Bnha/mha, My Criticisms.

Why Muzan’s “natural disaster” line was kind of accurate, actually

This Muzan line is so interesting to me because it’s the closest the manga comes to ever saying the quiet part out loud. There was nothing Muzan could’ve done to change what he became.

By the time he killed his doctor, he was already in the middle of his human to demon transition. He had pursued a cure to his illness (reasonable), his doctor had done his best to make an experimental cure for him (reasonable), the cure had unintended side effects (reasonable), and side effects had included amplified anger and murderous intent (unfortunate).

Natural disasters just happen. They don’t have agency. The reason you don’t take revenge on an erupting volcano is because it didn’t make a conscious choice to kill people. No one is to blame for the disaster. Likewise, Muzan had absolutely no agency against his fate. Even if he had started out as the world’s nicest human, even if he made exclusively good choices considering the information he was given, he would’ve ended up becoming a demon and eating people. The only immoral “choice” he made was killing his doctor, but if the medicine he was given was making him a demon anyway, the likelihood of that occurring during his first demonic rampage was extremely high. Regardless of whether he conquered the sun, whether he took his medication as prescribed, whether he was a good or bad human, he would’ve ended up with a near insatiable taste for human flesh. With no support network to hold him back from his urges until he was capable of settling down, his evil was essentially inevitable.

A lot of people say that Muzan is interesting because he’s one of the only pure evil villains with no redeeming qualities, but I disagree. He’s interesting because he’s one of the only villains who became evil by accident, in the process of pursuing something good.

On a more critical note, I think that the fact that this line from him is so clearly meant to be seen as inaccurate or bad speaks to the author’s lack of consideration for the moral implications of their plot. The moralization of illness in KnY has always bothered me. What, in the eyes of the author, should Muzan have done as a human? What is the moral of his story? Simply don’t be chronically ill? That seems a bit ableist. If you are ill, accept that you’re ill and just let yourself die as god intended? Also seems a bit ableist. Only take proven, known cures that are guaranteed to not have side effects? A little anti-science, or, more charitably, a misunderstanding of how the scientific process works… so what should Muzan have done instead? Much to think about.

As I have previously said, what Aizawa told Izuku during the quirk assessment was the worst possible thing he could have said to him at the time. Izuku feels the need to prove he is worthy - of existing generally - by being useful. And Aizawa added more fuel to the fire by declaring that Izuku would be useless after saving one person. It only lead to more self destruction because this just exacerbates Izuku's low self worth.

It's not even an accurate description of what happened during the forest training arc. The only person Izuku saved with his quirk was Kota. But Izuku's direct actions at a minimum saved Tokoyami and Shouto. Indirectly, he may have saved most of the hero course. Izuku was the one that made it in time to give Aizawa's permission to fight to Mandalay. Izuku's actions took out the members of the League's Vanguard Squad with the highest body count at the time: Muscular and Moonfish. Without Izuku, the kidnapping would have been the least of their worries. There would have been several deaths.

But all Izuku can think of is when the adults in his life told him that he was worthless because he was unable to achieve a perfect victory in an impossible situation as an unlicensed student.

Close up

I have a question, in a certain part of the fandom when it comes to criticizing characters like Bakugou, Endeavor, etc., an answer that is repeated a lot is that those who criticize don't understand the cultural context of Japan and therefore we don't understand the way in which Horikoshi wrote. But is this really true? I don't deny that there are aspects of Japanese culture in the manga but many actions of the characters feel very Westernized for the cultural issue to be an impediment in understanding the manga, more than anything when the idea of ​​the heroes and everything written by Horikoshi feels a direct reference to US comics, not just a comic but directly movies like the MCU.

For understanding any character or the world of BNHA generally, of course some knowledge of Japanese culture would help shed light on some of the narrative choices and themes. This was written by a Japanese man with an intended audience of Japanese manga readers.

And it's true that Japan overall does tend to have a more laissez faire attitude towards bullying and domestic violence.

