By Gettymuseum

scar reference + notes for my renkaza longfic (under the cut, if you're looking for it)

Slow burn, Ongoing, M rating (subject to change)

How appropriate.

Revelator came out and:

1- again we end the episode with a bigoted and crooked morale. "You have the right to keep secrets unless its something dangerous" hum.... Yeah, secrets about YOU? If you are talking about a secret that involves and can greatly impact someone else (that you are not the legal guardian of) and is completely unrelated to you, you dont get to keep it?? Because you dont get to dictate someone else's reality???

2- Chat Noir can apparently erase memories now? What is even the point of keeping secrets, Ladybug. You should just ask him to make you forget your own secrets and case closed, since this is about protecting Adrien and not about you being a control freak, right?

3- apparently, if you get to brainwash people into forgetting all your secrets, you are in the right because who cares about agency, eh? Classic marinette.

4-Alya tearing Marinette a new one was great though. My girl was spitting facts.

Bomin Reference Sheet

I rarely post in these tags but tell me why those orange green heart broccoli explosion emoji combo whiners are trying to infiltrate the bnha critical tags just because their mid ship wasn’t confirmed official.

What actually made you believe bakugo and midoriya was ever going to get together? Like I need you to be serious for a second. Did it seriously take you this long, 8 entire damn years for you to finally get your wakeup call???

Like gtfo out of the tags with your delusional ao3 “”queerbaiting”” ass. I’m trying to see well informed written analysis and learn from Horikoshis mistakes on how not to fail as a writing enthusiast.

Go create your own tags or something like anyone gives a damn about your inherent power imbalance ship.

Thinking about Endeavor and how he could’ve been great for exploring the corruption within the Hero system, how some Heroes are just full of shit. All they know to do is punch Villain and let camera go click flash and fans go aaaa omg Hero do hero thing that’s so cool I love him yay yippee

Imagining a world where Endeavor was introduced as a Hero who was just as widely beloved as All Might, and he carried himself similarly to him and everything. A facade where his whole reputation relies on practically being a clone of the no.1’s personality, just with a twist of competitiveness and maybe a sprinkle of awkwardness or quirkiness. So when we’re introduced to Shoto, we start out confused as to why he hates his father so much. We think of him as just another rebellious teenager, doesn’t want anything to do with his dad yada yada yada. Maybe we even roll our eyes at him at first. But then we learn, oh wait Shoto isn’t just some other rebellious teen. His father actually legitimately sucks. Overtime we slowly learn of Endeavor’s true nature, how abusive he is, and not only that, but how the Hero system has failed Shoto and his family because it did nothing to stop Endeavor from doing what he did to them. Endeavor gets away with so much simply because he’s at the top of the charts. Shoto has to live with and rely on a selfish abusive man who’s beloved by the mass public, who pretends to be this heroic caring guy just doing what he does for the sake of peace, when in reality it’s all for the money, fame, and power. And nobody believes Shoto when he opens up about his trauma. Nobody except Midoriya. Because they’ve been convinced that because Endeavor is a Hero that it must mean there’s a reason behind why he’s supposedly treating his family so badly, or that Shoto is being overdramatic that he’s wording himself poorly on purpose just to make his father look bad, because he’s the rebel kid who hates him and therefore surely that means he’s trying to drag others into his rebellion and hatred so he can avoid any kind of self reflection.

And what if All Might bought into the act. Instead of being directly rivals, they’re both good friends in the public eye. NightEye never trusts Endeavor for jackshit, and it could’ve been one of the things him and All Might argued over. All Might having so much faith in humanity that he trusts Endeavor with his life, going as far as to say he’s one of his best friends. Meanwhile Endeavor’s just happy that he has a “friend” who’s popular and rich. Since high school they had always been rivals, and Endeavor still viewed him that way, only now he was more discreet about it, wording himself in ways that made his jabs at All Might sound like it’s just bros being bros. All Might slowly opening up to the possibility that his “close friend” is just some guy who takes his speeches and tweaks them just enough so to seem like he knows what he’s talking about. Endeavor just regurgitates whatever All Might says but worded differently, and the public eat it up without a second thought.

