BNHA stuff. Since Bakugou went for “win by saving” in his fight, I wonder if that means Izuku will need to “save by winning” in his fight? I’m thinking the story will pull a poetic role switch here – Bakugou is pulling from Izuku’s playbook. So, does Izuku needing to pull from Bakugou’s book in order to succeed in his match sound likely to you?

That would be really cool!! I would love to see it, because development for Deku is, as I mentioned in my last answer, sorely needed. I also really want to see development in terms of the vestiges–what is going on there? But I think he needs to learn to win against AFO by saving (Shigaraki) but also to do it without destroying himself and his poor arms and legs. I hope the vestiges and the fight are important to this development!

can you tell me what the left side symbolism has to do with shoto?

Hello Anon! Are you asking about a particular kind of symbolism? I’ll just talk generally for now, but if you’re asking about a specific aspect, please don’t hesitate to come back and clarify!

Shouto’s left side is his fire side, aka the side he takes after his father with in terms of abilities. He wanted to reject this part of him because of the abuse he’s suffered from Endeavor. It’s also the side his mother rejected, when she snapped and burned his face as a result.

Dichotomies are kind of a recurrent motif with Shouto. He struggles to see himself as a full person and not as two halves, one good and one bad, by virtue of things certainly beyond his control. In his first hero costume he wears ice over his left side even though that’s the side for fire, because he wants to be one or the other and doesn’t want to see both.

As we’ve seen and as Deku reminds Shouto in the Sports Festival Arc, it’s his power and it’s his choice about what he does with it. It’s not inherently rotten because it comes from Endeavor, and limiting himself in hopes of sticking it to his father is ultimately not hurting Endeavor so much as it is hurting Shouto in terms of his potential. It’s also hurting his friends, because his not using his fire quirk is definitely part of why the villains were able to kidnap Bakugou and it’s why Dabi taunts him (and Dabi, who also probably wants to stick it to Endeavor for the exact same reasons as Shouto since Dabi is probably Touya, overuses his quirk).

If Shouto wants to be a complete, full hero, inside and out, in public and in private, he has to accept the darker possibilities and choose differently, and he has to reconcile with himself, but it’s a journey–one we’ve seen him making progress in, but one he’s still struggling with. I’m curious to see when this will be addressed again, and if it will come up in the current manga arc.

The three main characters–Deku, Bakugou, and Todoroki–all have a negative foil that they are trying to be better than, but the main struggle for them is to grow up, and to do that they have to overcome their own insecurities. Deku is trying to be All Might, Todoroki’s trying not to be Endeavor, and Bakugou’s trying too hard to be himself at the expense of others around him, and they all need to kind of find a healthy medium via overcoming their insecurities.

What do you think about The Big 3 of BNHA?

Nejire is lovely, but thus far, she doesn’t really have focus. She has potential though and I really hope it gets developed.

Tamaki and especially Mirio, on the other hand, are well done AF. Tamaki’s anxiety makes him interesting to me especially given that he wants to be a hero, but doesn’t appear to jive with the fame or esteem that comes with it. He just wants to be a hero.

His friendship with Mirio is also endearing, and Tamaki and Mirio’s relationship foils Bakugou and Deku’s. They are two childhood friends, but without the rivalry Deku and Bakugou come with, and are wholly supportive of each other. My guess is we’ll see Bakugou and Deku growing in this direction even if they’re never like BFFs.

Mirio in particular seems to foil Deku in that he notes his family wasn’t able to be heroes because of their quirks (rather than Deku not being able to be one because he didn’t have a quirk in the beginning) but he works really, really damn hard to not only get into UA but become a candidate for OFA and a strong hero. His relationship with Night Eye definitely parallels Deku’s with All Might (and, tbh, it’s end is exactly what I expect for Deku and All Might) in how much Night Eye believed in him. Mirio’s relationship if you will with his quirk also is the inverse of Deku’s with his quirk: Deku starts out without a quirk, Mirio ends up without one (currently. I do think Eri will give him his quirk back eventually).