However, BNHA also clearly depicted these actions as horrific early on in the manga. Beyond that, BNHA is a manga where that argument is weaker than usual because it is so heavily inspired by American culture and American media specifically.

If an author spells out how horrific bullying, systemic discrimination, and domestic abuse are in his work, it's not too much to ask for the characters who were the victims to get the panel time to demonstrate how they were affected by these actions. The atonement doesn't carry much weight without an understanding of the result of the wrongdoing in the first place.

What a good consequence should look like and how atonement should occur is going to be tied up in cultural norms. But there's no cultural excuse for sidelining the victims because the author feared it would make the atoning characters unpopular. Objectively bad writing decisions are bad writing decisions regardless of culture.

Part 7 - Revenge

Disclaimer- blood and gore

Please read this first.

Part 0; Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5;  Part 6;

Part 8; Part 9; Part 10; Part 11; Part 12; Part 13; Part 14; Part 15; Part 16; Part 17; 

TUMBLR 101: a helpful guide for tiktok refugees

are YOU a former tiktok user trying to learn how to use tumblr to fill the void the american tiktok ban is leaving in your soul? here are some things you should know, from someone who’s going on their eighth year on this hellsite:

1. you can say anything on here. gone are the days of having to use words like “unalive” and “seggs.” murder! kill! sex! fuck! speak your mind!

2. there is a community for you on here. regardless of what you’re into or however small the fandom is, you have a place here. at least one other person will have heard of your weird obscure interest. strike up a conversation!

3. followers don’t matter. tumblr is one of the last remaining social media sites in which your number of followers means absolute jack shit. this can be disorienting at first, but once you lean into the fact that everyone on this website is equal, it’s very freeing. clout means nothing here.

4. similarly, you can post at any time. while tiktok has an algorithm that favors certain times, tumblr has no such algorithm. post whatever you want, whenever you want. every post has virtually the same chance at getting notes, regardless of when it is posted.

5. tags can have spaces between the words! this one is very exciting. tags can be a whole sentence. you can also use the tags to comment on someone’s post without actually adding onto the physical post itself (which is sometimes frowned upon and called “derailing” if you use this feature to bring up a completely different point other than the one that’s being made on the original post).

TL;DR: speak your mind, find your place, followers don’t matter, post anytime, have fun with tags!! tumblr is a wonderful site used to share things you’re excited about. be patient with yourself as you’re learning and have fun!

Some of my favourite Muzan fanarts are those where his human self "meets" his future self

artist: @gywjd3

artist: @kawasemi500k

artist: @gimgiyak

The Greatest Boy In The World: Izuku Midoirya

This was originally part of a discussion I was having with @mikeellee but it got huge so this became its own thing. When I call Izuku privileged, I meant from multiple levels.

We've got our viewpoint, where we see beyond what the narrative shows us: a bunch of fake friends, an abusive rival, shoddy mentors, a school that failed him constantly.

Then there's what the narrative tells us: 1-A as a family, Bakugo as his best friend, him liking Aizawa, Nighteye, All Might and so on, and apparently Izuku's issues being something he himself needed to work on and not something that an educational facility should have been able to help him fix.

But here's why I say it.

What does Izuku actually lose across the story? Every single situation meant to bring tension and danger turns out to not come to pass, or gets walked back right away.

His teacher is a hard ass who seems to have it out for him? Well, no, Aizawa cools off entirely and is just there to be a grumpy toothless dragon. His bark is far worse than his bite. He'll make constant threats but never act on any of them.

Izuku is fresh to using his quirk and his classmates are all ahead of him? No, Izuku actually does way better than the majority of these loser kids and only actually lost to Shoto because, 1, he decided to sacrifice his win to taunt Shoto into using fire, and 2, bad luck.

Izuku's arms are in serious danger and breaking them could ruin their use for good? Nothing ever becomes of this. He breaks both arms against Muscular, uses a primarily kick based fighting style, then goes ham against Shigaraki during the first war arc. They reveal that, no, actually, OFA adapted to his body and prevents him from getting hurt so badly anymore and it prevents permanent damage.