Hero Killer Stain could be the starting point of really unraveling Endeavor and his true colors. Shoto being placed in this strange intense situation where he knows his father won’t back down and change just because Stain is targeting him, so on one hand the thought of his father dying—as cruel as it may seem—is honestly relieving, but on the other hand the same thought leaves him dreadful and guilty because he wants to be a Hero. He wants to be a Hero better than Endeavor. He wants to be a true Hero. Knowing that his father’s attitude towards the situation is only going to get him killed, what kind of Hero would that make Shoto if he just allowed that to happen without a fight? He had to at least try to save his father, even if he had hurt him so much. Not because of any way he felt towards Endeavor, but because of his own dream and to make his mother and siblings proud.

And HAWKS. OH THE ANGST POTENTIAL WITH HAWKS. Hawks learning that his idol is a piece of shit and him struggling to come to terms with the fact that he let this man influence him to become a Hero. He let Endeavor influence him so much on a personal level. Wanting to give him the benefit of the doubt, but the more time he spends with Endeavor and then learning about Dabi and his whole deal, eventually he can’t continue trying to defend this guy. He’s gotta distance himself somehow but his collaboration with Endeavor has already gone on for a long while now. Even if Endeavor’s reputation has been starting to decline due to Stain and All Might needing to retire early, Hawks can’t just back away now. Not when the Noumus are attacking the city and Endeavor is struggling to keep up with them on his own. And Endeavor’s reputation is only going to tank more from there too as he ends up showing that he’s incapable of handling being the no.1 Hero like he always wanted to be, no longer having anyone to copy speeches and motivational quotes off of and Hawks’s personality being too laidback for him to fuel his already cracking facade. To the point where Hawks has to do a lot of the heavy lifting. Endeavor is pushed to the point of desperation, trying so hard to cling onto the reputation he has left, and it affects their teamwork by a lot. Hawks keeps getting his feathers burned in battle because Endeavor keeps recklessly throwing himself into the fights only thinking about himself, practically neglecting Hawks altogether. It gets to the point where in private, Endeavor ends up hurting him. Hawks gets hurt by his own idol, and he’s left stunned. He’s not sure whether to distance himself or to keep attempting to look on the bright side of everything, to tell himself maybe I’m the one doing something wrong not him.

The UA Entrance Exam

This was going to be part of a larger post about UA as a whole, but I decided this was probably best to stand alone, because this is more random thought/opinion than a proper critical post. Welcome to what is probably going to be a controversial post: the UA Admissions test isn't bad?

The main argument against it is that it puts those without a combat quirk at a disadvantage, right? And, well, that's true. But... is that wrong?

Here's the thing: the more heroism as a whole is developed in the setting, the more something becomes startling clear, one simple fact that stands above all others.

Heroism is a profession defined by fighting.

You can be a rescue hero, you can spend your time saving people from collapsing building or finding those who are lost, but if you've gotten to the point of being a professional hero? You know how to throw down.

I'm not even talking about UA, here: there's a license exam that everyone has to take, as part of a process of being a hero. Half of it is saving people, yes... but the other half? It's purely about fighting other people. Hell, even part of the saving people portion has combat aspects, since it's focused around, not just saving people, but saving people while under attack.

I'll say it again: if you are a hero, you are a fighter, by definition.

So, what's that have to do with the UA entrance exam? In all honesty, that exam is functionally a simulation of running around a city, beating up random street thugs. It's testing if you can beat people up, one of the most fundamental parts of heroism (deadpan stare).

The follow up point is, what about Quirks that aren't combat focused, but are still useful for heroism? Shinso, for example? If those were actual people, he probably could have beaten them, right? That's unfair!