And Mirio also shows that you don’t have to have a quirk to be a hero: you can still save people without one. You can still be someone’s hero, as he tells Eri he is her hero. He is the utmost of Deku’s ideal of a hero: someone who saves people, and he can do without his quirk too. Mirio therefore is a refutation to Endeavor’s philosophy of having to develop the strongest quirk to be the best hero.

I love Mirio.

you know what i found out, dabi knows hes weak he boasts strong power but hes weak psychical hes well aware of it as well. he doesn’t engage in battling with others stronger than him he retreats right away. hes someone who would confront stronger openents directly seen when hes talking to vlad and eraserhead. he only hits them at there weakest like with endevoir and shoto. shoto was flustered when he caught katsuki and endeavor was weakened after the nomu attack.

Yup! Dabi is pretty smart from what we’ve seen and has a reasonable self-preservation instinct except when it comes to taking on Endeavor because of a personal grudge there. He has inhibitions, unlike Shigaraki really, and that’s a point of contrast for them (just like how Deku and Shouto contrast each other–Deku uses his quirk so much he gets hurt, Shouto ignores half of his). I should write a meta on this at some point.

I know Bnha is focusing a lot on Dabi rn and it’s pretty obvious he’s gonna be a character who’s gonna get redemption. But I think the same of Toga since she’s also just a child who’s situation has most likely made her into the person she is. So after Dabi’s situation is wrapped up I hope Toga manages to get the same amount of spotlight. Anyways my question is do you have any idea as to what Toga’s backstory is gonna be? If we ever get it that is.

I actually was just thinking of Toga with the release of the latest chapter! It’s interesting to me that we’re finally getting explicit reference to what happens to people who have quirks that make them resemble villains. They’re ostracized by society.

Of course, we know that not everyone with such quirks becomes a villain (I can think of a lot of quirks that are kind of scary lol) but it is interesting to me looking at Toga and Shigaraki in particular. Their quirks are… by nature scary. Of course, as I said, other characters with potentially scary quirks are not villains, but like, you do wonder how exactly someone like Toga would fare with her quirk. How did they even find out she had it? Everyone would be scared of her. How was she supposed to feel then?

While BNHA is certainly not entirely complex, I do think it’s starting to delve more into the need to save everyone, including villains, not just good victims. A black and white “this is how it is” view of the world isn’t exactly going to work for everyone, and if Deku really wants to be a symbol of peace, maybe he should reach across to actually create it via seeking to understand villains, rather than wiping out people who disagree and ostracizing those who are born with quirks they can’t change. Because that’s not peace at all.

I was really annoyed by the new chapter because i didn’t get the answers only more questions but after a while I get the feeling hori was building up to it, it would begin with endeavor facing his past self endeavor meeting dabi then recognizing the coniqueces of his actions besides we might get to see dabi more sooner than we think because dabi said to hawks he will contact him soon

I think that’s a fair reaction, and it’s similar to my own. I was disappointed the reveal (whatever it is) was dragged out because the chapter was clearly designed to make you wonder even more, but I agree that Horikoshi is going to build towards it and deliver (this makes it even less likely it’s anticlimax imo). It’s not bad writing by any means, I am just an impatient bean XD

Yeah, I hope we see Dabi sooner rather than later, and I kind of think we will. This most recent chapter, as long expected, did seem to confirm Dabi as Shouto’s ultimate… not nemesis exactly, but villain counterpart, like Shigaraki for Deku. (And also makes sense that he be family in that case since Shouto’s arc has always been about overcoming his family legacy and being his own person). Their foiling should be explored more before a final confrontation.

I also don’t expect Dabi nor Shigaraki to die villains–my guess is that Deku and Shouto will help save those idiots from themselves. Horikoshi said himself Deku’s vision of a hero is someone who saves people, and while for Shouto it’s slightly different and more along the lines of someone who inspires people, I still see All Might and Endeavor sacrificing themselves (whether or not they die in the process) to save these wayward villains, and Deku and Shouto actually saving them.

what do you think of la brava and gentle?

I don’t find them terribly compelling as antagonists, but I went from first meeting them and being like “I can’t take you seriously I’m sorry” to actually being in tears over their love for each other. Gentle’s history was heartbreaking, though, and I do think Deku empathizing with him is important for Deku’s character moving forward (and away from the black and white hero philosophy of Gran Torino).

