soup of the day

"When I was shouting from the top of that building, thoughts of Himiko Toga filled my head. I shouted at her about what I thought was right, but it twisted her face into the saddest expression I'd ever seen."

This one is mostly directed at the "Himiko *was* saved and dying is a fantastic way to end her arc because she's dying happy, fulfilled, and on her own terms" and "Hawks is too injured to help, there's no one else capable of helping, she's dead, get over it" crowd.

Himiko has the same laments as Touya-- "If only someone had loved me sooner, then maybe I would have been happy just being myself..." "If someone had reached out and given me love sooner, then maybe I could have finally given something back to the world....." It's an utterly dismal, depressing note to go out on.

Himiko isn't smiling happily in her dying dream-- she's wearing the same miserable, resigned smile she had when she let go of that last bit of hope that Ochako and Izuku would ever understand her. This time, she's smiling resignedly because she’s letting go of the life she thinks she’ll never have-- because she thinks it's too late and that the world will never be any easier for her to live in. In both scenes, Himiko is letting go of her hopes-- and in a series that's all about inspiring hope, this is something that needs to be challenged.

Ochako's goal started from wanting to alleviate her parent's burdens because they always wore tired, unhappy expressions-- that goal eventually grew into wanting a future where they can all smile together. And Himiko is explicitly tied to that goal.

I'm getting more and more convinced that Ochako's role as a "normal girl" who is able to inspire the civilians to see the heroes as human is what's also going to play a big part in getting them to see the villains as human. Ochako's heroism touched Himiko and made her heart lighter-- but it also touched the civilians, the media, and Keigo.

The phrase "the feelings of a single girl can change the world" has been repeated several times now throughout Ochako and Himiko's arcs during the final act. Ochako reaching out to Himiko and saving her, and Himiko attempting to sacrifice herself to save Ochako... both scenes are being broadcast to the world right now. Multiple civilians who got stranded within the vicinity of Gunga are currently watching the battles via livestream... while in possession of multiple high-speed transport vehicles. Basically, what I'm saying is: There are more people who are capable of reaching out and helping than this chapter leads us to believe, and that's relevant to Ochako's arc as someone who has connected the spirit of OFA to the people.

Damn girl, go for the jugular

Ohhh I love where it seems to be going right now. This might be the most interested I've been in Toga's and Ochako's story ever.

First of all, we've finally got a clear picture of Toga as someone in need of saving. Her anxiety is so relatable it hurts. There are all sorts of things she could be thinking about, like how maybe she's not adequate to her friends because she can't be as helpful as Jin, or maybe her "love" isn't enough to save her friends, all that self-defeating jazz.

Which leads into what seems to be the crux of the matter: Toga's "love." I've noted in passing before that having her use the word "suki" to describe this love is very curious. It's just an adjective that means something is the object of your affection. It's not a specific word for love like the nouns "ai (love, but broadly)" or "koi (romantic love)" are. "Suki" is just as often translated as "like" as it is "love." So what does it mean that Toga can only use the quirks of those she feels "suki" for? Was it perhaps on purpose that Horikoshi used such a vague word for this feeling?

It seems like Toga has a problem identifying her feelings. By her own account, she "loves" Tomura and Dabi just as much, but she can't use their quirks for some reason. That means her "love" for them is different from her "love" for Ochako and Jin. And perhaps Ochako's character can provide the answer here.

Because Ochako has trouble putting words to her feelings for Izuku all the time. Other characters like Mina tell her it's love, but she doesn't seem comfortable accepting that. She also isn't comfortable with the feeling itself, so she pushes it out of the way when she doesn't want to deal with it.

As of now, I think the feeling--for both of them--is admiration.

For Ochako, it comes down to the events of the sports festival. She talks about how embarrassed she is for just following in Izuku's shadow and comments on how amazing Izuku is, how this tournament has really highlighted that for her. And she becomes inspired to grow on her own and meet him as a rival. In her match against Katsuki, her thoughts are focused on being like Izuku. "If Deku were here..." "Deku wouldn't give up..." "I'll win and be just like Deku!" Katsuki even mistook her battle strategy for one Izuku could have come up with. She wants to be like Izuku.

Sound familiar?

Toga wants to be like those she loves. Perhaps this isn't true with Tomura and Dabi. She doesn't want to destroy everything like Tomura; she wants to live with the ones she loves. She doesn't want to have vengeance against her family like Dabi; she wants the world to be easier for her to live in. She doesn't want what they have.

But she wants what Ochako and Izuku have: friends. She wants what Jin has: love. Jin loved his friends and devoted his life to helping them. She wants to be like that. We even see it with her first crush in middle school, a guy who looks like Izuku and is highlighted in her memory as fighting someone. Perhaps he was standing up for her, or standing up for anyone, and that's why she admired him. She wants to be a hero? She wants to be free to be herself...and maybe she wants that for the ones she loves too.

It's a sort of envy. Both of them have it. They want to be like the ones they admire. They're not comfortable with who they are. It's only when Ochako embraces the pieces of herself that she likes, the love of seeing others' happy faces, that she can push through her discomfort, cope with her jealousy, and accept herself for who she already is. Ochako learns more about Izuku than just the heroic image she starts out admiring; she professes atop the UA roof to everyone how Izuku isn't a special person, he was just given a special power. He's just like everyone else. He needs love and support as much as any other person. That's what prompts her to remember Toga's tears, and now we know that in that moment she wanted Toga to be smiling along with them too. It's when Ochako lets go of her envy and her idealized image of the heroic Izuku she blindly admired, when she accepts him as a person not above her but equal to her, that Ochako accepts herself and realizes she wants to save Toga. She's going to have to help Toga come to realize this about her own feelings--she has to help Toga learn to love herself for who she is.

Recovery Girl:

No cause like seriously wtf is she talking about? Side kicks, hero partners, first responders, literally any career that branches off the support course, and anyone who has the common sense to not koala into someone in a crisis and has a vague helpful attitude fills that role

Yes I am still mad about her grabbing onto Deku during the blackwhip debacle, because there’s no a single emergency I can think of where grabbing and holding onto someone like that is ever helpful or even okay??

But I really want to ask just from a writing standpoint, no ships or anything

Do you like Izuku and Ochaco's development as possible (or probable? idk where Hori wanna go with that) romance?

Cause I appreciated it (even tho it felt like the usual shonen romance) till the return of Izuku to UA, which made me see them more as platonic (and made me appreciate their bond way more tbh)

So from a writing standpoint, I'm not exactly a romance aficionado. It can really only come down to my preferences in what I like in a romance, but there are just some cheesy romance tropes I'm not into. I do think it's perfectly viable to analyze any relationship in any property, MHA included, for whatever dynamic you want. If you ask me to take a look at the potential romance in Izuku and Ochako's relationship, I can do that.

That said, this is a warning to hard-line IzuOcha shippers: I can't guarantee you'll enjoy everything I write about in this post.