And, I'll admit, that's right; in the context of that exam, it is unfair, because some people can vomit lava lasers and some can't. Is Brainwash useful? Absolutely. Counterpoint: what is day one Shinso going to do if he meets some guy in an alley with no mouth and a knife?

Die.

Literally, if he didn't run away, all he'd do is die.

Everyone who passed, and quite a few who didn't pass, could take down Wannabe Slenderman, while Shinso would just end up dead in that alley. This is going to sound bad, but life is unfair, and if you're going to go around picking fights with dangerous people and not prepared for that fact, you will pay for it.

Now, let me introduce you to Chad Hagakure.

In the grand scheme of things, while Toru has a useful support power, Shinso's is a lot better than hers, more versatile, more powerful. You can, in the words of Ollivander, do great things with a power like that. While Toru's Quirk gives her some advantages against the robots, it isn't going to beat them for her, either, and the off button idea is fanon with no canon backing.

So how did she get in, with her inferior quirk, when Shinso didn't?

Because Shinso coasted through his life with only his Quirk, and then was helpless when met up with something with the amazing ability to shut up. Everything he did, before Aizawa took him under his wing, revolved around making the other person talk, and absolutely nothing else. Toru, meanwhile, found opponents her invisibility couldn't magically destroy for her, and responded by beating them to death.

You probably think I'm being dramatic or something, but I'm not kidding. You need to stop robots to get points to pass; Izuku is the only person to pass on rescue points only, canonly. She doesn't have a power or tools to let her restrain them like Minoru did, so she had to, had to, break them. She doesn't have laser beams, or fire blasts, or anything to make it easy for her; all Toru had was the ability to ambush things, her muscles, and maybe a rock or a steel plate or something she picked up along the way.

That's all she had... and then she managed to kill her way in the heroism course anyways, past people who probably had Quirks much more compatible with the problem at hand. She went up to robots, probably from behind, and then hit them until they stopped moving.

In other words, Toru went into the Entrance Exam... and then the Doom music kicked in.

At the end of the day, though, I'm saying all these things, and while they're true, I feel like I'm dancing around the fundamental point: being a hero is about more than just a Quirk.

As a setting, MHA is one with a broad set of powers and abilities, by design. It means that there's lots of cool and interesting people to meet, which is the point, but on a practical level, it also means that every Quirk, every Quirk, has something that counters it. For support Quirks especially, there's seemingly always that One Simple Trick to beat them; a pair of thermal goggles, for example, renders Toru Quirkless. If you just don't talk, Brainwash is useless. And when that happens, you can't just say, 'Time out!' and get a new villain; you'll have to fight them anyways.

If you depend on your one special trick and nothing else, one day that will be your downfall.

UA has a lot of questionable decisions in it, about it, around it, but it is good at teaching its students how to beat the living shit out of people; you could even say it specializes in it. It has no illusions about the reality of the job it's preparing them for. And in the same vein, this isn't something that should be a surprise to any applicant; almost every time we see a hero in the media? They've just finished fighting someone. If they're not entering UA with wide open eyes about what they're going to have to do (and probably after signing some liability waivers to boot), then frankly they're idiots.

The Entrance Exam, mostly, tested one simple thing: are you ready to fight someone? Are you ready to walk into that alleyway and beat those thugs into submission? It's easier for people with combat Quirks, yes, because those are Quirks that are good at fighting, but that's not the end all; in another life, if he had worked out before hand, if he was determined to win, even if he was at a disadvantage, Shinso could have walked in, picked up a piece of rebar, and just hit things until he passed.

Like, let's compare Shinso and Bakugou: both of them have a good Quirk, and both of them knew it. (I know fanon and the narrative say otherwise, but Shinso has had nothing but praise from the flashbacks we've seen, with only a few comments that were somewhat negative but still held implicit respect for his Quirk and it's powers. Everyone he talks to says he has a good Quirk. He's happy using his Quirk. He is not the fanon abused little racoon.)