Falling Heroes

So the week after the anime airs the episode in which All Might defeats AFO, but loses his quirk and therefore his status as the number one hero (and it’s all televised), the manga drops a chapter in which the new number one hero, Endeavor, is seemingly defeated on television.

Whether or not Endeavor’s actually defeated or just down for the count right now + disfigured in a karmic way (I really don’t think he’ll die), Endeavor and All Might have always paralleled each other very very closely in terms of their relationships with each other, with their respective proteges, and possibly with villains. They are great foils, and I expect that foiling to continue.

This isn’t me equating them btw; All Might is a hero inside and out, even though not without his flaws, but Endeavor is a hero on the outside but a complete asshole of a human being and everything wrong with the hero world. That being said the narrative is clearly aiming for redemption for him so w/e.

Parallels with each other: Endeavor & All Might

Endeavor has always been Bakugou’s negative foil, in that they are heroes (or a hero in training) but not great people, with bullying tendencies that’s blatantly abuse in Endeavor’s case. Bakugou could become just like him if he isn’t careful. All Might is, of course, a foil for Deku, but not so much a negative one… though in some ways he is, but I’ll get into that later.

There’s this idea of the new UA heroes in training surpassing the heroes currently in existence: Endeavor takes this literally, talking about strength and breeding his kids to do just that, but the story seems to be suggesting that the kids need to surpass the current heroes in terms of being better people and not making the same mistakes. For example, All Might is exactly whom Deku has always wanted to be, but he isn’t a perfect person, just like his mentor Shimura Nana was not perfect. Like, she sent her child to an orphanage ostensibly to protect him, but as a result of this, her grandson has become a villain, and All Might wasn’t able to save him (yet), and Shigaraki hates him for it.

If Nana’s neglect was pretty directly a response to tragedy that led to more tragedy, All Might’s desire to honor her request is far more understandable and less condemnable narratively. Yet a repeated motif in the story is that the UA kids will break the rules to save people, and while they do need to like balance that, the underlying principle thereof is something heroes could use a bit more.

Bakugou and Deku’s relationship parallels Endeavor’s and All Might’s: they’re rivals, and one of them is kind of a jerk in a lot of ways and resentful of the other, but they do care about each other and have a grudging respect.

However, Bakugou and Deku push each other to become better, whereas Endeavor projected his insecurities and resentment of All Might onto his kids, trying to force them to become better than All Might since he couldn’t be. If All Might was too hands-off with Shigaraki, he at least is very hands-on with Deku and he is a great father figure. Endeavor is extremely neglectful of some of his children, as Natsuo notes:

And unlike All Might who is very good with Deku, Endeavor is truly abusive and awful to Shouto. He’s too controlling, refusing to so much as let Shouto have fun with his siblings because he has to focus on training instead.

Which brings me to the next foil I want to discuss.

Parallels with their kids: Endeavor & Shouto vs All Might & Deku

Both Endeavor and All Might also have a mentee/kid in the UA class: Deku again, but for Endeavor it is Shouto. Todoroki and Deku first connect when Todoroki asks Deku if he’s All Might’s secret love child.

And Deku isn’t, of course, but he doesn’t have to be All Might’s biological kid to essentially be his kid. Deku is mentored in a paternal way by All Might.

And the way in which All Might mentors Deku sharply contrasts with how Endeavor mentors his son. Deku was born quirkless and was chosen to inherit One For All because of his heart. Endeavor married Rei to gain her ice quirk presumably, as this most recent chapter suggested, to temper the side effects of his own quirk:

And Shouto is chosen over his siblings because of how perfectly his quirks compliment each other; in contrast to All Might’s selection of Deku, it has nothing to do with whom Shouto is as a person, and Endeavor abuses him.

Endeavor focused on trying to get Shouto to surpass All Might, but in reality surpassing All Might and/or Endeavor means nothing if you’re not a good person, as Endeavor’s kind of starting to (maybe) realize right now. In that way, it’s possibly too late for Endeavor to ever surpass All Might, but Shouto does not want to be his father and will probably surpass him in terms of being a decent human being. He’s already the opposite of neglectful of his mother.

