NOT get transferred unless it's by consuming DNA, (and) the user wanting to give OFA, it can also be passed on by force, but mainly those two reasons.
Also yoichi doesn't have to mention that his brother was a killer cause it's fucking obvious???? Also did you forget that yoichi was abused by his brother - but he was still his only family. The person with a strong sense of justice wouldn't idk kill his only family member or something? Idk what you wanted him to do exactly. He was also a child, a frail and weak one so even if he did try to do something physical it would fail. This entire point seems very victim blaming ngl.
The scene of the other users without yoichi going to kill AFO is significant. Yoichi isn't there again not because they could have been better off without him but because again. Even after everything yoichi wouldn't kill his only family. He had many regrets about his brother but it just seems contradictory If he was there to also kill him.
I'm not even gonna comment on your last point.
Uhh idk just wanted to share my opinions (also english isn't my first language so I kinda don't know if this even makes sense. Kay erm yep)
The narrative insists he is a brave hero, or at least that he has the right heroic philosophy, but I don't see it. Don't get me wrong, his intentions are good and he clearly is the good twin, but intentions aren't everything.
Yoichi wants great justice, but does he ever address systematic injustice? Does he ever talk about racism, corruption, quirk discrimination, quirkless discrimination, the bystander effect or the causes that turn people into villains? No.
The narrative portrays him standing up to his brother as a heroic deed, but think about it. What if Yoichi didn't have a transmission quirk, which he got by total chance? Then he would've been completely forgotten and his actions wouldn't have contributed to saving even a single person. The sole reason OFA got passed down was by pure dumb luck.
After this the next generations simply train the quirk they already had and pass it down until Midoryia gets all former quirks. How does Yoichi help then? By giving vague information about his brother and he doesn't even mention that his brother was a killer ever since he was a baby. He doesn't give any important information on the rest of the quirks, he doesn't come up with any plans nor really help come up with others. The most he does is emotional support, and even that would be a stretch to call heroic.
Even as a child, he was shown in certain scenes reading comics while his brother was killing people. Granted, he tried to change his brother for the better and there wasn't much he could do, but seriously, reading comics while people die and you call yourself righteous?
Oh, there's also the scene where all OFA users together with Deku and Tomura kill AFO, but he clearly wasn't on his own and they would've managed it without him anyway.
I've seen worse characters than Yoichi, but he is one of the most useless characters I've ever seen and the narrative gives him way too much credit.
Technically the only yoichi’s pov we had that truly depicts afo as the terrible man he became tells us the story about his rise in power (and the vault obviously, which became the final straw), but we don’t have any sign that Yoichi saw him as a monster before, while society and afo himself sure did
And seems like he doesn’t think of afo as just an evil monster that should be defeated even after everything he did - after original afo death which has been one of the ofa holders main goals for more than a century, yoichi just looks tired, but not relieved or happy - he doesn’t, because he can’t see afo’s death as a real win
Maybe yoichi even sees it rather as his personal failure (since it’s him who tried to be afo’s guiding light before)
I think I too would spend 200 years creating vast mechanizations, an army, turn a Tomura into my vessel, and kill everyone in my path for this man too.
Technically an OC fic that's not Resistance-based-
Involves:
Yoichi singing the American anthem to make a baby sleep. It's the only song he ever heard on the radio, and it actually works
Kudo throwing a baby Factor over the edge to kick them out of the void because Bruce wouldn't do it
Bruce felt himself wither and die a bit more at what was expected of him.
Kudo rolled his eyes. "If you're not going to do it-"
"Second, don't you dare-"
"Kudo," Yoichi tried.
"I will," he finished, heaving her up by the back of her onesie like she were a trash bag. Raising her up to eye level, he did a brief three-finger salute.
Her head was too heavy, and neck too weak, for her to look anywhere but at his feet, biting her gums onto her little knuckles. She had no idea what this man was about to do to her.
"Hasta la Vista, kiddo. Enjoy your last seconds of life."
"KUDO!!!"
En speedrunning the marriage process because his friend wanted to (both ace, it's a QP relationship)
"Sorahiko-senpai, give me the marriage certificate," En nearly hissed over their burgers.
Sorahiko chewed slowly. "Why?"
"I'm about to set the world record for fastest divorce—!!!"
Quirk bullcrap where the story focuses on what happens if a Quirk Singularity can't adjust, and how Factors are their own personality.
AKA, when a Quirk Singularity is in a normal person, and not like OFA or AFO.
Gran Torino is bad at relationship advice
"In my experience, which is none—"
Aizawa has problem children (definitely plural) acting out on day 1
Aizawa slammed the door open.
"Hi, Shouta!" she waved, a raging blonde stuck to the classroom wall and screaming up a storm. The first day had barely started, too. "Fancy seeing you here-!"
Aizawa slammed the door shut.
Setting up a Monopoly game for the vestiges to play
"I want the doggy."
"I want the doggy!"