Shinso accepted that as fact and walked into UA without putting any work in, from what we can see (he faced Izuku, who was effectively Quirkless, and the second his Quirk failed he panicked and basiclly flailed more than fought, still only trying to make Izuku talk rather than actually beat him in a fight, even though Izuku was right there, about to beat him in a fight, and prepared to avoid his Quirk) and was smacked down accordingly.

Then we look at Bakugou, and that's the thing with Bakugou: he had an easy road to heroism, and knew it. I've said this somewhere before, but Hori leans on 'Bakugou works hard' as an excuse to not talk about his moral failings, because he does work hard, but not that hard. 'Bakugou working hard', in all honesty, is peak 'Tell not Show', and is repeated so damn often I'm sick of it.

The thing is that the idea of that isn't wrong, just the execution of it. With his muscles, with the way his Quirk is supposed to work, he had to put work into bulking up, staying in shape. He didn't just get his Quirk and say, 'I'm set for life', he fought for it. And while Hori praises him like Rock Lee when we barely see him do shit, the idea of a talented person working hard anyways could have been great. It's something you see in a lot of shonen manga, and is emblematic of heroism itself, and the spirit that UA is supposed to show: you can't just coast into heroism. You need to fight for it, earn it.

...I got a bit off topic there, but the point is the kid didn't just manifest those muscles out of the ether, he has to be training off screen, even if we should be seeing it more on screen.

Bakugou had a good Quirk, but was willing to train himself to achieve his goals.

Toru has a, honestly, medicore Quirk, but still managed to fight her way to her dreams.

Shinso has a good Quirk, but his only strategy when his Quirk failed him was, 'try harder to get them again with my Quirk!'.

Heroism is about power, true, but it's also about attitude, willingness, determination, the ability to perform under pressure and to make good choices and act on them, all the things that got early Izuku through the series before he got Full Cowl, often without using his Quirk at all. Most of that, if not all of it, can be trained over time, true... But if you're not born lucky, and you're not willing or able to work out enough, to think cleverly enough, or to be vicious enough to smash some weak robots, then honestly you're probably not ready for the hero course.

Time to shit on Bakugou

I've seen so many takes of "oh Endeavor is meant to be a parallel showing what Bakugou could have become if he never improved"

Where once again the actions show he has not fucking changed.

Also, why wouldn't he want to be like Endeavor? The guy by the end of the series retired as the number 1 hero, is fucking rich, tons of support, including the now HPSC president Hawks, Deku indirectly calls Natsuo unkind for not forgiving him, Rei is seen pushing his electric wheelchair even with three young able-bodied heroes right fucking there. Everyone who criticizes either of them is always casted as wrong end of story

Shoto is for some reason his friend, just like Deku and the Bakusquad, despite the fact that he treats all of them like shit. And the only punishments he ever get is either shared despite the other person not doing shit to deserve it (He forced Deku to fight him, and Shoto was literally being attacked by Isasa), or oh he's not the number one hero because he's just that mean to the press

The narrative never lined up with Bakugo, in that nobody ever responded to him naturally as their characters should have.

How they should have responded based on their own personalities and beliefs.

Stain, Dabi, Aizawa, kirishima, Mina, Iida, Shoto or even ochako.

All of them should have had big issues throughout the series with Bakugo for many reasons.

And even if one ignores all of this and focuses strictly on Bakugo, the delivery on his personal "growth" never really culminated in much real change either.

Because the final chapter shows he's still in the same place as he was during the provisional license exam, his attitude not being great with the civilians he's saving/protecting.

He was failed in the exam for this attitude and skated by through the make-up test.

(By being able to calmly talk to a single kid once I guess?)

Then nearly a decade later, he's still doing the same thing! 😆

It's kind of ridiculous when you look at all of it, like: "Where were we going with this??"

Me reading that: head shot clean shot guns blazing everyones fucking dying

Who would the 10-13 1A members that died in the MLA be, if MHA had any actual stakes? I really liked your Kaminari idea, so I just wanted to explore it with you. It would have realistically made UA/the heroes look a hell of a lot worse and the villains look a hell of a lot smarter if they went for the angle of "the best heroics school in Japan is using child soldiers!"