And there’s one more foil I really will be surprised if we don’t see because of how well it works:

Parallels with their kids’ negative foils: All Might & Shigaraki vs. Endeavor & Dabi

All Might’s mentor’s grandson, Shigaraki, became a villain because no one came to save him and AFO manipulated him as a result.

I really will be absolutely shocked if the parallel does not extend to a kid Endeavor ignored being a villain as well (Dabi). It just works so well on a paralleling level.

For All Might, the moment he found out who Shigaraki actually was during the fight where he lost his quirk. While I don’t expect Endeavor to lose his quirk or even his status really because losing his quirk doesn’t add anything to his character (strength isn’t going to redeem him, if we really are headed down that path and we pretty clearly are, whether I like it or not, it’s got to be through making amends to his family which is not going to be easy), the parallels between these two situations do make me wonder if this is going to be the arc where it comes out that Dabi is his son (if he is. Which I do think is likely but you never know).

What good is being a hero if you can’t save your loved ones? Shimura Nana could not save her husband, abandoned her son, and so her grandson faces a worse fate. All Might did not do anything nearly so bad, but he respected Nana so much he obeyed her request not to seek out her child and, well, that didn’t exactly work out. Endeavor protects people but hurts his family. Compare this to the kids at UA, who as I mentioned routinely flout rules if it means helping their friends (though they have to learn to balance this).

Basically: to be a true hero to everyone, you might have to break a few rules. I do think All Might will have something to do with Shigaraki’s strongly hinted redemption arc. It probably won’t be pretty though, but you don’t need a quirk to save someone’s heart.

And if Dabi is Endeavor’s son, Endeavor will probably have something to do with his, as well. It’s kind of the only way I would actually buy a redemption arc for Endeavor, if he sacrifices his reputation, his strength, his everything, to save a son he hurt.

Sacrificing himself (whether or not he dies and I’m speaking of a hypothetical future event not this current battle) for Shouto or any of his other kids wouldn’t likely cost him his reputation. Being knocked down by this Nomu is not a decisive moment (though it definitely matters for his redemption & is a good step) because it is not a decision Endeavor is making; in fact, he’s still focusing on his strength by thinking “that’s why I had all of you” instead of on “sorry I was a shit dad.” For him to prove that his family matters more than his reputation, he’ll have to make some kind of choice at some point, and imo a really powerful narrative way of doing that would be to save his son.

What did you think of the latest MHA episode and chapter? The music at the end was 10/10 and it was really emotional- Bones did the fight justice. And the chapter- ERRIIIIIII 😭 to precious. When Mirio was carrying her I was done. I felt so bad for Gentle and La Brava but really respected Gentle for protecting La Brava. So hyped for how the arc will go on with Class B’s epic play and the General Studies considering we saw the same students peeved by Class A make an appearance this chapter.

I was actually LOVING both of them. The episode was excellently done, and I love that Deku is actually empathizing with these villains now. I personally hope this arc is all about empathy with villains, because as you know I fully believe Shigaraki’s set up for redemption, but Deku’s gotta empathize with him for that to happen. Dabi being related to Todoroki might also play into this arc if it follows that theme of showing us how villains and heroes are interrelated.

How do you think Deku would be effected if All Might does end up dying? I’ve seen a couple of theories about him becoming an anti villain who erases everyone’s quirks to establish peace since they do cause way more harm than good. He seems to really be cracking down about filling in All Might’s shoes at the symbol of peace though. Almost giving up his ability to Mirio, telling a few people his secret, is currently depressed quite a bit.. kind of tragic.

Well, I think Deku will be absolutely devastated. But because this is shonen, I very much think that the manner of All Might’s death will matter (like, for example, if he gives his life to save say Shigaraki or someone else), and I also think that the power of friendship will intervene. I think Uraraka, Todoroki, Iida, even Bakugou, would step in to help him even if Bakugou’s idea of helping Deku is more like “I don’t want that shitty brat to ruin my life” and “you fucking idiot Deku.” If Deku temporarily went down a darker path I think they’d pull him out of it, because as @linkspooky has said, if BNHA has a theme it’s that the younger generation will do better than the older one. Therefore I don’t see him filling All Might’s shoes without making those shoes better.