acrack_ontitan

colored these sketches using different ways for no reason

I think it looks fine J:

twt

I’m so angry about how the villains were handled in the ending of MHA that I don’t even know where to start. It feels like Horikoshi spent years building these characters up, giving them backstories dripping with tragedy, setting up these complex moral gray areas, and then in the final act he just dropped them. Dropped all of them. Like their entire narrative weight suddenly didn’t matter.

Tomura Shigaraki. This is a character who had one of the strongest villain arcs in shōnen in YEARS. A child groomed, tortured emotionally, denied stability, denied guidance, denied love - turned into a weapon by his "mentor", twisted and gaslit until he couldn’t tell if he even had thoughts of his own anymore. We saw him struggle with identity, with autonomy, with his dreams. He deserved liberation. He deserved a future, or at the very least, a conclusion that honored everything he had endured. Instead, what did we get? A rushed “you’re saved now, time to die” send-off. Hori built him for years, only to reduce him to a stepping stone for Deku’s character development. It’s infuriating.

And the worst part is that the story pretended to care. It pretended his breakthrough mattered. It pretended his pain was important. It dangled hope - the possibility of choice, of change, of liberation - and then ripped it away because god forbid the protagonist’s idealism actually be tested in a meaningful way. The message unintentionally becomes: your suffering matters until it clashes with the protagonist’s idealism.

It just hurts. Because the villains were the emotional spine of the story. They were the mirror the heroes needed to confront. They were the commentary on society’s failings. And yet they were treated like disposable chess pieces in the end.

The ending feels like it’s trying desperately to deliver a clean moral message in a world that Horikoshi himself spent years establishing as morally messy. You can’t write characters whose entire existence is proof of systemic failure and then handwave their fates to keep the hero shiny and untarnished. You can’t call it "saving" when you don’t let them live long enough to actually experience being saved. You can’t spend hundreds of chapters showing how broken the system is, how it creates people like Shigaraki, Dabi or Toga, and then decide in the finale that actually, the system was fine all along and the villains just needed to conveniently die to prove it.

And it’s not that we wanted all the villains to survive or be redeemed neatly. We wanted endings that respected their narratives. That felt consistent with the emotional investment the story demanded.

It feels like Shigaraki, Dabi, Toga, the entire League - all of them - were punished for their own author’s exhaustion. And that’s heartbreaking. Because they deserved better. They earned better. They weren’t just "bad guys." They were survivors of systems that failed them. And yet Hori gave them rushed resolutions, moral shortcuts, and farewells that felt like he wanted to be done with the history yet, no matter the cost. It just feels like Horikoshi was exhausted and the villains paid the price for his burnout.

No amount of pretty animation or hype moments can cover the fact that Hori threw away his own most powerful narratives threads And honestly? I don’t think that sting is ever going to fade.

Mineta is expelled (or at least dropped from the hero course) for sexual harassment.

Class A vs B happens earlier and Shinsou joins the hero course the day after the “test” to fill the vacancy left by Mineta

Yaoyorozu gets a better costume. For example: the cloak is part of it from the start and her leotard can close all the way. The book would also strap her side not her back so she can sit down. Or just give her a different costume entirely.

Better hero names for Ashido, Jirou, Aoyama, Todoroki, and Hagakure. Ashido especially. Pinky is not better than Alien Queen.

Midnight does not make inappropriate comments about the students. She is a teacher she should not be making such remarks. Trying to make that a “joke” was a poor writing decision.

After Bakugou punches Midoriya in the final exam he faces punishment from the school. Attacking your allies/coworkers would be unacceptable for a pro hero and Bakugou should face some kind of penalty for that (ex: detention, anger management, a mark on his record). He stays in UA’s hero course, but is held accountable for his bad behavior. It helps progress his redemption arc.

After the summer camp attack and All Might’s retirement, a few of the Class 1A and 1B hero students leave UA for other hero schools. It would demonstrate how UA is losing trust. A student could also drop out of hero studies entirely due to being confronted with the dangerous reality of a career in heroics.

If a student switched hero schools, Class 1A could run into a former classmate at the provisional license exam (ex: Satou or Ojirou). Being forced to fight each other would make for good drama.

Female hero students get more attention and fight scenes. Ex: Nejire, Uraraka and Asui are not sidelined during the Yakuza base raid.

There is more than 1 female OFA user. I’d suggest changing the smokescreen guy because he looks like emo Best Jeanist. There could’ve been a much better design. Like a woman with purple hair to match the purple smoke. That way at least 2/9 OFA users are women.

Touya and Keigo met as kids, which would explain how Dabi was able to find out who Hawks was despite the HPSC’s efforts to bury his past.

More spaced out time line or more time skips, so that Class A would be in their 3rd year during the final war. That way they would be 17-18 and the adult pro heroes wouldn’t seem as useless in comparison.

Midnight’s death is different. She isn’t killed offscreen by random villains. Instead she dies protecting her students from a fearsome villain.

In the MLA raid a student from Class 1A dies (Sato or Koda would be a good candidate since they’re background characters). It would have an emotional impact on the class and teachers, as well as demonstrate how messed up it was that the HPSC sent 2nd year students to fight the MLA.

After Dabi exposes Endeavor there are a variety of reactions from the pro heroes and students. Some hate Endeavor, some tolerate him, some support him. A mixed bag of reactions is more realistic. Also those who are close to Shouto lean more towards hating Endeavor (ex: Aizawa and Class A).