I know for the heroes, it should have been Pixie Bob and Gran Torino in addition to Crust. Endeavor also should have died because it would have actually given the story actual stakes - Japan is now in shambles and the new #1 hero/heavy hitter is dead. Oh shit, what are they going to do?

Firstly I feel I should clarify that both 1A and B would lose some team members as both classes were thrust into war with basically no real training. Although for the sake of plot 1A would lose vastly more.

With that stated, let us begin.

I know for a fact that Koda is dead.

Truthfully, there is no way someone as bulky as him (with the addition of his poorly designed costume) would be even marginally capable of outrunning Shigaraki's Decay.

His quirk (Anivoice) gives him zero advantages and being in Jaku (a city under evacuation) would only add to this.

We also mustn't forget that the rubble by itself was also capable of disintegrating anything it touched. Putting all that together and given how close he was to "ground zero", his chances of survival are slim to none.

Additionally, everyone who found Midnight's corpse is either dead or brutally injured.

Midnight's body is isolated in a decently foliage heavy area, with plenty of hiding spots and vantage points making it all too easy to set an ambush.

Our merry band of MLA/PLF mercenaries simply have to bide their time, wait for the shock and horror to settle in and then strike.

Sero, Kirishima and Setsuna are easy targets (with Setsuna being the farthest from the bait) their backs are turned and mentally are either distant or "vacant".

If Momo didn't recover from her grief and get off the floor, it's game over.

However. She would likely manage to fend them off long enough to escape (thanks to her intelligence and dexterity), although not without some scars. (eyepatch momo, anyone?)

Mina might be able to hold them off due to her acid but will eventually falter because (as you mentioned) Aizawa's a shitheel.

That brings us up to 5 students so far (if we include Kaminari's death) that have died due to UA's (and the HPSC's) crippling negligence.

I'm a tad hesitant to add Tsu here but it's unlikely she'd survive. (even if she does survive the wave, she'd likely die in the crossfire)

Comicman, because yeah he's unimportant.

For the Villa Raid team it's important that we cut some heroes in order for this scenario to work.

Edgeshot is dead, likely fried to death by Electro-lite.

This would cause the raiding heroes to become discouraged and overwhelmed.

the MLA's gear is more than a match and combined with their years of fighting and tactical prowess. It's not even close.

Simply put; divide and conquer.

Mineta's dying for sure. His costume restricts his (torso and leg) movements and makes him standout like a traffic cone. That guy with holes all over his body is likely the one to snuff him out.

Ojiro is dead the moment the MLA members use numbers to overwhelm him, no amount of martial arts will save you from getting jumped.

Mines dies because his quirk (Twin Impact) suffers from the Flect Fallacy.(Overwhelming the quirk will break it). So pretty much any MLA member could be the one to kill him

That sets the score to 11 total student deaths (8 for 1A, 3 for 1B), not a good look.

We know the rest, Dabi kills Enji for good.

Skeptic publishes a video along with Dabi's exposé that reveals UA is using child soldiers and that the HPSC forged paperwork to allow this.

And the crowd goes wild!

The reactions would be brutal, national if not global criticism from every angle.

The entire raid and evacuation effort would be considered an immense failure, the villains remain at large to gather their numbers and most civilians would be left homeless and displaced.

The hero that everybody placed their bets on turned out be a child/wife beating eugenicist who bought (and later assaulted) his wife when she was only 17. Only to be killed off by the very child he left to burn.

The (global) outrage partially stems from the fact that if it weren't for Dabi, no one would have known otherwise .

The number 2 hero is an (attempted) murderer and seems almost irritated at Enji being outed, the world stage takes this the wrong way and opts not to aid Japan.* What pisses them off the most is his uncaring attitude.