Kudo didn't even blink. "Shut up, Fifth, Yoichi gets the dog."
###
She looked at Midoriya, who suddenly went quiet. His expression was a bit cowed, staring blankly at the tiny player pieces.
"What?"
"Ah..." His head jolted, called to attention. His head immediately fell down a bit as he admitted, a bit awkwardly, "They're, fighting over the doggy..."
###
"Yoichi grew up with nothing. Are you really going to deprive this orphan of even a playing piece?"
"Are you seriously playing the pity card right now?!"
"I'll play any card to let Yoichi have what little he never got when he was alive,” Kudo sniffed, arms crossed. “I may have been a murderer, but wow. I never took you for a heartless monster, Fifth."
"Guys," Shinomori spoke up quietly, completely ignored and otherwise unheard underneath their spreading bickering, "it's just a board game..."
Kudou: can SOMEONE please make that thing shut up?! it's hurting my ear drums with how loud it is. Im amazed people made babies back when everything was shit in my days...
Nana: That "THING" is a she and she's just a baby, they can't help it. And you're not helping with your "back in my days" complaints, makes you sound old."
Kudou: "I AM old and I don't even know how to help a baby. Never had one and sure as hell won't ever make one."
Banjo: "well duh! You're dead, of course you can't make one. She has a strong set of lungs for being dead haha! Get it? Cuz we're-"
En: "2nd's also gay as hell to even touch a woman. What makes you think he'll ever produce?"
Bruce: "well... Unless he or yoichi gets hit by a baby making quirk then him producing is possible..."
Shinomori: can we please focus on getting the baby to calm down? Her voice is starting to pierce into midoriya's mind and if he can't focus... nana, weren't you a mother? How about you try and calm her down.
Nana: ...i.. I can't... it's just....
En: ...it's a sensitive subject...
shinomori: ah...?
En: she was a mother but that-
Nana: I... gotta go... I need some alone time.
En: ...didn't last long...
...
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaah waaaaaaaaaaaaaah
Banjo: er... how about Bruce does it?
few minutes later....
Yoichi: hello! I'm back from talking with the 9th is everything... wow you all look misrable, why is there a crying baby in here???
Banjo: oh thank God! We can't get the baby to shut up! Everyone's tried but the crying just won't stop! Yoichi! Help!
Shinomori is laying face first on the ground, en is laying across the chair, knocked out, mist might is holding the crying baby not doing anything, kudou is bashing his head against the wall and Bruce is covering his ears.
Yoichi: I have no idea how to handle a baby. I don't know how-
Banjo races across the room, takes the baby from mist might and plops her into yoichi's arms who wobbles at the sudden weight.
Banjo: here! Take her! Do something! Anything my ears can't take it anymore!!
Waaaaaaah waaaaaaaaah waaaaaaaaaah
Yoichi: uh.... um...
He starts swaying from side to side awkwardly
Yoichi: please stop crying, little one, everyone's tired and our successor is starting to complain about the constant noise please.
Waaaaahhh waaaaaaahaaaahh weeeeeeeh
Yoichi thinks back to when he was a little kid, back when the sun would rise in just a few hours when he had to sleep. He and his brother only stayed active in the night, where most people were sleeping and quiet, so it made sense they had to sleep in the morning till sunset. But whenever he would settle for bed, listening to his little radio while big brother was gone, a song would always play at the exact time. It helped him sleep. The old crackle of the radio trying to pick up more signal along with the obvious signs of age in the singing tape soothed him. Yes, it was that song that helped. So yoichi started to sing.
Yoichi: oooh say, can you see
By the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed
At the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars
Through the perilous fight
O'er the ramparts we watched
Were so gallantly streaming?
Kudou stopped bashing his head in disbelief of what he was hearing and bruce's jaw dropped.
yoichi: And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night...
Kudou: are you seriously fucking singing the American national anthem???
Bruce: uh... is yoichi American? Was he American all along and just didnt know what the word was???
En: I dont... think Americans have looks like that...
yoichi: that our flag was still there,
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free!!!! and the home of the brave!!!!
...
Shinomori:... hey, the baby stopped crying.
...
Yoichi: oh! She's asleep! I knew it would work! If that song could put me to sleep then it can definitely put this baby to sleep!
Banjo: that's one patriotic baby.
Kudou: no fucking way...
Nana: I'm back. Why did I just hear yoichi sing the American national anthem? Oh hey! The baby stopped crying! That's good.
Bruce: hey uh... yoichi. Thanks for putting the baby to sleep and all but... are you sure you weren't in America when you were little...?
Yoichi: uh yeah...? Why?
En: cuz that song you just sang was America's national anthem. How'd you learn that in English by the way?
Yoichi: oooooh! It always played on the radio I had when I was little when i was about to go to sleep! It helped me sleep so I figured it would help the baby... which I was right!!
I think I too would spend 200 years creating vast mechanizations, an army, turn a Tomura into my vessel, and kill everyone in my path for this man too.
He’s just so adorable here.
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