Shouto’s custody is also transferred to Fuyumi after the reveal due to safety concerns by UA teachers.

However the criminal courts refuse to touch Endeavor and it further demonstrates hero and law enforcement corruption. It’s a parallel to the real world and how cops get away with domestic violence. It shows why so many people are starting to be sympathetic to the League of Villain’s cause and reignites Stain’s message.

Honestly I’d prefer Endeavor never get a “redemption” or “atonement” arc at all. But it’s such a big part of the second half of the series that it would be hard to remove. A corrupt hero like Endeavor becoming the new #1 hero should’ve showcased the flaws of the hero system and caused a revamp, not maintained the status quo.

Hawks has an actual reaction to finding out Endeavor was an abusive father just like Thief Takami. It could delve into Hawks’ own feelings about how the HPSC basically did to Hawks what Endeavor did to Shouto. Whether it’s condemning it or thinking it’s “normal” because of the HPSC’s grooming.

Aoyama does not become a hero after the “traitor” reveal. He never wanted to be a hero because of how scary the profession was. He only joined the UA hero course because of AFO’s threats. Instead he transfers to the business course and eventually becomes Hagakure’s manager.

Aizawa does not lose an eye. He already lost a leg the man has been through enough. Losing an eye also overshadows the scar he got from protecting his students at the USJ.

Miruko does not lose as many limbs. In canon she lost both her arms, her right leg, and half an ear. The poor woman was treated like Swiss cheese. Miruko being so brutalized feels sexist to me. Instead she only loses one arm in the Nomu lab raid and uses a prosthetic arm in the final war arc.

Gran Torino dies because it was ridiculous that he was still alive after everything. It also gives Midoriya further mental anguish and motivation to defeat the villains.

Bakugou does not get his heart impaled because it makes no sense for him to be able to continue fighting after that. Much less be able to defeat AFO.

Maybe Best Jeanist throws himself in front of Bakugou and gets injured instead. Jeanist and Edgeshot are UA school friends so it makes more sense that Edgehsot would be willing to “sacrifice” his wellbeing for Jeanist than a teenager he doesn’t know. It would also explain why Bakugou is the one fighting AFO and not the top 10 heroes.

All For One steals Endeavor’s quirk instead of Hawks’ quirk. It would be karmic for Endeavor since he abused his family in pursuit of the perfect quirk. It would also serve as a better explanation of why Shouto did all the work in stopping Dabi.

Hawks does not become the HPSC president. His quirk was damaged by Dabi but still usable. His feathers grow back much slower which limits his hero work hours. This allows him to have the “free time” he desires and helps him escape the organization that bought and groomed him.

In Hawks’ free time he helps establish and run a villain rehabilitation program. Maybe he names it “Second Chances” in honor of Twice.

The HPSC’s child soldier program would be exposed during the war. So would their orders to send the 2nd year students to fight in the MLA raid. It’s also revealed that they helped cover up Endeavor’s abuse. After that the HPSC would be disbanded and replaced with a new organization to oversee heroes. Perhaps a counsel with diverse members instead.

The Hero Rankings are discarded after the war. They promoted competition among heroes who should have been working together. It also led to heroes prioritizing popularity over saving lives. So a teamwork approach is emphasized in the future. There is also more focus on hero work than celebrity status / popularity.

New laws are passed that better protect people against quirk discrimination (mutation quirks, “scary” quirks, being quirkless). There are also stricter child abuse laws and a ban on quirk marriages.

Uraraka’s quirk counselling program gets nation wide support and is implemented in all schools. There is an additional program for civilian support gear. Also restrictions on public quirk use are lessened and people can get quirk use licenses for non hero related jobs.

Aizawa adopts Eri instead of Mandalay. Aizawa served as a source of safety to Eri thanks to his erasure quirk. He was very gentle towards her and already played the unofficial role of a father figure. If Mandalay could be an active hero and care for Eri then so could Aizawa. Additionally, Aizawa adopting Eri would serve as a more hopeful and thematic resolution for both of them after all the loss in the war. Worst comes to worst, Aizawa could retire from active hero duty and only be a UA teacher so he has more time for Eri. Even if Aizawa wasn’t able to care for Eri, it would make more sense for Ragdoll to adopt Eri than Mandalay since Ragdoll was retired.

Rei divorces Enji and lives separately from him. She gets lots of alimony.

Touya does not die a slow death in a tube. He is sent to a psychiatric ward instead of a prison and slowly heals both physically and mentally. His family visits him regularly. Touya is also a part of Hawks’ villain rehabilitation program. In the 8 years later epilogue Shouto reveals that Touya is doing well and will be released soon.

Toga also survives. Either A) it’s revealed she faked her death or B) she is entered into Hawks’ rehabilitation program. There’s no way Toga died from blood loss after all the ridiculous injuries that the heroes survived in canon.

Shigaraki has a better death scene with more agency. Maybe he even turns against AFO and dies to save his friends. Shigaraki and Midoriya fighting AFO together would have been epic.

After things have settled down, Midoriya holds a funeral for Tenko/Tomura and gets special exceptions made for the League of Villains to attend.

Dabi: Uh, thanks? What's this for? [takes a sip]

Hawks: Because you get thirsty around me