He then loses his arms in the most nonsensical way possible, via a dream sequence? Only to have Eri mutilate herself (how did she know she could do that, how did they know it would work, why was she allowed and helped by Ectoplasm to do this?) and walk it back right away. His arms are restored so he can punch Shigaraki apart with the embers of OFA.

Losing his arms was completely meaningless and was done entirely for shock value.

Izuku's habit of going plus ultra is dangerous and people warn him it'll end poorly? Actually, no. Every single time he's gone plus ultra, he's saved a life or it worked out for him in the end. He scarred up his arms fighting Shoto, just for this to lead to Shoto coming to his and Iida's rescue in Hosu. He fought Gentle and La Brava and got criticism for it, but that turned out to be one of the best decisions he ever made, because they came back to save EVERYONE in the final war arc. He risks his life to save Bakugo and gets yelled at by the pro heroes, and then All Might decides he's his new successor and tells him he's worthy. He kept poking at Kota who just wanted to be left alone? He's in a prime location to save this little boy's life.

The only negative outcome of his reckless habit of going plus ultra was him losing to Dictator, who is then near instantly defeated by his classmates who happened to show up just in time to save him.

When you compare this guy to other shonen mcs and just look at the end results, what did Izuku lose?

He lost his quirk, but according to Izuku, he never really was all that serious about being a hero and always wanted to be a teacher. Regardless of if he lost his quirk or not.

Oh, but then his friends gave him an ironman suit anyways so he can do hero work when he's not being a teacher.

He gets a pity shonen hetero relationship, as one does in this genre.

He's known as the greatest hero who inspired the entire world to be more kind.

He didn't lose a single friend. None of his mentors died, besides Nighteye who was killed in the same arc he was introduced in. And I guess Midnight?

He's also never lost a real fight. Besides school games and the fight with Bakugo, what Ls has this guy ever taken? He either beats his enemy, an ally comes to his rescue and wins, or the enemy flees.

Even the abysmal 8 year timeskip was another of the author's fakeouts. He makes you believe that Izuku gave up on his dream and is no longer a hero, that he's super sad he doesn't get to see them as often, then his friends arrive to give him a handout just as All Might did all those years ago. What was originally meant to be the final chapter ends with Midoriya leaping into action with all his friends.

The author uses negative events and dumps on this guy to make you feel sorry for him and to make him seem like an underdog. Even his backstory is just that: a Cinderella story to get you to like him.

The author just walked the ending back because of fan backlash.

So rather than being a guy who doesn't try and needed his friends to even be a hero again without a quirk, he's a guy who only wants to play hero on the weekends.

Compare this to other Shonen MCs. Naruto at least lost his mentor and had his friend Neji die. Luffy lost his brother and has also lost multiple people across his journey who helped him, Pedro being one of them. There's also Jujutsu Kaisen which is absolutely excessive with how much it torments Yuji, but boy does that guy suffer for his victories.

Does Izuku even actually have any personality flaws? His flaw is that he's too heroic and he's too self sacrificing. But that's like saying he's too awesome.

People just act like the muttering is creepy and he's a loser for being a hero nerd, but what actual impact does that have on anything in his life? He still gets the friends, the fame, and the girl.

At no point is he ever socially isolated once he gets to UA nor is he seen as one of the weird or lame kids or anything like that. He's the heart of the class. The only person who ever dislikes him are people the narrative specifically frames as antagonists or mentors whose respect he has to earn, and Bakugo.

Even his dark hero arc where he left his friends to go out and become a hero…completely fucks up the moral because many characters would be DEAD if he hadn't left school to go save people.

The giant lady? Dead via a hate crime. Yo Shindo, his girlfriend, and the civilians they were protecting? Dead at Muscular's hands. All of All For One's assassins he sent after Izuku? Would still be at large and in AFO's pocket for the final war arc.