Considering them a lost cause when Shigaraki not only breaks everyone out of Tartarus but also manges to kill AFO by sheer force of will (and wanting to see his friends live as they please)

Rei's speech/conference serves as the final nail. Going into immense detail of the pain she and her children suffered at the hands of Enji. (If their were any doubts Touya was her son, they were killed here)

When asked if anyone knew, she finishes her speech off with revealing that some heroes and staff knew about the abuse and chose to look the other way. Causing the room to burst into an uproar.

*(explaining why Japan was allowed to fester for as long as it did without intervention, something Hori failed to explain)

Parents begin pulling out their children in droves, not wanting to risk their kids getting drafted, others quit by choice.

Shiketsu and Ketsubutsu don't put their students on the front lines (they aren't stupid). The commission is unable to force them due to their, "unique" situation.

The heroes that quit are harshly criticized by the public and media (and usually fairly too), pointing out how shitty it looks (and is) for heroes to suddenly abandon them as soon as things get serious.

Class 1A is left to pickup the pieces with 8 classmates killed (+ Bakugo) the events of the last week have shocked them to their cores but perhaps there is hope.

Of course they're left to pick up their predecessors mistakes, again.

Midoriya would still go rouge, albiet he would stick to his principals. He's made a disturbing connection between Bakugo and Endeavor and it haunts him.

(I should add that Bakugo's death is portrayed for the selfish play it was)

Midoriya likely driven by the need to ensure that he doesn't lose anyone else. His anger at AM would probably stem from the fact that he is putting himself in danger for someone as "expendable" as himself.

I could see the two having a heart to heart that Midoriya is more than his quirk once he willingly returns.

Some additional information:

Bakugo dies permanently, because Edgeshot was killed by "Electro" earlier (even then I'm not doing the writing atrocity that is the "Jeart".)

For heroes I'd like to add Jeanist to the roster. Gigantomachia should have swatted him and his airship like a fly. This means the top 3 are dead, adding to the chaos. This also prevents the old-gen from taking up space.

The High-End Nomu beat the tar out of Miriko, leaving crippled at best and a paraplegic at worst. (That is assuming they don't kill her).

Fourth Kind is killed when, like Ojiro, he is overwhelmed.

Your absolutely correct, Gran Torino and Pixiebob are eliminated, joining Crust.

Twice actually lives, though I would keep that ambiguous until later, he wouldn't get out unscathed of course and would probably need to be put into a coma while his injuries heal.

Himiko's revenge plot now has additional stakes as she promises Twice that she will return to him. (before he's medically put under)

This also fuels the PLF + Spinner, vowing to do right by their ally and friend.

Dabi would have disfigured Hawks upon discovery of his attempt on Twice's life, no more cosmetic scars. Just good old fashioned brutality.

(The fear of losing Twice may have dug up the past memory of losing his mother after Enji drove her to the brink. As Dabi cares deeply for both [even if he won't admit it] ontop of the fact that it's a "hero" that's trying to take them and he betrayed them).

Overall this world is going to be one wild ride with a very different ending to what Hori gave us.

It is a story not of heroes and villains, but of ideals and goals. It asks the question:

What is it to save?

A few additional notes:

Momo would likely have a revenge arc as a sort of parallel between Izuku and Himiko. However it wouldn't be as bland as what we got in canon with Mina.

The mercenaries aren't mustache twirling supremacists, no. Here they're cold, calculated soldiers who are strictly tactical. Midnight was "nothing personal, just business" to them.

They serve as a dark mirror to Momo's shift in personality during the war, as Momo reverts to her initial cold confidant personality and kicks it up to 20 as she hunts them down.

Midnight's killer even points out midbattle on how Momo was sexualized and she doesn't even know it. Telling her at one point: "You may see them as an equal, they see you as a display"

The battle isnt treated as a victory either, while the Momo and her squadron win, the gravity of the situation isn't ignored and Momo actually listens to her opponent's critique.

A sketch for my Serial Killer! AU.