The numerous villains Deku beat down in defense of citizens? Still rampaging. Still killing people.

His friends left the ivory tower of UA to bitch at Izuku for saving lives and isolating himself while the narrative ignores this very real fact.

Hell, Lady Nagant wouldn't have been redeemed if he didn't do that. A world where he stayed at UA is an objectively worse off universe.

You see what I mean? Even when he does wrong, it ends up right.

Has Izuku ever actually make a mistake or choice in this story that wasn't rewarded or shown later to be the right one?

No.

He's a paragon of morality and good who the narrative warps reality around to ensure his actions have no lasting consequences for anyone.

Think about it. Let's take a look at how he said he'd save Shigaraki and didn't. What consequences came of that? Nothing. Spinner got mad at him for a few seconds and then Izuku talks him down and the guy decides to write a book.

Did heroes take Izuku's example of killing being a way to save people and use that to justify killing villains who don't surrender? No.

Was Izuku's triumph used by bad actors who wanted to push an agenda that would oppress more people and eventually create more people like the League? No.

Is there some threat out there that could have been handled by the power of One For All but couldn't be because the quirk is gone? No.

The world is actually more peaceful than it's ever been! Meaning even if Izuku kept his power, he'd probably be out of a job soon. Allegedly.

Did the death of Shigaraki, leader of the PLF, trigger second and third waves of terrorism from his followers who escaped capture? Did society have to face the backlash of this and it complicated the efforts to rebuild? No, the MLA might as well not have even existed.

Nothing happens. Deku just sometimes thinks back to Shigaraki while he enjoys what he claims is his dream job.

So that's my reasoning. He's simultaneously privileged but also gets shit on. His life sucks, but it's also awesome. His actions are dangerous and reckless, but they save lives and always result in a positive outcome.

I'd actually argue that the author dumping on Izuku is meant to portray him as a false underdog so you don't notice his other qualities. And of course, because he doesn't like the guy, but we already know that.

✴Muichiro and Yuichiro are traitors....✴

☾I finally began the multi-chaptered fanfic based off of my AU here.☀

Summary:

Kokushibo stumbles upon Muichiro and Yuichiro in the midst of a desperate struggle-one battling a demon with little but his bare hands, and the other on the brink of death. Kokushibo impressed by Muichiro's skills, and recognizing them as his descendants, saves them, and they perceive him as their saviour. Initially contemplating turning them into demons, Kokushibo convinces them that embracing demonic nature is superior to remaining human. Yuichiro, enticed by the idea of becoming powerful enough to protect his brother, readily falls for the deception. However, Muzan seizes an opportunity. He will only allow Kokushibo to turn them into demons unless they infiltrate the Demon Slayer Corps and reveal there secrets and where the Ubuyashiki family is hiding. As they infiltrate the corps and become the newest Hashiras, Muichiro excelling in ‘Moon Breathing’ and Yuichiro adapting with his own breathing style “Eclipse Breathing” and sabotage missions. Muichiro begins to feel torn between loyalty to Kokushibo and newfound friendships with the other slayers, and grapples with a moral dilemma as he uncovers the truth that had been hidden from him, all the while the threat of being revealed as traitors looms closer.

First chapter is out on ao3 so check it out here! Leave a kudo or even a comment (That would make me smile so much) if you enjoy!

If your looking be a beta reader for future chapters and projects message me on tumblr or in my ask box.

Thank goodness im not the only one

shipping renkaza fucking sucks because you either get people who hate real enemies to lovers and call it toxic or pr*ship because they actually are enemies who want to kill each other instead of friends who bicker sometimes (these people are the weakest link and will not survive the winter)

or you get people who do ship it but only in the gooner dumbing-it-down-to-hardcore-porn way where they romanticize and get off to abuse and r*pe (these people are just gross sick individuals and i hope they go extinct)

and the few people who do see the emotional depth in the homoerotic minutes renkaza spent together and the potential in that for top tier doomed yaoi are few and far in between and i rarely find good fics that aren't just insanely ooc porn